Cost of Metrolink Station Nearly Doubles

A new Metrolink station here will cost nearly double its original estimate and possibly much more, sending county officials scrambling to find millions of additional dollars.

Officials say the station will cost far more than the $2.75 million budgeted, despite efforts by planners to take out all the frills--even down to removing colored tile from the train platforms.

On Monday, Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson, who is also board chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, asked his staff to find a way to cover the shortfall. “I’ve been watching commuters in South County be frustrated for years, just trying to get on Metrolink,” Wilson said. “It’s a solution that’s long overdue.”

“This is the best news we’ve had in a while,” said Ken Montgomery, Laguna Niguel’s director of public works.

The new station would be on Forbes Road, near the junction of the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road and Interstate 5.

Work on the station had been scheduled to be underway by now, and a grand opening had been planned for June 2000.

Funding for the 400-space parking lot and train platform was to have come from cities, state grants and county tax dollars, including $1.9 million from Measure M, the half-cent supplemental sales tax passed by county voters in 1990.

Plans hit a major snag this summer when construction bids came in $2 million to $4 million more than anticipated.

A bare-bones plan for the Laguna Niguel-Mission Viejo station will be put out for bids again, Montgomery said.