Light Rail Decision Could Be Delayed

A crucial decision on the future of light rail in Orange County may be delayed because transit authorities want more time to study the proposal.

Initial plans for a 27-mile system already have been scaled back in the face of opposition from several cities. Now citing an incomplete environmental impact report, Orange County Transportation Authority staff members are no longer asking the agency’s board to vote Monday on whether to fund preliminary engineering for the 12-mile CenterLine route between Costa Mesa and Irvine.

The staff recommendation released Thursday is the latest in a series of revisions and delays for what was to have been a Monday vote on the fate of light rail in the county.

Instead of giving a green or red light for a $1.5-billion line between Fullerton and Irvine, transit board members now are focusing much more narrowly.

According to the latest report, staff members are recommending that the board complete the environmental impact report while continuing to discuss technology with the cities along the proposed route and to study a 12-mile initial operating segment between Irvine and Costa Mesa.

OCTA spokesman Bill Hodge said more review is needed in several areas, most notably around John Wayne Airport, which was not along the original route.

The delays in approving the project date back to the summer, when transit board members voted to consider only $30 million for initial design and engineering of the project rather than the entire $1.5 billion they estimate would be needed. But with the latest staff recommendation, board members at Monday’s meeting will be asked to approve only about $1 million in funding to complete the environmental review.

The system, which would resemble a trolley line, would run mostly at street level and would be powered by overhead electrical lines.

Staunch critics of the rail proposal say the delay of any major decision has been a shrewd political move on the part of pro-rail officials faced with a series of damaging defections by key cities on the route.

“It’s an insidious tactic to increment us to death,” said vocal rail critic Wayne King. “They started about 10 years ago with 87 miles, then they pared that down to 48 miles, then they got that down to 28 miles. Now it’s 12 miles? I think it’s time to take stock and quit and give up.”

Last month, transit authorities decided to drop the North County leg after several cities, including Santa Ana and Orange, opposed the plan. That leg would have served Santa Ana, Disneyland and Edison Field. The scaled-back, 12-mile route would send trains between the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa and the Irvine Transportation Center, with a two-mile spur to the UC Irvine campus.

Despite the setbacks, Hodge believes the system will eventually be completed. Future leaders in North County cities may decide to approve extensions of the system, he said.