Airport People Mover Detailed in O.C. Report

Building and operating a people-mover system between John Wayne Airport and the proposed airport at El Toro would cost more than $100 per rider, according to a report released Friday. That is prompting new questions about the line’s feasibility and raises the prospect of a larger airport at the base.

The people mover is a central part of the county’s plan, which calls for John Wayne Airport to serve short-haul flights and the El Toro facility to handle long-haul and international trips. The rail link would ferry passengers between terminals to catch connecting flights.

But a technical report prepared by county planners estimates that building the seven-mile system on the preferred route along the San Diego Freeway in Irvine would cost $437 million. In addition, it would cost $16 million a year to operate.

To cover those expenses, each round trip on the rail system would cost from $103 to $110, according to the report. That sum would be paid either by the passengers themselves or by the air carriers who use the rail system to link connecting flights.

The new cost estimates for the people-mover concept mean the system must be reevaluated, said Board of Supervisors Chairman Charles V. Smith, who leads the board majority favoring construction of an airport at the 4,700-acre Marine Corps Air Station.

“The airlines have expressed their concerns from the beginning,” Smith said Friday of the people-mover line. “I think it’s time to refine our plans.”

The county’s development plan calls for El Toro to handle 25 million passengers a year by 2020. John Wayne Airport would handle 10.4 million.

But without the rail link, the county projects that El Toro usage would swell to 28.8 million passengers by 2020, while John Wayne would shrink to 5.4 million passengers.

Several national aviation experts already have raised doubts about whether the rail system would be financially viable and whether travelers actually would use it.

Anti-El Toro airport activists said the cost of the people mover underscores the problems with having two airports so close to one another and is an indication that the county’s plans are misguided.

“It’s cheaper to fly to San Francisco,” said Meg Waters, spokeswoman for coalition of South County cities opposed to the airport, referring to the round-trip cost of the people mover.

The rail link was unveiled last year along with the county’s preliminary airport plans. But it immediately met with skepticism from experts, who pointed out that similar people-mover lines at other airports have mixed records. It also remains unclear whether the rail line would win approval from the city of Irvine, which strongly opposes an airport at El Toro.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an El Toro airport foe, predicted that passenger usage at John Wayne Airport would shrink as airlines decide it is more economical to offer flights exclusively from El Toro.

“I’ve said for two years that I don’t think the Orange County market can support two airports,” Spitzer said. “It’ll be the market that closes John Wayne Airport.”

El Toro airport planners said final decisions on how to proceed, including whether to scrap plans for the people mover, will be made in December when the Board of Supervisors votes on the airport’s environmental review. Supervisors anticipated there might be a problem with the rail link’s cost and asked officials to prepare a backup plan.

Once the airport plan is approved, work will begin on the final design of the terminal, including the location of concessions, restaurants and stores.

Other documents released Friday contain the first renderings of what the El Toro airport terminal would look like, including a large hotel with a conference center built within walking distance from the gates.

By 2020, when the airport reaches its ultimate size, the terminal would have 55 to 70 gates, depending on how many passengers use the airport, and about 2 million square feet of total space.

Plans call for the first portion of the V-shaped terminal and a tiered parking structure to be built by 2005 to serve about 9 million passengers in the first year.

The county has estimated the entire airport project will cost $1.4 billion.

But Irvine Councilman Larry Agran, an opponent of the county’s El Toro plans, said the $340-million cost of building John Wayne Airport’s new terminal in 1991 translates to an estimated cost for El Toro’s terminal of $2 billion. The entire airport project should run from $5 billion to $10 billion, he said.

Agran said the people mover was proposed so county officials could justify using John Wayne Airport funds to pay costs of planning the El Toro airport as part of a two-airport system.

County officials rejected Agran’s characterization. They said the people-mover concept was studied at the direction of the Board of Supervisors. The county always envisioned using airport funds generated in Orange County for aviation projects, they said.

“These are decisions that are made by the Board of Supervisors,” El Toro spokeswoman Ellen Call said.

County officials also released documents Friday showing a preferred freeway connection to the new airport off the Laguna Freeway that will be built after 2015. Airport planners said existing roads will have to be widened to handle airport traffic until then.

The main streets handling airport traffic would be Trabuco Road, Irvine Boulevard and Sand Canyon Avenue. Congestion also is expected at the Sand Canyon offramp to the San Diego Freeway.

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At First Glance

The early indication is that an El Toro international airport would be a 2.3-million-square-foot terminal perched at the northwestern edge of the current Marine Corps Air Station. Casting doubt on the plan, however, is the cost of building a people-mover rail line that is a major component in the county’s base conversion plan.

People-Mover Costs

To build: $437 million

To maintain and operate: $16 million annually

Cost per rider (2020): $103-$110

First-Phase Proposal

Without a people mover linking El Toro and John Wayne Airport, the proposed airport at El Toro would handle nearly 30 million passengers a year by 2020. The rendering below shows the first phase of the final V-shaped terminal.

Role: Domestic and international flights, cargo, general aviation

Passengers: 28.8 million annually

Operations: 300,600 (in 2020)

Daily flights: 156 (2005), 412 (2020)

Gates: 70 (62 plus 8 for commuter airlines)

Parking: 23,600 spaces

Terminal size: 2.3 million square feet

Source: Board of Supervisors