Advisory Panel Wants Bigger El Toro Airport
Orange County should pursue plans for a bigger airport at the El Toro Marine base and drop consideration of a rail link that would allow more flights out of John Wayne Airport, a key advisory panel said Wednesday.
The El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission voted 9 to 1 to recommend that supervisors abandon what has been the county’s preferred plan: commercial airports at both El Toro and John Wayne with passengers being ferried between the two on a high-speed “people mover.”
In place of that, the commission said the county should move forward with an alternative that would boost by 5 million the annual passenger load at El Toro.
Commission chairman Gary Proctor said it “just made no sense” to continue consideration of the people mover when it was obviously too expensive to build.
Support for the proposed rail link evaporated late last week, when a technical report said the line’s cost would necessitate fares of $103 to $110 per rider.
Supervisors will consider final action on the rail link at their regular meeting next Tuesday.
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