Officials Face Difficult Choices on Rail Route

Facing more demands than they can fund, transit board members will have to make some hard choices before next month’s vote on the future of a controversial light-rail system in Orange County.

Transit officials acknowledged at an Orange County Transportation Authority meeting Monday that some trade-offs may be necessary to keep the $1.5-billion CenterLine moving forward, even as critics continue to argue that the project is a waste of money that will do little to alleviate traffic congestion.

With more than 25 turns mapped out on the suggested route, some at the board meeting joked that “the anteater” might be a better name for the rail line.

Serious issues remain unresolved. The budget to build the entire 27-mile route does not include $175 million needed to widen busy city streets that would lose lanes to the rail line. Failure to fund the work may be a deal-breaker for light rail through Anaheim and Santa Ana, where officials have said they cannot support the project unless they are assured that traffic through their cities will not be snarled.

Given those restrictions, board members could choose to shorten the route.

Options presented to the board Monday included lopping off the northern segment of the line and stopping at Disneyland or downtown Anaheim instead of going all the way into downtown Fullerton. Another possibility, officials said, would be to stop the line at John Wayne Airport in the south, which would result in the loss of $120 million in funds that Irvine officials have offered if certain conditions are met.