Orange County to Slash Length of Planned Rail Line

Transportation officials said Saturday they plan to slash the length of Orange County’s proposed light rail system by more than half, dropping a north county leg designed to serve Disneyland and Edison Field from the initial route.

The move marks a dramatic scaling back from the 27-mile system unveiled just weeks ago that was to link downtown Fullerton in the north with Anaheim’s entertainment corridor, Santa Ana’s government center, South Coast Plaza and the Irvine Spectrum business complex.

Officials cited strong opposition in Santa Ana and other communities along the so-called CenterLine route. In a memo faxed to Orange County Transportation Authority board members late Friday, Chief Executive Officer Lisa Mills said it is no longer “fruitful, at this point, to continue planning the CenterLine project north of Costa Mesa.”

The new 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 connecting to UC Irvine.

Though the proposal is still in its infancy, the cost of the project is expected to fall from $1.6 billion to less than $1 billion, Dave Elbaum, the transit agency’s director of planning and development, said Saturday.

“I think that, financially, it might be the prudent thing to do, to just get started and see what develops,” said county Supervisor Tom Wilson, who is the chairman of the transit agency. OCTA.

After nearly four years of study, transit officials had hoped until very recently to build the more extensive system. But last week, city officials in Santa Ana took an abrupt stance against the project. Because the initial plan for the project would run the line down more than six miles of two busy streets in Santa Ana, local residents and business owners feared that the rail system would divert traffic into neighborhoods and tie up parking.