OCTA Officials Backtrack: Light-Rail Plan Shortened

Transit authorities confirmed Saturday that they plan to slash Orange County’s proposed light-rail system by more than half, dropping a North County leg that would have served Santa Ana, Disneyland and Edison Field.

The move, which will be formally announced Monday, marks a dramatic adjustment from the original 29-mile rail plan unveiled just weeks ago. That proposal would have linked Irvine to Fullerton, encompassing Anaheim’s entertainment corridor, Santa Ana’s government center, South Coast Plaza and the Irvine Spectrum business complex.

Citing strong opposition in Santa Ana and other communities along the so-called CenterLine route, Orange County Transportation Authority Chief Executive Officer Lisa Mills faxed a memo to board members Friday night saying it is no longer “fruitful, at this point, to continue planning the . . . 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 to the UC Irvine campus. It would still service John Wayne Airport but would no longer reach Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove or Fullerton.

Though the revamped plan is only in its infancy, the cost of the project is expected to fall from $1.6 billion to less than $1 billion, said Dave Elbaum, OCTA’s director of planning and development. The OCTA Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on the matter Dec. 13.

“I think that financially, it might be the prudent thing to do--to just get started and see what develops,” said Supervisor Tom Wilson, who is also chairman of the OCTA. “I look at it as something that offers us an opportunity to get light rail started in the county of Orange.”

Wilson and other rail supporters stressed that they still hope to eventually build a countywide rail system, but only if they can assemble political support throughout the area.

Critics, however, doubt the viability of the latest proposal, questioning whether a rail line that covers such a small portion of the county can attract riders.

They labeled the OCTA’s move a “trick”--a tactical maneuver that allows officials to begin building a portion of the rail line while sidestepping opposition that they hope will dissolve with time.

“They’re just desperate to keep this project moving,” said Bill Ward, a director of Drivers for Highway Safety, a community activist group based in Orange.

After a debate that had preoccupied transportation officials for the better part of the decade, officials had hoped, well into this month, to build the more extensive system. That plan included elevated and street-level tracks and 33 stops that would take passengers to popular destinations in North County, such as the Pond at Anaheim.

But last week, Santa Ana officials took an abrupt stance against the project. Because the initial plan would have run the line down more than six miles of two busy streets in the city, local residents and business owners feared the rail system would divert traffic into neighborhoods and tie up parking.

Santa Ana’s stance effectively put the entire northern leg of the rail system in jeopardy, officials said. “It kind of put a roadblock--I guess a railroad block--in front of us,” Wilson said.

Officials did not discount the possibility that the northern leg--as well as spurs to El Toro and other areas--could eventually be added on. In her memo, Mills wrote that extensions could be added if the Santa Ana City Council changes its mind.

Even under the scaled-back plan, transit authorities won’t begin construction on the line until 2004 or 2005, and won’t open the line until 2007 or 2008.

“I really believe that once this first leg is built that the residents of Orange County will have become more educated to the advantages of light rail and the other cities in Orange County will look at this,” said OCTA Vice Chairwoman Laurann Cook. “I believe a lot of things can change.”

Not all board members believe the latest light-rail plan is a move in the right direction. Critics have argued all along that building a light-rail system would be a financial disaster, and pointed out that most of the people who would ride the train would come from northern parts of the county, not from Irvine and Costa Mesa.

“With this recommendation, the CenterLine is no longer a transportation solution,” said OCTA board member and county Supervisor Todd Spitzer. “If you cut the guts out of the CenterLine, where you have the highest densities and most destination areas, then the CenterLine is no longer a regional transportation solution. . . . I think OCTA’s trying to get out front Monday just to save face, because they were not able to build consensus.”

Paula Manning, who lives in the Park Santiago neighborhood in Santa Ana, was thrilled to hear that the rail system--at least for now--is no longer scheduled to cut through her town.

“Thank goodness,” said Manning, a founder of a resident group called Citizens Against Railroad Expansion. “It was a huge waste of money and it was going to be detrimental to my neighborhood and others in Santa Ana.”

Supporters of the new plan disputed the contention that the Costa Mesa-to-Irvine trains will be empty.

“From all the studies that I have seen, the numbers prove that it would be successful,” Cook said. “Most of the ridership would come through the central part of the county, but from the studies that I have looked at, and from what I understand, I think the numbers are good enough to make this a very feasible project. The numbers are still good for the southern portion of the project.”

Times Staff Writers Seema Mehta and Jean O. Pasco contributed to this report.