OCTA Issues a Final Call for Light Rail

Transportation officials launched a last-ditch campaign Thursday to sell local cities on a languishing light-rail proposal that seeks to link Orange County’s commercial, government and tourism centers.

Orange County Transportation Authority officials met at their offices in Orange with leaders of six key cities to announce that now is the time to either move ahead with the so-called CenterLine Project or drop it entirely. Without a clear vote of confidence soon, the $2.3-billion project will be abandoned, said OCTA Chairwoman Laurann Cook.

“Either we build it or we don’t,” Cook said. “We can’t keep things in abeyance any longer.”

The appeal met with a lukewarm reception from city officials, who offered very different views of the plan. Of those cities that would host a section of the 30-mile light-rail line, only Fullerton voiced unqualified support for the idea. Officials in Anaheim, Santa Ana and Orange were divided.

Officials from Irvine and Costa Mesa voiced general support, but said they had concerns about the location of the rail lines. Costa Mesa Councilwoman Linda Dixon said her city supports an elevated rail system only. To build a railway that occupied existing traffic lanes and thus might cause greater congestion would be ridiculous, she said.

Hoping eventually to entice the cities into accepting the plan, OCTA officials are offering fence sitters an overnight package tour of light-rail facilities in Vancouver, Canada, next month. (City officials must pay their own way or use municipal travel funds.) OCTA officials have also asked light-rail proponents to begin lining up support among residents and businesses--an appeal that some officials interpreted as a call to arms.

“I say, let’s get on the road with this, let’s pretend it’s a war,” shouted Fullerton Mayor F. Richard Jones.

Officials in other cities were much less willing to join that battle. Frank Feldhaus, an Anaheim council member, said he worried that a light-rail system would detract from Anaheim’s recent tourism upgrades--improvements meant to keep visitors at Disneyland and other city attractions for extended periods of time.

“We’ve just finished a $4.2-billion project to attract and keep tourists in Anaheim for two to three days so they’ll spend money there,” Feldhaus said. “Some feel like a rail system will take those people out of the city.”

OCTA officials have proposed three possible routes for the rail line, all of which would connect the Fullerton Transportation Center to the Irvine Transportation Center. Trains would stop near Disneyland, Edison International Field, UCI Medical Center, downtown Santa Ana, South Coast Plaza, John Wayne Airport and Irvine Medical Center.

The system would cost $2.3 billion if built above ground and $1.5 billion if built at ground level. Light rail is different from heavy rail in that it is designed to carry people only, not freight. Planners envision the CenterLine as the backbone of a larger, 90-mile network of railway.

Orange Mayor Joanne Coontz said OCTA had failed terribly in past efforts to generate support for the project and succeeded only in insulting and alienating businesses and officials. If OCTA were to succeed this time around, it would have to change its attitude, she said. Coontz suggested allowing the cities to enter into a joint powers agreement.

Officials in Anaheim and Santa Ana said they thought there was a chance the plan could succeed, although it would require considerable cooperation with residents over aesthetic issues and the choice of rail routes.

In addition to the reluctance of some city officials, members of the CenterLine opposition group, Drivers for Highway Safety, criticized the proposal Thursday as a bad idea. Among other complaints, members say that the projected ridership of 60,000 people a day will do little to reduce congestion on Orange County roads and that the money would be more wisely invested in roads and freeways.