The Future of Light Rail in O.C.

* Re “Light Rail Lacks Key Supporters,” Feb. 19:

I grew up in Anaheim and 25 years ago witnessed the city’s leadership destroy Anaheim’s downtown through a horribly misguided redevelopment. The heart of the historical downtown, which had some character, was torn down to build yet another nondescript stucco shopping center.

I am now extremely disappointed to see some elements of Anaheim’s leadership once again lead Anaheim in the wrong direction by not supporting the light rail project, of which Anaheim would be one of the biggest beneficiaries. While the backbone light rail system is not the answer to all of Anaheim’s traffic woes, it would be a help to the surface streets around Disneyland and Edison Field.

Opponents, and sometimes even supporters, of the backbone light rail line fail to fully appreciate that the single, north-south light rail line being proposed is just the first step in a light rail program. The financial analysis of any first step in a mass transit system can rarely be shown to be economically feasible. Later additions, east-west lines that would transverse Orange County and tie into the north-south backbone transit line, are needed to bring in the additional riders that will someday have a measurable impact upon the transportation needs of Orange County.

As a part-time user of Metrolink and the Los Angeles subway and light rail system, I have been able to make the direct comparisons to automobile commuting and have seen the benefits that structural mass transit can bring to a community. While Los Angeles’ subway proved to be entirely too expensive, its light rail Blue Line has been an overwhelming success. I hope that someday Orange County will tie its new light rail system into Los Angeles County’s so we can all better avoid the wasted hours on the freeways.

DANA HAYNES

San Clemente

* The proposed CenterLine light rail for Orange County has received a thumbs up from the OCTA Citizens Advisory CenterLine Committee, which I chair.

We made our decision after meeting with and challenging OCTA staff and consultants 14 times since 1998. We instigated the “Light Rail Debate” which took place on the UC Irvine campus in 1999. We learned more by attending OCTA’s Turning Point Symposium in 1999 and its Technology Workshop last year.

Some of our members toured light rail systems in San Jose, San Diego, Portland, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Seeing is believing. I saw busy trains in off-peak hours and spoke with very satisfied passengers young and old. Those systems are all expanding at the request of other communities, which have seen the benefits of rail service. Conservative areas such as Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, and Denver are among the many applicants for federal funds for light rail.

At the first OCTA board CenterLine public hearing in 1999, approximately eight people spoke for and 18 against light rail. “Do it right and elevate it” was one of the messages. OCTA revised its plans. In a turnaround during the public hearing this year, 31 spoke for and 13 against CenterLine. Supporters included business interests (the Segerstroms, Boeing, BIA, chambers of commerce), employers, the Sierra Club and schools (Santa Ana College, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine). Opponents included some neighborhood groups, which OCTA has promised to work with.

Measure M funds are bringing tremendous traffic improvements for Orange County, including freeway upgrades, smart streets, and more buses. More than $1 billion has been spent on just the north Santa Ana Freeway. After spirited discussions, disagreements and much deliberation, 75% of our Citizens Advisory Committee voted for light rail to balance our local transportation system.

LEONARD LAHTINEN

Chair

OCTA CenterLine

Citizens Advisory Committee

Anaheim

* It is disheartening to read that OCTA is forging ahead with plans to build the light rail system in the face of resident opposition, cities’ lack of interest, experts’ criticism, business nonsupport and grand jury skepticism of this project.

As Shirley Grindle pointed out in her column (“Why Light Rail?” Feb. 17), this project is being pushed by the bureaucracy in OCTA to perpetuate its existence, but it would accomplish little to alleviate transportation and pollution problems in the county.

There may be a future for light rail in Orange County, but this glorified trolley line is not it. Billions of citizen’s tax dollars will be spent for a system that will blight our landscape and carrying a few people from nowhere to nowhere. This is a bad idea whose time has passed.

ERWIN ANISMAN

Rossmoor

* Yes, the 1999 CenterLine plan was flawed, but the current plan is improved, productive and needed. The “trolley” look is gone. The displacement has been minimized and the environmental disclosures corrected. CenterLine will not significantly cut congestion, but it will help to prevent future increases in gridlock.

It will be expensive--so are freeways. Forty-three thousand people off the roads is much better than zero people off the roads. Many users may be bus riders, but not all of them will be. When you look at the demographics of riders on the Metro Blue Line between Los Angeles and Long Beach, you realize that a large portion are working professionals who simply prefer transit to the stress and time loss of driving. In addition, buses take up space, and if CenterLine has an unintended effect of taking a few buses off the roads, that is more room for cars.

Orange County is more analogous to Portland than one might initially perceive. Portland has a central business district that is serviced by its transit system, a system that has relieved congestion and stemmed sprawl. The Orange County region also has a central business district called South Coast Metro, and it will be served by the CenterLine light rail system. Not only does employment density data from the Southern California Assn. of Governments support this conclusion, but it shows that South Coast Metro will outpace most if not all of Orange County in job growth over the next 25 years.

The line will also relieve traffic and parking conditions at John Wayne Airport.

CHRISTOPHER KOONTZ

Orange

* Until recently, a majority of Orange County business leaders have watched and waited as environmental studies and local politics ran their course. Business leaders, large and small, want to know a project is viable before investments of time and money are made.

They have observed the vocal antics of Drivers for Highway Safety, a small band of lobbyists who have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with spreading more asphalt. A few concerned community groups have also voiced their opposition.

Increased business involvement offers a fresh perspective from the aged OCTA-versus-light-rail-critics debate.

DAVID ELGENSON

Orange