CenterLine Comes to a Grinding Halt

The county’s top transportation official called for a halt Wednesday to work on the controversial CenterLine rail project due to faltering support for the $2.3-billion endeavor.

In an action that officials said could delay progress on the rail line for several months or as long as a decade, the Orange County Transportation Authority scrapped plans this week to request crucial federal funding for the project. OCTA Chief Arthur Leahy also halted all preliminary engineering work on the project, a major step in the approval process and one estimated to cost $40 million.

It is unclear when--or if--officials will resume work on the proposed 30-mile rail line. The line, as now drawn, stretches from Irvine to Fullerton.

In a memo sent to OCTA directors, Leahy said he decided the project wouldn’t attract federal funds unless there was clear support from cities, neighborhoods and businesses. While Leahy and other OCTA officials said the action does not mean the project has been abandoned, none could say when it might be revived.

“We need to just stop, go back and reassess the project and figure out what we want to do,” Leahy said. “If it turns out there’s support for the project, we’ll go forward. If there isn’t any support, then we won’t.”

Leahy’s recommendation, which requires no approval from OCTA board members, follows more than a month of heavy criticism. Some city leaders dismissed the project as an enormous waste of public money and residents said it would destroy the flavor of their neighborhoods.

On Monday night, the Fullerton City Council said it would only support the line if it ran through Fullerton--a route the OCTA abandoned last week in an effort to appease city leaders in Anaheim. Anaheim City Council members, spurred on by residents of several older neighborhoods, said they would only support the project if it avoided those areas. OCTA officials agreed, and said they might abandon the entire northern third of the rail line.

In the eyes of some transportation officials and light-rail critics, this willingness to hastily reconfigure the line to overcome criticism was a bad omen.

“When you start making those sorts of concessions, you’re building a political train and not a practical train,” said OCTA board member Todd Spitzer, a county supervisor. “The planned line has always gone from Fullerton to Irvine for a good reason, to make it a regional system.”

Critics complain the cost of the proposed line, at $80 million per mile, is too expensive and will do little to reduce traffic congestion or pollution. Members of Drivers for Highway Safety, a group opposed to the light-rail project, said they were cheered by the development but said this is hardly the end of the line.

“CenterLine’s wounded badly, it’s on its back gasping for breath, but it’s going to rise again in three or four years,” predicted Wayne King, a group member.

Some OCTA board members privately expressed relief that the battle over the rail line has drawn to a close, even if only temporarily. Chairman Michael Ward, however, insisted CenterLine has tremendous merit and will become a reality.

“The fact is we still have a large amount of support, we just need to have all the cities hand in hand when we go to Washington for funding,” Ward said. “We don’t want to go to Washington and get laughed at.”

While critics and even some board members said the OCTA’s action will delay federal funding for up to 10 years, Ward said that scenario is unlikely. Still, he did concede the possibility for delays.

“That’s a gamble we’re going to have to make if we want to do things correctly.”