Good Move on Light Rail

The Orange County Transportation Authority was wise to sidetrack its $2.3-billion light-rail CenterLine project when it realized that not enough residents or communities were getting aboard the proposed line. Without support from the communities along the proposed routes, the line was going nowhere.

As transportation officials got closer to selection of a route for the line’s first segment, and ordering design studies, one problem became increasingly clear. Planners were too far ahead of public acceptance in their concepts and alignment proposals. Their promotional efforts at the grass-roots level for more than a year had only scratched the surface.

They ran into trouble in Santa Ana when they proposed running the line down Main Street. The community balked and the line was moved to Bristol Street. But Santa Ana hasn’t rescinded its vote opposing the CenterLine. Orange also voted to oppose it.

In Anaheim, there were protests fearing the rail line would destroy the Colony Historic District. A split City Council did endorse the line in a 3-2 vote, but only after OCTA officials agreed to avoid older residential areas and not run the line down main thoroughfares like Harbor Boulevard.

Anaheim’s vote was crucial. The concessions made to secure it could kill the northern part of the line planned to run from Irvine to Fullerton. And the Fullerton City Council says it will not support the line unless it runs there.

Although Irvine still supports the project, there is some disagreement on the council, and residents in the Woodbridge and Westpark areas of the city have voiced opposition. So has the Irvine Unified School District, which is against a possible route that would run trains near three of its schools.

Also, the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Assn. last month came out in opposition to diverting money from road improvements, questioned some of the cost estimates and recommended that OCTA take another look at them. Builders also urged a delay in selecting an alignment or starting preliminary engineering work until there was agreement from all cities along the rail’s path.

Faced with that lack of consensus, Arthur T. Leahy, OCTA’s chief executive, wisely put the project on hold. Directors agreed. They recognized that they didn’t really have much of a chance of getting the Federal Transit Authority or Congress to loosen the federal purse strings without a plan the community would support. The OCTA is looking to Washington to pick up more than half of the proposed project’s cost.

OCTA officials no doubt also recognized how inadequate their grass-roots efforts have been. They also have surmised correctly how far they must go to get the backing to get CenterLine back on track.

We are among those who previously had cautioned the OCTA to take the necessary time to answer unresolved questions and make a convincing case to the communities and councils along the 28-mile system.

There is always some opposition to major public works projects, such as rail lines, airports and jails. But it’s also essential to have a large base of public support. Proceeding without it only courts failure or stalemate.

In any new efforts, transportation officials must be careful about the deals they make to get that support.

Anaheim is a case in point. OCTA got the needed third vote there, but in doing so, put the line out of reach not only for some residential riders but also Disneyland visitors and the thousand of tourists and convention-goers in area hotels.

OCTA officials have said they won’t go through communities that don’t want the rail line. That’s a good policy. But if too many communities don’t want it, and the OCTA keeps making concessions such as were made in Anaheim, what will happen to the original rider projections that appeared to make the line financially feasible in the first place?

And what does that do to the agency’s earlier claim that CenterLine will run through areas containing more than half the county’s work force and about one-third of its population, tying together central cities and downtown, residential, business, sports, educational, retail and resort areas?

Light rail can be an important component in the county’s congested transportation network. But it must be easily accessible--and used.

The goal should not be to build a rail line. At about $80 million a mile, that’s a luxury the public can’t afford.

The challenge now is to design one that goes where people want to go, that links up with other regional lines, and can win community acceptance.