OCTA to Study How Other Cities Made Light-Rail Fly

Two weeks after agreeing to mothball plans for the $2.3-billion CenterLine project, county transportation officials are sending representatives to a handful of Western cities to figure out how they sold residents on similar light-rail systems.

One marketing and one community relations specialist at the Orange County Transportation Authority were scheduled today to begin a series of visits to Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and perhaps other cities with light-rail lines.

While OCTA chief Arthur Leahy said the public relations mission does not mean work has begun anew on the controversial CenterLine project, critics and some officials say they find that hard to believe. OCTA Director and County Supervisor Todd Spitzer in particular condemned the trips, saying they send a disturbing message to residents who believed the project was suspended because of vocal opposition.

“I’m concerned that this sends the wrong message to people,” Spitzer said. “I think the public is going to look at this and ask, what part of ‘no’ does the OCTA not understand?”

Instead of paying several thousand dollars to visit other cities, Spitzer said the agency should focus on the nagging concerns raised by Orange County residents about the CenterLine proposal. Critics of the project complained that the cost of the 30-mile passenger rail line was staggering, perhaps as much as $80 million a mile. Further, they said the line would serve no more than 1% of all county commuters, that it would cause congestion at street intersections and pose noise and construction problems in residential neighborhoods.

“CenterLine fell off the tracks because of our inability to address these concerns,” Spitzer said. “How is going to Denver helping us with that?”

OCTA directors approved the marketing and outreach mission on Monday. Directors said the decision to suspend planning on CenterLine was not made because the project lacked merit, but because the agency did a poor job selling it to county residents.

“We’re really sticking our head in the sand if we don’t figure out how these cities attacked the problem,” said OCTA Director and County Supervisor Charles V. Smith. “Let’s find out what these other cities did.”

Fellow director and Cypress City Councilman Tim Keenan agreed. “People need to hear about successes in other cities,” he said.

Members of the anti-CenterLine group, Drivers for Highway Safety, said they weren’t surprised to hear that the OCTA had approved the trips so soon after suspending planning on the project.

“This thing is like a fungus, whenever you think you’ve gotten rid of it, it pops up like a mushroom,” said Bill Ward, chairman of the group.