Orange County Confirms Its Light-Rail Plan, in Miniature

Transportation leaders agreed Monday to move forward with a greatly shortened version of the CenterLine project, turning a corner in Orange County’s bumpy effort to build an urban light-rail system.

The line as now envisioned would be a modest 11.4 miles long, running from the Santa Ana train station to the front steps of UC Irvine, a huge retreat from the 28-mile line that had been planned two years ago to link north and south Orange County. That plan was shelved in the face of political opposition.

Backing a recommendation from Irvine, one of three cities along the shortened route, Orange County Transportation Authority board members agreed to cut back an 18-mile proposal that would have ended at the Irvine Transportation Center, a train, bus and parking hub near the closed El Toro Marine base.

By shortening the line, OCTA officials and Irvine city leaders say they will avoid the political mess of running trains through Irvine neighborhoods where staunch critics of the project live.

“Lots of people are opposed to transit,” said Mike Ward, an OCTA board member and Irvine councilman. “But we are trying to make decisions that will affect the county 20 to 25 years from now, when we will have 600,000 more people.”

Monday’s decision sets the alignment for the tracks--billed as a first phase--and will enable OCTA to meet a Monday deadline and apply for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds. Preliminary engineering studies are underway, but a final decision whether to build CenterLine will not be made until late 2003 or early 2004.

The shortened route is scheduled to be considered tonight by the Irvine City Council, which is likely to approve it. Greg Smith has been the only council member opposed.

Under the revised plan, OCTA estimates that CenterLine will cost about $1.1 billion to build--$500 million less than the 18-mile route--and carry about 31,600 passengers a day the first year of operation. Service is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2011.

CenterLine’s southern terminus would be at UC Irvine near University and Campus drives. The route runs north to the Irvine Business Complex before heading to John Wayne Airport. It then turns west along Main Street and Anton Boulevard to South Coast Plaza. At Bristol Street, the tracks turn north again to Santa Ana’s Civic Center and ends at the Santa Ana Transportation Center, another train-bus hub.

OCTA officials note that within two miles of the proposed line are 415,000 residents, 340,000 jobs and popular destinations such as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art and downtown Santa Ana’s Artists Village.

Planners also have proposed extending the line to Santa Ana College, the sixth-largest community college in the state, with more than 30,000 students and employees.

Ward and Irvine Mayor Larry Agran had recommended that the line end at Irvine City Hall, which is surrounded by residential neighborhoods and major employers. But OCTA officials asserted that UC Irvine would be more attractive to riders than a hub of city government.

“UC Irvine is an excellent final destination,” Agran said. “The route provides for a good point of study and sets the first operating segment. It connects to John Wayne Airport, the Irvine Business Complex and major job centers with one of the area’s great universities.”

Agran has said the route might be extended later to the Irvine Spectrum commercial, retail and entertainment complex and the Irvine Transportation Center via another route. The mayor and other city leaders have envisioned a transit village of high-density development at nearby El Toro.

While the new route avoids neighborhoods opposed to CenterLine, critics of the project said the change will not deter their efforts to kill its Irvine leg, with officials’ talk of extending the line later.