Transit Report Stresses Value of Old Rail Lines : Commuting: Once rights of way are lost to development, a regional study warns, planners will have to ‘rely upon much more costly options.’

A new study by a regional planning agency warns that abandoned or lightly used railroad lines--including several in Orange County--should be preserved for eventual light rail or commuter train service or they will be lost forever to commercial or residential development.

If older rights of way are lost, “it will be necessary to rely upon much more costly options, including subway construction, extensive rebuilding of freeways or condemnation of homes to create new rights of way,” says the report written by the staff of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

SCAG is a regional planning agency that includes representatives from Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial counties.

“Significant (railroad) right-of-way loss has already occurred,” the report adds, “and even greater losses will occur if timely action is not taken.”

The rail study was directed by senior SCAG transportation planner Alan D. Havens and identified the so-called Santa Ana west branch line, a former Pacific Electric “Red Car” trolley line, as one of the most critically needed transit lines in Southern California.

The weedy, abandoned line extends from downtown Santa Ana through Garden Grove and Stanton and eventually reaches Lynwood in Los Angeles County. The line is already owned in part by the Orange County Transit District. County officials would like to buy the rest if money becomes available.

A previous rail study suggested that nearly 60,000 people per day would use the line if it were active, even after the planned Santa Ana Freeway widening project is completed, as well as a planned, barrier-separated busway in the freeway median.

Under one SCAG alternative, the line would enable commuters to transfer to the Century Freeway light rail line, now under construction, which will end at the San Gabriel River Freeway in Downey, or to a planned extension of the Los Angeles Metrorail at the same station.

Passengers who transfer to the Century Freeway line could eventually reach downtown Los Angeles or downtown Long Beach via the L.A.-Long Beach trolley, which will cross the Century Freeway and is scheduled to begin service next year.

But the SCAG study also found other abandoned or nearly abandoned lines in the county worthy of preservation, including:

* Southern Pacific’s Stanton branch line, which begins near Huntington Beach Civic Center and parallels Beach Boulevard through Westminster and Stanton, where it links up with Southern Pacific’s Los Alamitos branch line. The Stanton branch could provide a transit link with Disneyland and Anaheim Stadium, where passengers could transfer to Amtrak trains or, eventually, a proposed high-speed train to Las Vegas.

* Southern Pacific’s Los Alamitos branch, which runs east-west between Anaheim and the Los Alamitos Race Course, through Stanton. This line also crosses the Santa Ana west branch line, thus providing an opportunity for commuters to link up with other planned transit services there.

* The Union Pacific Anaheim branch, which would provide a link from the Stanton branch and Anaheim’s central business district to downtown Fullerton, the Hughes Aircraft Plant, a major medical-commercial complex at Harbor Boulevard and Bastanchury Road, and north Fullerton-La Habra.

* The Southern Pacific La Habra branch, which could provide a rail link in northern Orange County to major commercial, industrial and residential areas nearby and to Los Angeles via Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, Pico Rivera and Commerce, possibly via the planned eastern leg of L.A.’s Metrorail.

* The Southern Pacific Whittier branch, which could feed the La Habra line.

* The U.S. Naval Railroad, which serves the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and could be used to link the Stanton Branch line in Huntington Beach, near McDonnell Douglas, with downtown Long Beach through either Belmont Shore or a corridor along 7th Street. SCAG planner Havens, however, said the Long Beach link would be extremely difficult to use because engineers would need either to remove existing heavy development or tunnel under the existing structures.

Because of political uncertainties surrounding proposed sales tax and gasoline tax increases that would pay for highway and transit projects, SCAG’s study recommends using transit-real estate joint development projects as a supplemental source of money. Joint development, the SCAG report says, would provide money from developers who build new businesses around rail lines and rail stations.

The Orange County Transit District uses joint development by granting “air rights” to developers who build office or other commercial space above the agency’s bus stations.

The Orange County Transportation Commission recently commissioned a master plan for rail service in Orange County in hope that commuter rail funds will become available from Measure M, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 7 countywide ballot.

The measure would also pay for freeway widenings and street improvements.

OCTC Executive Director Stanley T. Oftelie said Friday that he welcomes SCAG’s study but has not seen it.

“I’m anxious to see any cost estimates for what they’re proposing,” he said. “It’s a good idea to buy up all of these rights of way before they’re lost forever, but where is the money to pay for it?”

The SCAG report does not identify estimated purchase prices for each railroad right-of-way.

PAST AND FUTURE ROUTES Riders could transfer from a Santa Ana rail line tied to the Century Freeway route directly to the Los Angeles-Long Beach trolley system, scheduled to start service next year. A Santa Ana-Lynwood commute rail route could tie into a line being built as part of the Century Freeway project, either at the San Gabriel River Freeway in Downey or near the Los Angeles River. It would also be tied to L.A. Metrorail. The old Pacific Electric and Southern Pacific right of way extends from Santa Ana to Lynwood through northern Orange County. The county owns part of the line and wants the rest to forestall further commercial and residential development on what could become useful as a future light rail or other type of rapid transit route.