Tracking the Rail Routes

The aerial map of Orange County covers all the familiar sights: Disneyland, Edison International Field, South Coast Plaza, the gridlocked Santa Ana Freeway.

That’s why the portable display used by the Orange County Transportation Authority is dotted with red, yellow and blue stickers--possible stops on a proposed 28-mile urban rail system called the CenterLine that would cost at least $1.3 billion.

So far, transit officials have spent more than $2 million studying the possibility of bringing rail to Orange County. About $4 million more has been set aside to complete a study of the environmental impact of the routes--one of which will be chosen before going to a make-or-break vote before the transit board in December. If all goes smoothly, the first link of the system could open in 2008.

Preliminary financing plans for the system approved by the board in November call for it to be paid primarily through Measure M, federal and state funds, without the need for voters to approve a new sales tax or bond issue.

Stretching from Fullerton to Irvine with at least 26 stops along the way, the train route would mark a change in the county’s landscape--and psyche.

But whether Orange County residents would really change their commuting habits from solo driving to rail travel is an open question. A study released this week by the Southern California Assn. of Governments showed Orange County residents were the least likely to carpool in Southern California, despite having the largest number of carpool lanes to use.

Still, with population and jobs expected to boom in the next 20 years--500,000 new residents and 630,000 new jobs projected--transit officials in the county say now is the time to find alternatives. Some think rail may be the answer.

Naysayers caution that similar systems built in established urban areas have not fared well in the last decade, and are more of an ego stroke for politicians than an effective means of getting around for residents.

And what Orange County is proposing has never been done before: connecting a string of suburban centers, said Robert Poole of the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation.

“We have yet to see anywhere in the country where it has turned out as a good investment,” said Poole, who served on an advisory committee for OCTA that recommended additional freeway widening and expanded bus service instead of rail.

The project has its fans. At a rail open house at transit headquarters last week, more than 100 people passed through the displays simulating what the systems would look like on Orange County streets. A video touted other light-rail systems built in San Diego, Sacramento and Portland.

The cost of a street-level light-rail system would start at $1.3 billion. Elevating the entire system is estimated to cost an additional $500 million and would give the county a chance to use monorail and automated guideway transit technology that cannot be run on the streets.

To put the cost into perspective, consider that the transit authority will buy 130 new large buses this year at a cost of $48 million--the estimated cost of building one mile of the cheapest street level rail system.

But some citizens who have helped to work on the project say they believe the idea is a good one, despite the high costs.

“Anyone who hearkens back to the days when we didn’t need these choices is living in the past,” said Msgr. Wilbur Davis, the pastor at St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church in Anaheim. “This county has become much more urbanized and much more densely populated. We need to do something now.”

And there are signs that the times have changed. Today, several transit board members will attend a symposium on transit-oriented development in Orange County--an idea that would have seemed unthinkable not long ago in a county known for suburban sprawl and solo car trips.

Sarah L. Catz, a transit board member who plans to be at the seminar, said rail may be a key part of creating so-called “livable communities” in the area.

“From what I’ve seen, it looks like a majority of the people who would be using it may be giving up trips in their cars,” Catz said.

But Poole, who has studied urban rail for more than a decade, said he’ll believe it when he sees it: “I think they’re better ways to spend more than $1 billion.”

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All Aboard

Before designing a rail transit system for central Orange County, OCTA must first decide between an elevated or street-level line and choose from three train options: light rail, monorail or automated guideway. A look at the competing corridors, lines and trains.