O.C. Halts Light Rail and Seeks Options
Fifteen years after first flirting with the idea of building a light-rail system in the heart of Orange County, local transportation leaders on Monday shelved the $1-billion CenterLine project at least temporarily to consider other transit options.
The Orange County Transportation Authority will now consider expanding Metrolink rail service or building a rapid-transit bus system along Bristol Street in Santa Ana, which was to have been a main leg of the CenterLine route.
"The board has decided to re-look at the money set aside for advanced mass transit," said Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell, chairman of the OCTA board. "They said, 'Don't limit us to light rail. We need to look at other things.' "
Among options are developing the old Pacific Electric streetcar right-of-way in Orange County, shifting CenterLine funds to road projects, widening Bristol Street in Santa Ana and starting rapid transit bus projects in other parts of the county.
OCTA officials said a final report is due in June. If board members decide to pursue bus rapid transit or any other alternative, the light-rail project will be canceled, said Arthur T. Leahy, OCTA's chief executive.
As now envisioned, CenterLine would run 9.3 miles from John Wayne Airport to the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center with a spur to Santa Ana College. That route would take it through the South Coast Plaza area and Santa Ana's Civic Center.
OCTA had hoped to pay for roughly half the project with federal assistance, but the agency has not been able to secure support from county's congressional delegation, except for Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).
At Monday's board meeting, Santa Ana Mayor and OCTA board member Miguel A. Pulido blamed Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) for failing to lobby for the project in Congress. Cox has questioned whether the public really wanted CenterLine, and he once said he would like to have seen the project put to a countywide vote.
Pulido also said the board made "some mistakes" by repeatedly shortening the line to avoid community and political opposition along its route. In the 1990s, CenterLine was envisioned as a 28-mile route with stops at major destinations from Irvine to Fullerton. Today, it's roughly a third of that.
If CenterLine is killed in the months ahead, it would free up about $350 million in Measure M funds to help develop other possibilities. Measure M is the county's sales tax to raise money for transportation projects.
