Metrolink growth strains station parking capacity
Until recently, Blaine Bridenball's morning involved a well-practiced routine: Get up, eat and drive to the Metrolink station in Buena Park by 7:15 for his commute to Los Angeles.
Then gas prices skyrocketed, and Bridenball found that the parking lot at the new train station was filling to capacity earlier and earlier.
"With each month it seems you add another five minutes," he said. "Now, the lot is full by 6:50 a.m."
This week, Bridenball joined hundreds of transit riders who have been boarding a shuttle bus at a nearby park for a two-mile ride to the train station -- a stopgap solution to a growing problem.
A surge in Metrolink ridership and plans to sharply increase the number of trains running on weekdays are forcing transportation planners to speed up projects to add parking at Orange County's train stations.
Until recently, 300 parking spaces were required at newly built stations.
"We believed that would be sufficient for many years," said Darrell Johnson, Orange County Transportation Authority commuter rail manager.
"The new standard we're now demanding is 500 spaces."
That standard will be used when the county's 12th Metrolink station, in Placentia, is built in three years.
Meantime, by 2010 officials hope to have trains running every 30 minutes from 5 a.m. to midnight on weekdays between Fullerton and Laguna Niguel.
Seven locomotives and 59 passenger cars are on order, new track has been laid, and additional parking must be either finished or near completion when the expanded service begins, officials say.
Until that happens, cities have been scrambling to set up shuttle services from Metrolink stations to residential areas, major employers, resort areas and shopping malls.
Nowhere is the increased demand for parking more evident than in Buena Park.
Its station opened 10 months ago, and unexpectedly high ridership has already forced OCTA and the city to spend $220,000 on shuttle services for a year.
Plans for more parking are in the works.
"This shuttle is a good idea," said Felix Mendez, 30, of Garden Grove. "The station is closer to my home, but with the parking problem I would have to take the train at Fullerton, and that's in the opposite direction of where I need to go."
In Laguna Niguel, OCTA just acquired two acres where the California Department of Transportation plans to close a maintenance yard in two years. Taking its place will be 150 parking spaces.
