Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Metrolink moves on
The OCTA will add 36 daily trips, weekend rides and new parking spots.
By JIM RADCLIFFE
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ORANGE – Metrolink, the commuter railway that has become Orange County's mass-transit backbone, will go from 40 to 76 weekday trips and add thousands of park-and-ride spaces along the lines by 2009.
Weekend service could begin by next spring.
Under a $383 million plan unanimously adopted by the Orange County Transportation Authority board Monday, seven locomotives will be purchased along with more than 50 passenger cars for Metrolink, which has three lines that cut through Orange County.
The OCTA, which killed off its light-rail project last month, is focusing its attention on beefing up Metrolink.
The railway averages 14,000 boardings per weekday in the county, with authority officials projecting that the number will swell to more than 30,000 by 2010.
"In five years we'll have twice as much Metrolink service as we have now," said Paul Taylor, an OCTA executive director. "The money's in hand. We control the money."
In two weeks, the OCTA board will consider approval of a detailed financial plan.
In large part, the $383 million will come from Measure M, the county's half-cent sales tax.
Metrolink's Orange County operating budget is $8.5 million and would rise to $18.9 million by 2010.
Centerline money
The demise of the long-debated CenterLine project, the 9.3-mile light railway from downtown Santa Ana to John Wayne Airport, allows the OCTA to use the money elsewhere.
CenterLine, which itself was to grow into a multicity railway, died in part because the federal government lacked interest in pay half of the $1 billion cost.
The Orange County changes to Metrolink, which runs though six counties and includes stops in Los Angles, Riverside and Oceanside, were always meant to be.
"It would have been done much more slowly," Taylor said. "We can now do in five years what might have taken 15 years."
The move pushes Metrolink more to the mainstream. Now, it largely runs in peak hours, so the long-distance commuter can take it to and from work.
The trains are faster than public buses, and the fares may keep the less affluent away. A one-way, weekday ticket for the 15-mile ride from Anaheim to Irvine is $5.75.
About 45 percent of Metrolink's operating budget is subsidized by taxpayers.
With the expanded service, to be in place by late 2009, Metrolink in Orange County will run on weekends and later on weekdays, stretching to 11 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.
The most traveled part of the OC Metrolink web – from Fullerton to the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo station – will offer a train every 30 minutes for much of the day instead of just during peak hours, said Darrell Johnson, OCTA's manager of commuter rail.
Cecila Gallardo was on the 5 p.m. eastbound train Monday. An administrative assistant at UCI Medical Center in Orange, she lives in Corona and was happy to hear more trains will be running.
"I used to drive the 91 for many years," she said. "It's a 25-minute ride (on Metrolink) instead of an hour and 25 minutes."
Parking improvements
Several thousand parking spots will be added at some existing Metrolink stations. (A station in Buena Park is to open in the summer.)
In all, the project will spend more than $50 million on railroad improvements.
More than $170 million will go to build parking structures and spaces; $20 million from other governmental sources will also go to parking.
For some of the new trips that run outside Orange County, agreements must be signed with a railway or another county, but they are expected to be secured.
Metrolink is 13 years old and has been in Orange County since 1994. Of the system's 512 miles, 87 are in the county.
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"Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, not illumination." -Vin Scully The Opposite of PRO is CON, that fact is clearly seen. If Progress means moves forward, then what does Congress mean?
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