3-4-15 Update from OCTA
Streetcar project rolls forward with selection of management consultant
The OCTA board approved the selection of HDR Engineering, Inc. as the project management consultant for the Santa Ana/Garden Grove Streetcar project.
The contract to manage the streetcar project is for five-year, with two two-year options. Funding for the project comes from Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements and from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program. The majority of funding – nearly 89 percent – is expected to come from federal funds.
Monday’s action was another important step forward for the Santa Ana/Garden Grove streetcar project. Earlier this year, the project’s environmental impact report won approvals from city councils in both cities, clearing the way for OCTA to take the lead on implementing the project.
The streetcar project will provide “last-mile” transportation for people traveling from transportation hubs to major employment, retail and recreational centers. It will make stops at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center, traveling through Downtown Santa Ana and the Civic Center. It will operate along Fourth Street and Santa Ana Boulevard, continuing along the Pacific Electric right-of-way to connect with a transit hub at Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove.
In all, the streetcar will operate on a route more than four-miles long and will include 12 stops, carrying an estimated 6,000 riders daily by 2035. Construction is planned to start in 2017 and streetcars are expected to begin operating in 2019.
9-2014. In August, the City Council decided on 4th Street as their preferred route. Read more on the voiceofoc.org
The City of Santa Ana and OCTA are proposing a "fixed guideway" project that will run from the Santa Ana Regional Transit Center (train station) to the corner of 17th and Harbor Boulvard. Eventually it is hoped to connect to a future Garden Grove transit center and possibly to a location near Disneyland. Major decisions on the project will be made in 2014.
The project no longer affects Washington Square directly like Centerline would have. The spur going up Bristol to Santa Ana College is no nonger proposed. Below are maps of the two proposed routes. Option 2 would bring the cars past the corner of Flower and Civic Center.
You can read more about the plan on the transit website here. View the presentation slides used for the public input meetings in early 2014 here. You can read the EIR for the project here. Public comment closed on 7-7-14 and the City Council will vote to approve the EIR in the Fall of 2014. Construction should start in 2017 with completion by 2020.
It's not yet a done deal and there is oppositon to the project from several groups. Here's an example from NewSantaAna 7-8-14. Here's the OC Registers take on the Santa Ana system and a similar line proposed in Anaheim.
Update 1-13-2005: The project wil probably not be built do to the lack of federal funding and support.
Los Angeles Times article 12-04:
CenterLine, a proposed $1-billion light-rail system that would connect John Wayne Airport and downtown Santa Ana, could be canceled this year for lack of congressional support.
The Orange County Transportation Authority needs at least $500 million from the Federal Transit Administration to build the 9.3-mile line by 2010.
In 2004, the project failed to win just $40 million in federal funding for final design work. OCTA officials had hoped Congress would give CenterLine at least $10 million of the total requested, but they did not get even that.
Officials say the lack of federal support could force a reevaluation of the project by the authority's new board of directors after it meets for the first time this month.
OCTA Press Release February 3rd, 2004
OCTA Press Release January 12, 2004
The
proposed Centerline project could have a major effect on our neighborhood,
especially if the route is extended to Santa Ana College. Here are
some resources to learn more about the project.
OCTA's Centerline Site The official site
LightRailNow's News Stories and project profile
Rail Advocates of Orange County site with project news, maps and resources
Stop The Centerline! takes the opposing view, primarily for the City of Irvine which passed a referendum in June, 2003 to stop the project from continuing through Irvine to UCI.
Below is the OCTA's official map of the current plan.
News and Activity Information