THE COUNTY’S LIGHT RAIL SAGA IS MOVING FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE
ridiculous. Just like that, OCTA’s staff has proposed lopping off most of the 28-mile system, taking populous Santa Ana and Anaheim out of the picture and reducing the project to an 11-mile stub that connects Irvine to Costa Mesa.
Light rail becomes rail Lite. The CenterLine becomes a Center Cut. This won’t even be a county sub-system now, it’ll be an airport shuttle.
The move is a tactical, if desperate, measure, aimed at heading off a groundswell of public opposition and isolating the rail plan to where it seems to be playing best, Irvine. There, public officials say they can funnel $121 million in federal funds to the project, and Measure M dollars and state grants would be expected to cover the rest of the estimated, scaled-down, $750 million tab. The Feds, who OC was whimsically looking to for $1 billion of support for the bigger undertaking, won’t be counted on now,the presumption is that Washington would scoff at putting big bucks into such a truncated system. But build a leg now, and maybe the Feds will kick in when more is built later. Or so the thinking goes.
And for the time being, $750 million would keep some engineering firms and contractors busy, and that should induce them to keep sending campaign contributions the way of cooperative OCTA members. It all works as long as state and county taxpayers don’t get upset over so much of their transportation money being earmarked for so little.
This light rail project has been nothing if not creatively engineered. Yet some of the politicians going along for the ride may want to stop and take a look around. Irvine officials are entitled to try to wheedle dollars out of the federal, state and county governments. But be careful what you wish for: One thing this rail stub would accomplish is to make it easier for people to get to the former El Toro Marine base; and John Wayne would be just down the line.
Creating a feeder system for a future El Toro airport can’t possibly be what Irvine officials intend, but little else about light rail makes sense, either.
