The OC Streetcar is a proposed light rail line in Orange County, California in the United States, running through the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove. The electric-powered streetcar will be operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), and will serve at least twelve stops along its 4.15-mile (6.68 km) route. With the exception of a short loop in downtown Santa Ana, the line will be double-tracked for its entire length. Most of the route follows the original path of the Pacific Electric Railway "Red Cars" that served Santa Ana in the early 20th century, before being abandoned in 1950. The streetcar is expected to begin construction in 2018, and open to the public by 2020.
The streetcar will provide a link from Southern California's regional commuter rail and bus systems to downtown Santa Ana, one of Orange County's largest centers for employment, arts, and entertainment, as well as nearby residential neighborhoods, parks, and trails. As of June 2017, the total cost of the project was estimated at $299.3 million.
Video OC Streetcar
Route
The streetcar will extend from the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center, which is served by regional Metrolink trains and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. The proposed route runs west along Santa Ana Boulevard to downtown Santa Ana and then the Santa Ana Civic Center, the main administrative center for the city and the County of Orange, where it will provide access to an estimated 38,000 jobs. The route will split at Mortimer Street to form a loop on existing one-way streets with westbound service continuing on Santa Ana Boulevard through Civic Center, while returning eastbound service will travel on 4th Street (two blocks south), serving the Arts District.
After rejoining at Ross Street near the Santa Ana City Hall, the line will continue west along Santa Ana Boulevard to Raitt Street, where it will continue via the former Pacific Electric West Santa Ana Branch right-of-way along the north side of 4th Street. Turning northwest, the route crosses the Santa Ana River and then crosses Westminster Avenue, where it enters the city of Garden Grove for a short distance. An intermodal transit hub will be constructed at the line's terminus at the intersection of Westminster and Harbor Boulevard. This will provide connections to OCTA's Harbor Boulevard bus routes, which are the busiest in the county, accounting for about 8 percent of OCTA's ridership.
Maps OC Streetcar
Operations and infrastructure
The streetcar will operate as a curbside, street running system between the Santa Ana station and Raitt Street; west of there, it will operate in a dedicated right-of-way. Power will come from an overhead catenary system. A single trip from end-to-end is expected to take 30 minutes. OCTA projects a daily ridership of between 6,000 and 7,300 passengers.
The route will include at least 12 stations, which will connect to 18 existing OCTA bus lines. Each station will include platforms on either side of major cross streets. The route will be double-tracked for its entire length except for the one-way loop between Ross and Mortimer streets. The maintenance and storage facility will be located adjacent to 5th Street near the eastern terminus of the Pacific Electric right-of-way at Raitt Street. The Harbor and Raitt stops will include park and ride lots; the existing parking structure at Santa Ana train station will also be used as a park-and-ride.
Although the former Pacific Electric rail bridge over the Santa Ana River still exists, it is single-track and considered structurally inadequate due to its age. Two options have been considered for the river crossing - a new double-track bridge, or refurbishing the original structure and building a new single-track bridge parallel to it. In addition, the line may also cross Westminster Avenue on an elevated bridge to reach the Harbor transit center.
Eight Siemens S70 light rail vehicles will service the route, with six in operation at any one time. The streetcar is proposed to operate from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays and holidays. Trains will run every 10 minutes between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and every 15 minutes at other hours.
List of stops
Background and construction
Historic streetcars and proposals
The streetcar will partially follow the historic route of the Pacific Electric interurban railway's Santa Ana Line, whose Red Cars operated between Santa Ana and Downtown Los Angeles via the West Santa Ana Branch right-of-way starting in 1905. The Santa Ana Line began at the old Southern Pacific Station (now demolished) at Terminal Street just south of the current Santa Ana train station, and traversed downtown Santa Ana via 4th Street. Service to Orange County was terminated in 1950 due to the increasing use of automobiles and buses, and the original tracks through town were removed and paved over.
West of downtown Santa Ana, the original 100-foot (30 m) wide right of way - purchased by OCTA after its abandonment - remains as a strip of vacant land extending diagonally across Orange County's cardinal street grid, from Santa Ana northwest to Cypress/La Palma on the Los Angeles County line. Although OCTA has allowed some temporary uses (such as parking) in the historic right of way, and most of the tracks have been removed, the authority always intended to return this corridor to transit use in the future.
The first proposals for a modern, second-generation light rail system serving the Santa Ana area appeared in the 1990s. The CenterLine project would have created a rail line running from Fullerton via Santa Ana to Irvine (later reduced to the segment between Santa Ana and John Wayne Airport). It would have included service along the current OC Streetcar route between Santa Ana station and Bristol Street, but not along the diagonal West Santa Ana Branch right-of-way. The CenterLine was opposed mainly due to its high cost (more than $1 billion) and was ultimately canceled in 2005.
Current project
A streetcar along the current, east-west route (the "Santa Ana-Garden Grove Fixed Guideway Corridor") was first proposed by OCTA in 2006. The streetcar was the result of OCTA's "Go Local" initiative, which offered funds for Orange County cities to study potential new transit links to existing Metrolink rail stations. The Measure M2 sales tax increase, which will be partly used to fund transit projects, was also passed in 2006. In 2008, the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove partnered with OCTA to develop the project. The design was modeled after street-running light rail services of the Portland Streetcar (Portland, Oregon) and TRAX (Salt Lake City, Utah).
Environmental reports were completed and the project qualified for federal funding status by 2015. Former President Barack Obama included $125 million for OC Streetcar in the 2016-17 federal budget under the Major Capital Investments (New Starts) program. In January 2017, Congress approved an additional $50 million in funding for the project. The streetcar was also one of the "Top 10 State Infrastructure Projects" that Governor Jerry Brown has recommended for expedited federal review. The total funding will be 72.2 percent from the federal government, 8.6 percent from California's state cap and trade program, and 19.2 percent from the county sales tax.
The project is currently in the design and engineering phase. OCTA announced in September 2015 that HNTB Corporation would carry out design work. The $15 million contract will cover design of tracks, bridges, stations, associated utilities and the vehicle maintenance and storage facility. In December 2016 OCTA released a request for proposals for the manufacturing and delivery of the light rail vehicles. Construction is planned to start in 2018, and revenue service is expected to begin in 2020. In March 2018, OCTA placed an order for 8 Siemens S70 vehicles, at a cost of $51.5 million.
Future expansions
Santa Ana mayor Miguel Pulido has suggested the OC Streetcar system could become "the hub of a light-rail system that could connect the county's core," with potential future extensions to Disneyland, Anaheim's Platinum Triangle and the John Wayne Airport. An extension north to Anaheim along Harbor Boulevard could connect with the controversial Katella Avenue streetcar project (Anaheim Rapid Connection), should that project be built in the future. Although the Anaheim City Council rejected the Katella streetcar in January 2017, OCTA has listed a streetcar connection in its Central Harbor Boulevard Transit Corridor Study, leaving the possibility that it could be built as a county project, rather than a city project.
OC Streetcar is one of two current transit projects intended to use the historic West Santa Ana Branch, the other being a Los Angeles Metro light rail line. The two services are not planned to connect; however, the possibility of re-establishing service between Santa Ana and Los Angeles has been studied by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) since 2012. Restoring full service to the Pacific Electric Santa Ana Line via light rail would cost about $3 billion to construct, and serve about 80,000 riders daily.
Impact
Reception of the streetcar has been mixed among business owners and residents along the proposed corridor. Supporters suggest that the project would increase property values and increase economic activity along the route, as has occurred with light rail projects such as the Expo Line in Los Angeles County. Underutilized areas along the route could be reappropriated for denser transit-oriented development, reducing the need for automobiles among new residents. The Willowick Golf Course in Garden Grove is being considered for redevelopment, potentially as a regional park with sports arenas and outdoor amphitheater, with mixed-used neighborhoods adjacent to a proposed stop on the streetcar route. In addition, 17.8 percent of households in the service area do not own a car, and the streetcar would markedly improve their access to the regional transit system.
However, some businesses have opposed the project, citing that customers might avoid the area during construction, and that the rail line would eliminate parking spaces and increase traffic congestion. In addition, low-income residents have expressed concern over the potential gentrification of their neighborhoods, and being unable to afford increased rents as a result of the rise in property value. The streetcar project has been criticized for its high cost ($70 million per mile), and the inflexibility of a fixed-guideway transit system to adjust to system changes, as compared to buses.
See also
- Anaheim Rapid Connection
References
External links
- Official page (Orange County Transportation Authority)
- OC Streetcar related articles (Voice of OC)
- Environmental impact reports and technical documents (City of Santa Ana)
- 2017 construction and technical map
Source of article : Wikipedia
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