[The Transit Advocate]
Public Transit Policy, Analysis, Advocacy and Education
Newsletter of the Southern California Transit Advocates
Vol 10, No. 3, March 2002
Copyright 2002 Southern California Transit Advocates. Permission is freely granted to reproduce or reprint ORIGINAL articles, provided credit is given to both the author and the Southern California Transit Advocates. In all other cases, permission must be secured with the copyright holder.

Disclaimer: The Southern California Transit Advocates is not affiliated with any governmental agency or transportation provider. Names and logos of agencies appear for information and reference purposes only. 

Orange County Committee Mark Strickert, Jane Reifer

TRANSIT ADVOCATES OF ORANGE COUNTY

- Mark Strickert and Jane Reifer - 866-476-2282 ext.4, or zineland@yahoo.com

New Head of Buses at OCTA

New Interim Director of Transit Operations is Rick Teichert. He has been in the finance department at OCTA for many years, and got his start in transit at Omnitrans. The previous director, David Armijo, moved to MTA where he is in charge of one of the new sectors. Rick has indicated an interest in working closely with transit advocates.

All Night - OCTA Buses 43, 60, 57, 50

Dreamed-of night service will finally become a reality with the OCTA September service change. The 43 and 60 will run 24 hours, seven days a week, and the 57 and 50 will run 22 hours, seven days a week.

One Seat Service Reinstated from Costa Mesa to Downtown Santa Ana

Routes 155 and 180 will be combined into the new route 55, effective March 10. This will replace the one-seat service lost during the straightlining on the city trip pair that had the highest ridership in the system. Although there will be a slightly higher travel time due to choosing a different corridor, this new route should reduce the major inconvenience of transferring and waiting for a second bus.

Your Input Sought on Proposed 43/111 Through-Routing

While TAOC has always supported through-service on the Harbor Blvd. corridor, we were disappointed to see the major downtown Fullerton intersection of Harbor and Chapman eliminated from 43/111 short-turns (43 service to Fullerton College is also lost). While service north of Chapman Ave. would be about as frequent as today (30-40 minutes), service between Commonwealth and Chapman would be reduced to 30-40 minute frequency from its current 7-30 minutes, as all runs would turn in and out of the Fullerton Transportation Center at Commonwealth only. This eliminates 43 service from Lemon to Harbor along Chapman Ave., and reduces service TO Chapman Ave. on all but the infrequent long runs. We have suggested going to the new long runs OCTA suggests on Commonwealth, but retaining the current short turn routing on Chapman, maybe just to Pomona, but as this creates "branching", it isn't acceptable to OCTA. We also suggested that all short turns could go north to Valley View or Bastanchury, but that seems unlikely. OCTA has offered to install a bus stop at the southeast corner of Harbor, south of Commonwealth, and even bring the 24 (Chapman Ave.) bus into FTC. They say they can increase the long runs in the future. They may delay implementation on this until the September service change in order to accommodate our concerns. Please send us your suggestions: zineland@yahoo.com or (866) 4-SOCATA, x 4.

TAOC Prop 42 Event

We had a nice event despite bring unintentionally locked out of our meeting room; it was a great night for a transit meeting under the stars. About a dozen people showed up; more than we expected for an issue that is not considered very glamorous. Ted Green, the statewide coalition director of the Yes on 42 campaign, filled us in on all the Prop 42 facts and Rick Teichert, OCTA Interim Director of Transit Operations, gave us updates on both what's new for OCTA transit service, as well as their approach to future funding needs.

Metrolinks

The Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo station opening will be on Friday, March 29th at 9am. According to Dana Gabbard's research, this will be another simple ribbon-cutting/photo-op session, though one or more TAOC people will be attending.

The proposed Yorba Linda station is taking some heat from the city of Anaheim. Some Anaheim residents along the tracks east of Imperial Blvd. are asking for new soundwalls, on the assumption that a new station will increase noise. Several handwritten banners are now visible along the existing walls visible from Esperanza Road. They should be more concerned by increased freight train traffic, but whatcha gonna do?

Other Railings

The Rail Advocates of Orange County has begun to hold a second monthly meeting. They are being held in Irvine, with the hopes of stirring up local support and involvement in a city that is a part of the first CenterLine segment, and also where anti-transit people are concentrating their efforts. Barry Christensen hosted the first meeting, though we would expect the local members down there to take the lead in the future. A big thank you to Spectrumotion for use of their conference room. Spectrumotion is a Transportation Management Association (TMA) that publicizes and coordinates alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle commuting in the Irvine Spectrum area.

RAOC is also working on a rail-oriented art exhibit for the annual city-wide arts event "A Night in Fullerton", for Friday, April 27th, and will be planning to share a booth with TAOC at Fullerton Railroad Days the first weekend in May.

Shuttle to the Puddle

A summer shuttle proposal was approved by the Dana Point city council. They voted to go with a student-oriented route to/from Aliso Niguel High School, Crown Valley Park, and along Niguel Road, plus a park-and-ride shuttle from Stonehill Road and Dana Hills HS. They will also have a water taxi at Dana Point Harbor. Service is expected to start on Memorial Day weekend. RAOC member Daniel Benson worked with the engineering firm hired for the project.

U-Turn of Events in San Clemente

OCTA's Kmart Plaza "transit center" operations are bothering some area residents and motorists, as all routes 1 and 91 buses make big U-turns on Camino de Estrella in order to stop in front of the namesake financially-troubled retail establishment. In the past, some routes used Camino Mira Costa as part of a loop, or (like with the current 191) came up Camino Capistrano from the former Doheny Park/Domingo transfer area. TAOC is requesting suggestions for improvements. E-mail us at: zineland@yahoo.com or (866) 4-SOCATA x 4.

Welfare To Work Transit Service

St. Anselm's Cross-Cultural Community Center provides aid and services for recent immigrants to Orange County. One of their activities is emergency transportation for Welfare-to-Work participants and their children, to and from work and school. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Making Double-Tracks

RAOC chair Barry Christensen passed along some notes from the Metrolink Orange-Santa Ana doubletracking project meeting, held February 27th in Santa Ana. "Maybe a dozen Metrolink, OCTA and subcontractor staffers were there. Five advocates from our group attended. Most attendees seemed to be angry neighbors, some of whom were very rude and received "straight shootin' " answers from various staff members. It is estimated that daily train counts through the doubletracking area will reach 105, but the number of freights is quite variable. The current bridge over the creek will remain, with a new bridge built directly west. A safe, legal pedestrian corridor will be built for neighbors to access the park area along the creek. Small pieces of land will be required in Santa Ana along Lincoln, (and) the traffic lanes and pedestrian zones on Lincoln will remain the same width. No buildings will have to be removed. No sound wall is proposed, but a landscaping and a decorative safety wall would be installed between Lincoln and the tracks. OCTA is interested in paying for new windows that are more sound proof for certain dwellings along the line. In Orange, the current track will have to be realigned when the second one is added, but not in Santa Ana. If you want to comment by the April 1st deadline, you can e-mail Francisco Oaxaca at Metrolink, oaxacaf@scrra.net."

Will Model for Bus Book Covers for Peanuts

The OCTA March '02 Bus Books are now in the racks. This issue's cover promotes service to the Santa Ana Zoo, featuring a mooching elephant. The back is a promotion of OCTA's upcoming "Billionth Rider" contest. So much more useful than, say, a route index. Also hot off the press is the new NCTD Rider's Guide. When I first saw the cover, I thought it was a radio station ad...a Clark Kent-ish guy in a plain grey suit, but with his shirt open to reveal a "Breeze" shirt and cape underneath. "Faster than a speeding Coaster/Able to leap tall bus stop signs in a single bound"? Despite occasional lack of street names, I kind of like the NCTD route maps, at least compared to OCTA. I like how they use color, especially to distinguish AM from PM times. Also nice to see the train (Coaster) information. The inside-cover route map, however, is the typical southern California mess.
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