Anaheim

I've fallen behind these past few weeks in transit news for the past few weeks because of difficulties with school. I'll decide what to do with this site next month in September, but for now, my postings are officially on hiatus. Thank you for riding transit, bicycling, and walking Orange County. For now, I leave you with some good, uplifting news:

OCTA is giving away free Angels tickets for those who subscribe to their OCTA Bus page on Facebook and answer a simple question Wednesday morning. The first 25 fans to post an answer to the question will each receive 2 Angels games tickets.

From their Facebook page:

  read more→

It’s not everyday that a City launches a website dedicated solely to the transit options available, whether they be bus or rail.

It’s certainly not a normal day when an Orange County City launches a website dedicated solely to the transit options available, whether they be bus or rail, or in this case, rapid buses, high-speed rail, and monorails.

The City of Anaheim has recently launched a new website called AConnext, highlighting the future of transit in the Resort Area, as well as providing information for options currently in place, such as OCTA, Metrolink, Amtrak, and Anaheim Resort Transit (ART). The website serves as a one stop shop for residents and transit geeks alike to find all the information they need related to the new and upcoming projects that are sure to excite any diehard transit fans, along with the average businessman looking for ways to get around the Resort Area without driving. read more→

The California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) Authority met today and released a supplemental alternative analysis for the tracks between Los Angeles and Anaheim. They did this after a year of conducting meetings among railroad companies, city planners, and — of course — vociferous homeowners such as the tense, angry Anaheim folks I saw that attended a high-speed rail meeting. In a nutshell:

• 2 mainline dedicated passenger tracks between Fullerton Junction and Commerce (largely within the existing 3-Track BNSF right-of-way).
• 2 existing at-grade shared-use tracks within the OCTA right-of-way from Fullerton Junction to the new ARTIC terminal in Anaheim. These are called "shared-use" because they plan to let both passenger and freight trains that are "temporally separated" run on these.

Doing this alternative — as opposed to building new dedicated bullet train tracks — unfortunately will cut the number of bullet trains that can run from 5 to 3 bullet trains per hour. This arrangement will require that Metrolink runs about 3-4 trains per hour and Amtrak runs 1 train per hour. Also, all trains — including the bullet trains — will be maxed out at 90 mph to prevent train conflicts (or "overtakes" in train parlance). Here's a map of the area:

I personally can't believe that OCTA is honestly going to try and squeeze Metrolink, Amtrak, CAHSR, and freight onto 2 lines. In New York, some corridors run 8 tracks of passenger trains, and when an accident on one track happens, it wreaks havoc on a lot of people's commutes. Imagine if one track gets shut down.

The good news: it'll cost less to build because fewer homes will be taken, and the Federal Railroad Administration recently allowed a similar arrangement to occur for Caltrain, a 2- to 3-track railroad on the San Francisco Peninsula, to allow them to run "mixed-use" passenger train service. Caltrain can now plan to run lighter, more sleeker electrified trains.

Their documents are unfortunately buried in their website; you can read their Press Release after the break, take a look at the Los Angeles to Anaheim presentation, alternative report, recommendations presentation, and their briefing memo.

....and more visuals. Here's a map of the Anaheim study area in particular:

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EDIT June 24, 2010: I got this email from Tamara Warren, project manager for corridor studies at OCTA, to clarify some of my errors in my original post. I've asked her for permission to post:

I would like to correct two points in the note.  The note mentions that the SR-22 connectors are part of the City of Santa Ana’s Go Local project.  This is not true.  Although the ramps are of interest to the City of Santa Ana and they would like to pursue further study, they are not part of their Go Local project.  The concept of ramps from the SR-22 connecting motorists to downtown Santa Ana utilizing the PEROW is part of the City of Santa Ana’s long term vision for the area. 

The note also mentions that Santa Ana’s Go Local project would prevent SCAG’s Pacific Electric corridor project.  OCTA owns the PEROW and along with all of the cities on the PEROW we are working in partnership with SCAG on their corridor study.  SCAG is coordinating with the City of Santa Ana with the intent to ensure whatever proposals come out of the SCAG study, they will complement each other and work in tandem and not prevent either effort.  I would appreciate it if you would correct the wording below to ensure the information being shared is accurate.  

Again, I really appreciate your interest in our CCCMIS study and for helping us get the word out on our study effort. Please let me know if you have any questions. 

OCTA staff are finalizing a set of options to present to the OCTA board and local governments on how to relieve congestion in central Orange County, based on a projected 15%-20% increase in population and congestion.

OCTA's staff are proposing the following ideas and this week have been soliciting feedback in workshops in the community. I went to their Fountain Valley meeting and a handful of people showed up, but from what I heard from other community members, improving transit service was a concern. Below is a comprehensive map of their proposals. Note that right now the team's survey will very likely gauge public support for these proposals; my guess is that OCTA's Board will cherry-pick from this list based on what people in Orange County vote on.

In other words, take OCTA's survey now!!

read more→

 OCTA released its weekly update a few nights ago, and here's my take:

• OCTA CEO Will Kempton and two of the Board of Directors recently flew to Washington, D.C., to continue their advocacy work on the federal level for public transit. They've asked for flexibility in funding so that public transit in Orange County can continue to operate (operating funds) instead of having funds locked in for just construction (capital funds).
• Disneyland hired some of OCTA's laid-off drivers and is renting some of OCTA's unused buses in order to serve a new Disneyland parking lot. OCTA is spinning this as a service to the "community," but I partly disagree: these buses don't serve Anaheim's community nor do they serve the rest of us living in Orange County, and only further encourages auto-centric behavior.
• There's a fairly long list of neutral-to-negative articles towards the end regarding the most recent cuts that OCTA took. 

  read more→

Anaheim City Hall is certainly giddy about their Go Local project. Wait until you hear about the latest news from the OTHER Magic Kingdom.

Recently, our cohort Steven covered the various modes of transportation that the city was studying to connect the new ARTIC fortress with the rest of the Anaheim Resort, including (but not limited to) BRT, light rail, and a monorail. Knowing Anaheim officials and their “Shiny Ball Syndrome” (you know, like when a kid sees a shiny object and instantly becomes attracted to it and disregards whatever they were doing in the first place), the most favorable option was a monorail.

Meanwhile over at Mouse Headquarters, Disney officials are dealing with a real pain in terms of parking for the current Resort. As more people seem to drive cars to the Resort, parking has become a nightmare on a daily basis, so much so that Disney has now begun to direct guests over to satellite parking lots located on Disney Way and Harbor Boulevard and rent charter buses to bring them to the park.

Too bad people don’t realize they can use the 24 hour bus service on Harbor and Katella, along with the somewhat frequent service on Katella to travel to and from the Train Station and Angel Stadium. Oh wait- I just realized March in is a few weeks.

Do you smell a solution coming? read more→

Finally, we’ve arrived at a bright, sunny Orange County weekend. It’s what we needed, especially since we’re still recovering from storms of epic proportions that Southern California residents rarely experience. This past week’s storms have definitely impacted many people’s commute; whether it’s from flooding, traffic accidents, or uprooted trees and cars due to the high winds.

The news media has been pretty gracious to us, giving us way more coverage than we really deserved; yet many folks couldn’t help but stay home and tune in to “Storm Watch 2010.” As thorough as they may have been about these freak tropical storms, while flipping through the basic news channels, I noticed one huge topic that was left out; you guessed it- transit.

In the midst of all the shots of flooded streets, stranded cars, and (oddly enough) tornadoes, it was rare to see footage of how transit riders were coping with the weather. Our brothers in LA were more fortunate (or unfortunate) to get coverage of the fallen tree landing on the Gold Line, but beyond that, not much else. I find it disappointing that news channels claim to cover “your commute,” but of course that always pertains only to the car culture. I would love for a news channel to tell me which major streets or surface areas were beyond flooded (if you were commuting in Santa Ana, that’s every street corner), that way I could avoid waiting for a bus there during torrential downpours. read more→

I (the Steve) helped Ted Nguyen at OCTA out with some photographs from the California High Speed Rail Los Angeles-Anaheim segment meeting, a packed auditorium well-attended by 150 or so folks whom, I noticed, were at least 40 years of age and above. Anyways, I'll write tomorrow more on it.

Below is pasted a copy of OCTA's latest Weekly Update newsletter. The most interesting part of the newsletter is this:

Policy Committee to Meet about Major Investment Study

Thursday, Jan. 28 –  The Central County Corridor Major Investment Policy Advisory Committee meeting will take place at OCTA headquarters in conference room 103 / 104 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Contact Fernando Chavarria at (714) 560-5306 or fchavarria@octa.net.

If you recall, this is the proposal to extend the 57 freeway underneath the Santa Ana River, or even operate light rail/buses near the river. I think anyone interested in future of Orange County's transit should attend this meeting. read more→