octa

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→

OCTA gave a preview of their bus system's proposed minor schedule and routing changes for this coming September 2010. OCTA staff are considering changes to 19 bus routes.

CEO Will Kempton wrote in a letter to the Transit Committee on June 24, 2010 on some of the proposed changes:

• Line 1 (Pacific Coast Highway): Restore winter schedule all days
• Line 20 (Imperial Highway): Adjust running time (operates weekdays only)
• Line 21 (Valley View St): Trip deletions weekdays due to low demand.
• Line 24 (Malvern Ave/Chapman Ave): Trip deletions weekdays due to low demand.
• Line 29 (Beach Boulevard): Adjust connections all days; increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 30 (Orangethorpe Avenue): Revise Anaheim Hills turnaround loop
• Line 43 (Harbor Boulevard): Adjust connections all days ; increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 47 (Anaheim Boulevard/Fairview Street): Adjust connections all days
• Line 50 (Katella): Increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 59 (Kraemer/Glassell/Grand/Von Karman): Saturday-Sunday improve headways from 90-minutes to 65-minutes
• Line 60 (Westminster Avenue/17th Street): Adjust weekday running times Line 64 (Bolsa Avenue/1st Street): Add weekday afternoon trip westbound
• Line 64 (1st St): Increase service frequency on weekdays.
• Line 70 (Edinger Avenue): Adjust weekday running times; revise turnaround loop at Tustin Station during construction all days of the week
• Line 76 (Talbert Avenue/MacArthur Boulevard): Revise route to allow connections with Line 79 to/from UCI; adjust weekday running time (operates weekdays only)
• Line 79 (Irvine Boulevard/Culver Drive/University Avenue): Revise route to operate on campus at University of California Irvine (UCI)
• Line 83 (Santa Ana Freeway/Main Street): Extend weekday evening trip southbound to originate at Disneyland instead of downtown Santa Ana; revise route to serve Orangewood Avenue all days of the week
• Line 90 (Irvine Center/Moulton Parkway/Golden Lantern): Adjust weekday running time; weekday mornings extend one short trip and add one full length trip; revise turnaround loop at Tustin Station during construction all days of the week
• Line 129 (La Habra/Brea/Birch/Kraemer): Adjust weekday running time; trip deletions weekdays due to low demand; Saturday-Sunday improve headways from 90-minutes to 65-minutes
• Line 143 (Whittier/Harbor/Brea/Birch): Weekdays add one evening trip; other possible trip deletions on weekdays; Saturday-Sunday improve headways from 75-minutes to 65-minutes
• Line 153 (through Anaheim): Trip deletions weekdays due to low demand.
• Line 175 (Yale Avenue – Campus Drive): Revise turnaround loop to better serve Mariposa Villa
• Line 211(Seal Beach-Irvine 405 Express): Revise route at Golden West Transportation Center
• Line 213 (Brea-Irvine 55 Freeway Express): Revise route to serve UCI campus

Some of these changes are shown in the map OCTA released below:

  read more→

OCTA will begin charging $1.00 for the Bus Book — which contains all of OCTA's and Orange County transit operators' bus and train schedules — due to budget shortfalls.

According to OCTA staff, their Bus Book is the most preferred source of bus information versus online, texting, bus stop information, and even printing out schedules with their e-Busbook website feature. 

"An important part of the OCTA marketing program is the provision of public information. The Bus Book identifies all of the bus routes and schedules and provides details about how to ride the bus, fares, passes, etc. Staff is identifying ways to continue to provide this level of printed customer information during times of significant budget constraints. A pilot program, charging $1.00 for the bus book is being tested in September 2010. The purpose of the program is to offset marketing costs so that this type of information can continue to be provided."

Several recent OCTA marketing surveys in the past few years indicated that a majority of bus riders would purchase a bus book to manage costs.

The Orange County Register has other details on OCTA's $1 fee: read more→

This press release landed in my inbox last night; a new contract between the Teamsters and OCTA's Board means that there's one less wildcard in terms of bus operations. According to a news post at Voice of OC: “ The poor economy has forced 156 coach operator layoffs and 44 administration layoffs at OCTA in less than two years. The pact, retroactive to May 1, holds salaries for 903 drivers at current levels for at least two years, but leaves the door open to renew contract talks in the third year if the economy improves. Currently, beginning drivers earn $15.22 an hour, and the top pay is $23.92, plus medical and retirement benefits.”

Here's the press release:  read more→

OCTA is soliciting ideas for improving the Metrolink parking experience. You have the chance to rate their ideas, which include:

• More parking spaces
• Valet parking
• Reserved pre-paid parking spaces
• Real-time freeway signs and Internet info showing parking availability
• Vehicle amenities (car washes and oil changes)
• Commuter amenities (coffee shops, restaurants)
• Better bus access
• Better pedestrian & bicycle access

Interestingly, the bus, pedestrian, and bicycle options have been buried at the bottom of these lists (see questions 14 and 19). But you can imagine what options I told OCTA to prioritize! Take OCTA's Metrolink survey now.

  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:

  read more→

OCTA's taking more and more steps to open up data for mobile transit applications. Their new webpage on Mobile Apps feature mobile device applications that let you plot trips for OCTA's transit services. Most of the applications available are for Apple's iPhone OS (soon to be iOS), but the biggest application of all is Google Maps, which you can download for Blackberry OS, Android OS, Windows Mobile, Java, Palm's WebOS, and, of course, iPhone OS/iOS.

Currently, they offer Google Transit Feed files — which includes bus stop schedules, bus stops, and bus routes — and GIS mapping data. In the future, they will offer XML schedules and a Rider Alert RSS feed. read more→

• OCTA Mobile Apps — http://www.octa.net/MobileApps.aspx
• OCTA Resources for Developers — http://www.octa.net/OpenDataFeeds.aspx

OCTA staff listened to a proposal at a recent Transit Advocates of UC Irvine meeting in which they asked for better OCTA transit service. 40 students attended this session along with OCTA planner Gordon Robinson and OCTA CEO Will Kempton.

OCTA has already made some improvements to UC Irvine's transit service. A little over a year ago, OCTA planners re-allocated trips to include more southbound 79 buses to relieve standing-room only conditions during peak commute hours. OCTA also made permanent a detour that serves UC Irvine's core students and Gottschalk Medical Plaza better (see below). Plus, they've recently added UC Irvine as a station for their future rapid bus system in their proposed long-range transportation plan.

Here are OCTA's permanent re-routings. They now serve the core of campus better, serving the School of Medicine, Gottschalk Medical Plaza, Beckman Laser Center, the Trevor School of Arts, the athletics center, and the new humanities building directly. 

But TAUCI believes more should be done. Currently, 27,600 students (not including staff) attend UC Irvine. OCTA's line 79 is the only bus line that runs through UC Irvine on weekends — every 80 minutes — and students have no regular daily bus routes that connect to the airport, Amtrak, or Metrolink stations. According to TAUCI president David Weinreich, they also discussed:

• Needing larger buses on route 175 to people due to frequent pass-bys and late buses
• Using advertising on bus stops to pay for desperately-needed schedule info
• Needing to have routes 70 & 90 meet at Culver — instead of Tustin Metrolink Station — to require one less wait & transfer for students coming to/from the route 79 (the most commonly used route by students).
• How OCTA's plans to boost Metrolink service is useless for UC Irvine students because of UC Irvine's distance from a station. TAUCI stressed that bus rapid transit lines would be much more preferable to frequent Metrolink service.

Their presentation included some useful facts like these:

What I think should even be done: OCTA should fold that (and may I editorialize) useless Newport Transportation Center into UC Irvine's hub. These two hubs compete for buses, and there will be a much higher demand for OCTA buses this coming year because UC Irvine will house another 1,500 or so students in new housing units, and Newport Transportation Center has no transit-dependent population nearby.

Route 1 — perhaps with a combination of the anemic route 76 — can serve to pick up the meager boardings in Newport Beach.

Having route 57 run to UC Irvine will give students access to Angel Stadium, an Amtrak/Metrolink station on weekends (okay, a 10-minute walk to Anaheim Station), UC Irvine Medical Center, South Coast Plaza, and Costa Mesa's clubs. WOOT.

Having route 1 run to UC Irvine will give students and Irvine residents a one-seat joyride to all of the beaches Orange County has to offer: Long Beach, Seal Beach, Sunset Beach, Huntington Beach Pier, San Clemente Pier, Laguna Beach, and Dana Point Harbor. Folks coming from Central Orange County have to transfer to the 1 anyways, so why not expand this to a transit-dependent population: UC Irvine students?

What do you think? Crazy idea? It's not going to cost *that* much money to re-route some buses, but will there be a trade-off for non-students? read more→

I'm catching up on all the transportation stories over the past month, and came across two Orange County Grand Jury reports that criticize OCTA for failing to protect transit commuters while spending a disproportionate amount of money on freeways and Metrolink. Within the same period, they criticized Santa Ana's City Council for a lack of government transparency in awarding a $4.85-million contract to the least-qualified firm for their pet Santa Ana streetcar project.

The OC Register, L.A. Times, and other blog outlets have articles that summarize the findings:

• Grand jury says OCTA fails low-income bus riders: After a 20 percent reduction in bus service, the grand jury wants OCTA to re-examine its spending decisions. (Orange County Register)
• O.C. Grand Jury criticizes Santa Ana council over transportation contract: A report says the bulk of a $4.85-million consulting agreement for a streetcar project went to a firm that experts had rated the least qualified of all the bidders. (Los Angeles Times) 
• Grand Jury Exposes Santa Ana City Countil...Now What! (TheLiberalOC.com)
• Well-connected firm got 'flawed' contract: Grand Jury finds that Santa Ana officials used a 'compromised' process to award a contract worth nearly $5 million. (Orange County Register)

Some choice tidbits from the Orange County Grand Jury report on OCTA's shortcomings: read more→

 There will be a public hearing on next year’s 2010/2011 OCTA budget Monday, June 14, 9 am.

A fare increase, planned years ago, is part of this budget, but OCTA has indicated that the board believes there may be a way to hold off on it for at least another year. We will monitor the hearing for an update.

Also on the agenda (second issue on the Regular Calendar, item # 27) is a report on the June service change (a day after the service change!) and warnings that the September change may include “resource reallocation” – there would be the same amount of hours systemwide, but some “low use” routes:

 21, 24, 129, 143, 153

 may be reduced to add service on routes with pass-bys and late buses:

 29, 43, 50, 53, 57, 59, 60, 64, 70, 90, 129 (not a typo), 143 (not a typo)

Come and urge the board to find a way that service can be improved where necessary without cutting already devastated routes even further - the 5 routes to be cut run every 60 – 85 minutes, even during rush hour! Some of the methods OCTA may use to cut are “span” reduction (earliest and/or latest trips), reducing frequency, and short turns. More info: http://atb.octa.net/AgendaPDF/8126.pdf

June service change tomorrow, Sunday!

Routes 60 and 129 are having the most significant changes, but they’re just schedule adjustments. Click here for a full list of changes: http://www.octa.net/june10sc.aspx

OC grand jury asks OCTA to improve bus service

Click here: http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/octa-mission/octa-mission-report.pdf to see the report and get back to us with your comments – Thanks!

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