budget

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Tonight's the night! Doors open 5:30pm; we'll start the meeting at 6pm. Light refreshments will be served. Attached is the agenda, and here are some more details:

Santa Ana Depot (train station), 5th floor.
To arrive by transit: OCTA 59, 62, 83, 206, 462, 463, 464, Metrolink, Amtrak

Please attend; We'd love to meet you! You'll hear the latest on the bus funding situation, the bus cuts situation, and what can be done to help save our bus service. You can let us know your concerns and questions. Refreshments will be provided at no charge. Please let us know ASAP if you can volunteer as a greeter or translator.

actually, not a whole lot to note except for Metrolink track closure dates (listed below) and the upcoming ARTIC meeting, which I'll post about in just a few minutes... read more→

Students of UC Irvine's about to get more active, thanks to David Weinreich, a masters candidate for Urban & Regional Planning. He writes:

I received a very enthusiastic response to my first email [to other Urban & Regional Planning students], looking to set up a group to advocate for students' interests in preserving our transit through OCTA's next wave of service cuts.

It is too late to do anything about the 150,000 service hours being cut on March 14, but we'll be organized to for the next round.  Many students (myself included) have no other way to get around.  As transit planners, I think it is crucial that we advocate for transit dependents--perhaps even find some solutions-- in the face of a very ugly situation.

We'll hold our first meeting this coming Monday to organize:
SE 306 Monday at 4:00pm

Here's a map of the campus. SE, I think, stands for the Social Ecology building, which is marked as "210" on this map. You can take OCTA lines 59, 79, 175, and 178 to get there. read more→

Just a round-up of some even more grim news:

Erik Holmes at the newly-launched Orange County Local News Network wrote last week that OCTA's about to lay off "60 bus drivers, 15 mechanics and 43 administrative workers" this February to coincide with the massive 150,000-hour service cut. This March, OCTA will eliminate 24-hour service, 7 routes, some weekend service, reduced frequencies, plus introduce "new routes." OCTA has already posted the final cuts happening (kudos to the poor web designer who had to HTML and PDF-ize all this), and the bizarre routes they've spawned in North County and Irvine that will actually force riders to transfer. Routes 129, 143, 153 are such examples (on the right) that have been carved out of existing routes. 

(My take is that once an OCTA route becomes a 100-series "Community Route," it becomes so infrequent (like the 90-minute-frequency route 175 in Irvine) that it becomes mighty tempting to eliminate.)

Even worse, OCTA CEO Will Kempton throughout the Transit Forum alluded to another round of cuts this coming September because it is very likely Governor Schwarznegger will get his way and steal all transit money once again. Holmes explains in "More bus cuts likely in fall":

A service cut in September would be the fourth such reduction since the beginning of 2009.

The agency cut 133,000 hours last March, 100,000 hours in September and 150,000 hours in November.

[OCTA CEO Will] Kempton said he is hopeful – but not necessarily optimistic – that state lawmakers will shoot down Schwarzenegger’s proposal and restore transit funding. Kempton is trying to delay for as long as possible the decision on whether to cut bus service further, hoping the political tides will turn against elimination of the gas tax. There has been some opposition to the idea from lawmakers, he noted.

But Moira Topp, a lobbyist who represents OCTA in Sacramento, told the OCTA board of directors Jan. 25 that Schwarzenegger’s proposal likely will prevail because of the state government’s dire financial straits.

“The sentiment … has been, ‘We’ve already made a decision [to cut] transit, and we will take the money,’” she said.

*sigh* Here's the complete list of cuts happening this March courtesy of OCTA:

 

Night Owl Elimination

All Days – Routes 43, 50, 57, and 60. No service from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.  .

Route Elimination & Options

Weekdays – Routes 62, 74, 75, 131, 147, 164, and 693.
Saturdays – Routes 24, 76, 86, 172, 193, and 693.
Sundays – Routes 24, 51, 76, 82, 85, 172, 193, and 693.

Frequency Reductions & Options

Weekdays – Routes 24, 25, 30, 35, 37, 50, 55, 64, 66, 71, 72, 76, 82, and 145. 
Saturdays/Sundays – Routes 29, 50, 55, 66, and 89.

Route Restructuring & Options

All Days – Routes 29, 43, 47, 53, 59, and 70. New routes: 90, 129, 143 and 153 will be added.

Trip Reduction & Options

Weekdays – Route 21, eliminate midday service from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m..

ACCESS Service & Options

Learn how will ACCESS service be impacted and your available options.

Route Changes by City

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OCTA's weekly update was posted a few days ago. Just a few highlights I've found interesting with my opinion in italics:

• California Awarded $2.34 Billion In High-Speed Rail Funding.
• San Clemente Considers Wayside Horn System at Rail Crossings: could this be another "transit" project to benefit homeowners in the area?
• Orangethorpe Rail Corridor near Placentia and Anaheim to grade-separate 5 different crossings: could this be another "transit" project to benefit motorists in the area?
• OCTA's still throwing a few million dollars away in studies to evaluate building a several-billion-dollar freeway/tollway tunnel beneath the mountains separating Corona and Irvine. I'll post more about this later.
• OCTA will likely cut deeper into bus service in September. More about this later. 

The Weekly Update follows: read more→

(Above photos by Simon Oh.)

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity at the Southern California Transit Forum, a huge conference with over 350 attendees, including politicians, transit managers, coach operators, union representatives, lobbyists, and transit advocates. I'm still trying to digest it, but if I could describe my impressions in a few words:

• Transit staff get it. They know what needs to be done to address the massive bus cuts. The CEOs of Metro and OCTA know what's politically practical and feasible.
• Politicians don't get it — and if they do get the transit funding crisis, it's not a hot topic on their radar. They continually made references to how great foreigners think Orange County's freeways are, made up lots of inside jokes, and talked about shiny projects like California High Speed Rail while photos of happy, smiling patrons on the bus and train flashed in the background.
• There are few practical solutions left. OCTA and Metro are preparing rounds of massive cuts. Most politicians and staff are resigned to let the cuts happen because California state cuts are likely to happen. Instead, they're looking to do a statewide initiative to protect local funds, and more county-wide initiatives.

Photos, video, and more after the break. (Edit 1: Added CAHSR video below.) (Edit 2: Added OCTA's recap video below.) (Edit 3: Added Simon's photo above.) read more→