Go Local

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→

With the start of the new year comes new changes to Orange County politics. On January 12th 2010, Supervisor Chris Norby of the 4th District (Representing areas of Anaheim, Fullerton, Buena Park, Placentia, & La Habra) won the assembly seat of former assemblyman Mike Duvall, who recently resigned amid controversy. More locally, we now face an upcoming special election for the Orange County Board of Supervisors. You’re probably wondering, “Why is politics coming up on a transit oriented blog and why should I care?” Well my friends, its due to the simple fact that whomever wins the Supervisor race for the 4th District is automatically placed on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors. read more→

A ton of news packed in OCTA's weekly e-mail newsletter. I've pasted it here below, and you can also view the original post here. In a nutshell:

• OCTA cheers for the new $2.34 bil investment in California High Speed Rail (the bullet train to link Anaheim, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Improvements to existing track should bring Metrolink and Amtrak up to a max speed of 110 mph.
• Amante & Kempton talk goals. OCTA Chairman Jerry Amante wants to stabilize bus operations, but most of his details talk about further reducing bus service to an "efficient" level. CEO Will Kempton wants to further integrate Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, Coaster, and Metrolink Orange County Line / Ventura County Line services.
• Santa Ana is hosting two Go Local meetings next week about its planned freeway offramp through Garden Grove & the streetcar linking Garden Grove and Santa Ana's depot.
• OC Register takes a pessimistic view of the Irvine Shuttle, claiming that Irvine spends $19 per rider on a shuttle service that serves the Irvine Business Complex.

  read more→

Spokker last week attended the Anaheim Fixed Guideway Transit Corridor Study early scoping meeting. In essence, OCTA and Anaheim staff are considering building bus rapid transit, a monorail, a maglev (?!?), personal rapid transit pods, or an automated people mover. The line would run for about 2 miles and cover Disneyland, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim Gardenwalk, the Angels Stadium, and the Anaheim Amtrak-Metrolink train station. read more→

I happened to pick up the September/October 2008 edition of the Greater Santa Ana Business Alliance's newsletter CityLine at The Depot at Santa Ana, and they had a fascinating article titled "Light Rail System Moving Closer to Reality." In essence, light rail will be a reality in five years, from the Metrolink station to Garden Grove: read more→

Bravo! has a bright future ahead of it. OCTA's already talking about adding 6 additional rapid bus lines and 3 or 4 bus rapid transit or light rail lines to northwestern Orange County. Both OCTA and Los Angeles's Metro want to improve transportation between Los Angeles County and Orange County. read more→