On October 2 the Huntington Beach City Council unanimously approved a joint study with Westminster, Stanton and Garden Grove to determine the feasibility of building an 18-mile light rail system that would almost, but not quite, transport tourists between downtown “Surf City” and Disneyland.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is funding the research as part of its “Go Local” program, which provides Measure M grants in amounts of $100,000 each or a total of $3.4 million to 34 Orange County cities, the first of four steps it will take toward improving transportation links to the county's Metrolink light rail lines.

The city of Anaheim is using its grant money for another project but will provide staff help for the HB-Disney transportation link study.

In Phase One of the Go Local project cities will use their grant money to assess local travel patterns, transit modes and concepts, land use issues and possible use of right-of-ways.

City Council enthusiasm for a light rail transit system has narrowed down to the study of one proposed route, which starts in the city near Ellis and Gothard Avenues and then parallels Gothard going north through Westminster and Stanton before going east through Garden Grove and into Anaheim.

Mayor Dave Sullivan was delighted with the plan. “This is incredible, fantastic and wonderful and a few other adjectives,” he raved.

Councilmember Debbie Cook asked her colleagues to keep a more open mind. “We get into a problem when we lead with a conclusion,” she warned, “And I think we've jumped to too many conclusions here. I would rather see a study that's open to all possibilities.”

But one critical question was never asked: Would Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the needed right-of-way, allow it to be used for public transit (OCTA regulations preclude grant recipients from studying the use of eminent domain)?

Mayor Sullivan spoke as if the city had already acquired the right-of-way. “Whatever the cost [of the light rail], it's going to be infinitely less than the solution that we acquire a right-of-way,” he said.

Union Pacific spokesperson Mark Davis set the record straight. In a phone message left with the Orange Coast Voice he said that many issues have to be studied, including freight traffic, capacity and right-of-way availability. “We always encourage communities that are interested in any type of program like that to get with the railroad early on, because we can let them know if feasible.”

Types of Transit
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which offers service amenities similar to what light rail offers but at less expensive bus rates, and Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), an on-demand non-stop transit system resembling a people mover, will not be studied.

A PowerPoint presentation given by Deputy public works director David Webb at the study session showed passengers riding in a luxury diesel powered commuter rail train that can tow only two cars but is more fuel efficient than a standard diesel train. But Webb told the Orange Coast Voice that the presentation was meant only to show one of the transit options available today. An electrified system, monorail or maglevs (high speed magnetic train used in Japan) are also options, he said. “All these are technologies that exist today. Now whether they will feasible or not is really a whole other thing.”

But Roy Reynolds, Managing Director of PRT Technologies in Fountain Valley says that the proposal will most likely include the diesel model because it would be impractical to build an electrically powered system from scratch. “You have to build a way to transfer electricity to the vehicles,” he said (see Interview). Maglev transit is so fast, he says, that it's best suited for inter city travel, like from Anaheim to Las Vegas, not shorter inner city trips.

Reynolds tried to pitch PRT to the HB City Council during the study session and at the October 2 city council meetings, but he was virtually ignored.

Webb says that PRT is not a “tried and true” technology and that it would be inappropriate to use public funds to study a technology before it has been tested. “We're not studying how to make a PRT work,” he said, “Our goal is to figure out a link between us and Metrolink.”

Getting from the train to the beach
The Huntington Beach terminus for the proposed rail line could be at the intersection of Gothard and Ellis Avenues or even farther north near the Central Park Library, Webb told the council.

The next problem, however, is to figure out how to take people back and forth between downtown Huntington Beach and the train station, going through industrial, residential and business areas.

Just before voting to approve the study, Councilmember Don Hansen said his support was contingent upon answering that question. “To me that's the most vital: how much effort in this project goes into figuring that.”

Webb agreed and added that all cities say that the system has to go to the beach, just as it also must extend all the way to Disneyland's doorstep (it currently stops short). How to do that would come up in the second phase of the Go Local plan. But several weeks later Webb told the Orange Coast Voice, “We have to look at how we would go [to the beach] or should we even connect at all.”

Cities will have one year to complete and send their proposals to the OCTA, which will then select the most promising ones for actual development. Over $250 million is left from the original passage of Measure M, but further funding depends on whether it is renewed on November 7 or not.