OC Streetcar construction kicks off, with line set to be running by 2021

The shiny ceremonial shovels and pile of pre-mounded dirt were merely symbolic, but the milestones Orange County transit and local officials celebrated Friday, Nov. 30, were real.

Santa Ana and Garden Grove city leaders, Orange County Transportation Authority executives and the acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administration gathered to mark the groundbreaking for the county’s first modern streetcar and announce $149 million in federal funding, a crucial piece of the $408 million project.

Getting the project to this point took 10 years of perseverance, Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do said during a ceremony at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center, which will be one endpoint for the 4.1-mile streetcar line.

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido jokingly compared the process to giving birth after a very long gestation, and in an earlier phone interview, noted that a lot of things had to go right to get to the start of construction, including funding, political and community support and the environmental review.

“It’s a very long process and anything can derail you,” Pulido said.

Also on Friday, officials celebrated the signing of an agreement that brings federal funding for the streetcar to $217 million, more than half the project total. State and local dollars will make up the rest. It’s rare in Orange County for a transportation project to get the bulk of its money from outside the region, OCTA spokesman Eric Carpenter said.

“That’s one thing that we’ve always promised with Measure M is to try to leverage local dollars,” Carpenter said, referring to a voter-approved county transportation sales tax. “We think this does exactly that.”

The estimated $5 million annual cost to operate the system will be funded with local revenues including rider fares, which are expected to cost the same as OCTA buses, and money from Measure M, Santa Ana and Garden Grove, OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said.

Utility work for the project is underway and officials are working out the logistics of the construction schedule. When operational, which is expected by late 2021, six electric streetcars will visit 10 stops along the 4.1-mile streetcar line every 10 to 15 minutes. OCTA projects about 7,300 riders per day within the first year, in part because the streetcar will replace some existing bus routes.

The electric streetcars, powered by overhead wires, will run on tracks partly in shared lanes with other vehicles, and partly along an old Pacific Electric “red car” right-of-way.

Santa Ana boasts the county’s largest volume of bus riders, Pulido said, so “It makes some sense to start here.”

The route will run from the Santa Ana train station to Garden Grove’s transit station, with part of it using 4th Street and Santa Ana Boulevard.

The lengthy construction was initially a concern for some businesses, said Raul Yanez, a business owner and president of the Santa Ana Business Association.

As long as OCTA sticks to its plan of building the project in phases rather than tearing up a whole street at once, Yanez said, “I think it’s a good thing that it’s coming.”

Joe Castro, owner of the Barrel Room wine bar and bistro on 4th at North Birch Street, said the streetcar could offset the annoyance of finding parking and paying the downtown meters.

“I think it will bring people to downtown that might not otherwise come,” Castro said, especially if they can “come out and dine, and maybe have that second glass of wine and not have to call an Uber.”

The Federal Transit Administration’s acting administrator, K. Jane Williams, said the OC Streetcar fits in with the agency’s goal of improving infrastructure. It will be in a densely populated corridor and will connect commuters to other transportation options such as Amtrak and Metrolink trains and local and long-haul buses.

Pulido said he hopes Orange County will follow Los Angeles County’s lead and eventually build extensions along Harbor Boulevard, Bristol Street and other routes to get people to jobs, homes, shopping and dining, and John Wayne Airport.

“This is going to go all over the county,” Pulido said. “This is just the first step.”