CenterLine Headed for Back Burner

The proposed $1-billion CenterLine light-rail project, struggling for financial and political support, should be dropped for now in favor of a streamlined bus service, Orange County transit officials recommended Friday.

The beleaguered CenterLine project has been scaled back over the years and is now planned to connect John Wayne Airport and downtown Santa Ana. It has been funded primarily by Measure M, the local sales tax used for transportation projects.

The Orange County Transportation Authority needs $500 million from the Federal Transit Administration to build the 9.3-mile line by 2010, but has been unable to win congressional support.

OCTA committee members said Friday that a $900-million Bus Rapid Transit system stood a better chance of federal funding. The enhanced bus system, with limited stops, traffic signal priority and its own lanes, would operate on Bristol Street between Santa Ana and John Wayne Airport.

The bus proposal, which has been considered previously, will be discussed by the full board when it meets Feb. 14. Several committee members favored putting CenterLine on hold rather than scrapping it.

“This is not the end of CenterLine, just a transition into a different mode of transportation,” said Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido, the committee’s vice chairman. “The basic structure of [the rapid bus proposal] is essentially the same for light rail -- the width of the line, the strength of concrete and the type of stations. So this still gives us the opportunity to transition back to light rail.”

But Lake Forest Councilman Richard T. Dixon said the rapid bus plan was more promising -- in part because it could be expanded countywide.

“A dedicated [rapid bus] system can be upgraded or downgraded to a light rail, but that’s not where I’m coming from,” he said. “I don’t think a countywide light-rail system is needed for Orange County. I think an enhanced bus system is less intrusive and people are used to seeing buses on the street now. [The rapid bus plan] is simply a fancy bus and I think the public would support that.”

In November, a Cal State Fullerton survey found that Orange County voters were unlikely to extend Measure M. The measure’s expiration in 2011 would jeopardize plans to build CenterLine. Last year, CenterLine failed to win $40 million in federal funding for final design work.