Countywide : Transit Study to Seek Use for Old Rail Route

The Orange County Transit District has launched a study of seven miles of abandoned rail right of way in central Orange County, once planned as the centerpiece of a new light rail transit system, to determine whether it can be developed as a highway or bus transitway.

Although the county had once hoped to construct an elaborate, 38-mile rail system linking Disneyland and Anaheim Stadium with the John Wayne Airport area, the 1984 defeat of a sales tax increase to pay for transportation improvements led to a new policy favoring commuter lanes and transitways--specially designated lanes for car pools and buses similar to those now in use on the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Accordingly, OCTD directors on Monday authorized Basmaciyan-Darnell Inc. of Newport Beach to look at the seven miles of Pacific Electric right of way--once used by the old “red car” trolleys--that the transit district owns between Beach Boulevard in Stanton and Raitt Street in Santa Ana.

The $96,872 study will examine whether the right of way can be developed as a high-speed transitway for buses, or a combination transitway and highway for automobiles.