OC Streetcar

View of the old PE right of way in Garden Grove, which will be developed into the Harbor Transit Center at the streetcar's western terminus

The streetcar will partially follow the historic route of the Pacific Electric interurban railway's Santa Ana Line, whose Red Cars operated between Santa Ana and Downtown Los Angeles via the West Santa Ana Branch right-of-way starting in 1905. The Santa Ana Line began at the old Southern Pacific Station (now demolished) at Terminal Street just south of the current Santa Ana train station, and traversed downtown Santa Ana via 4th Street.[17] Service to Orange County was terminated in 1950 due to the increasing use of automobiles and buses, and the original tracks through town were removed and paved over.[18]

West of downtown Santa Ana, the original 100-foot (30 m) wide right of way – purchased by OCTA after its abandonment – remains as a strip of vacant land extending diagonally across Orange County's cardinal street grid, from Santa Ana northwest to Cypress/La Palma on the Los Angeles County line. Although OCTA has allowed some temporary uses (such as parking) in the historic right of way, and most of the tracks have been removed, the authority always intended to return this corridor to transit use in the future.[17]

The first proposals for a modern, second-generation light rail system, as opposed to a streetcar system, serving north Orange County appeared in the 1990s. The CenterLine project would have created several light rail lines, including a main line running from Fullerton via Santa Ana to Irvine. It would have included service along the current OC Streetcar route between the Santa Ana train station and Bristol Street, but not along the diagonal West Santa Ana Branch right-of-way. Multiple branches were also proposed for the line to serve other areas of Orange County; most of the lines would have been elevated. The initial 1992 proposal called for 90 miles (140 km) of light rail, which due to political opposition was reduced to 32 miles (51 km) by 2001, and 9.3 miles (15.0 km) by 2004.[19] The CenterLine was opposed mainly due to its high cost (more than $1 billion for the 9.3-mile (15.0 km) segment between Santa Ana and John Wayne Airport) and was ultimately canceled in 2005.[12][20]

A streetcar along the current, east-west route (the "Santa Ana-Garden Grove Fixed Guideway Corridor") was first proposed by OCTA in 2006.[5] The streetcar was the result of OCTA's "Go Local" initiative, which offered funds for Orange County cities to study potential new transit links to existing Metrolink rail stations.[12] The Measure M2 sales tax increase, also known as OC Go, will be partly used to fund transit projects in Orange County, was also passed in 2006. [12][21] In 2008, the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove partnered with OCTA to develop the project.[22] The design was modeled after street-running light rail services of the Portland Streetcar (Portland, Oregon) and TRAX (Salt Lake City, Utah).[5]

Environmental reports were completed and the project qualified for federal funding status by 2015.[20] Former President Barack Obama included $125 million for OC Streetcar in the 2016-17 federal budget under the Major Capital Investments (New Starts) program.[23] In January 2017, Congress approved an additional $50 million in funding for the project, for a total of $175 million.[5] The streetcar was also one of the "Top 10 State Infrastructure Projects" that Governor Jerry Brown has recommended for expedited federal review.[24] The total funding would be 72.2 percent from the federal government, 8.6 percent from California's state cap and trade program, and 19.2 percent from the county sales tax.[25]

Interior of OC Streetcar vehicle

OCTA announced in September 2015 that HNTB Corporation would carry out design work.[26] The $15 million contract covered design of tracks, bridges, stations, associated utilities and the vehicle maintenance and storage facility.[27] In December 2016 OCTA released a request for proposals for the manufacturing and delivery of the light rail vehicles.[28] Construction is planned to start in 2018, and revenue service was expected to begin in 2020.[4] In March 2018, OCTA placed an order for 8 S70 vehicles (later rebranded as S700 by Siemens),[lower-alpha 1] at a cost of $51.5 million.[29] By July 2018, costs had increased to a projected $407.76 million (up from an estimated $299.3 million as of June 2017[5]) with an expected completion in 2021.[30]

On September 24, 2018, OCTA awarded a $220.5 million contract to Walsh Construction Company to build the streetcar.[31]

On November 30, 2018, a groundbreaking ceremony was held, and the Federal Transit Administration announced that federal funding would be increased to $217 million.[32]

Santa Ana mayor Miguel Pulido has suggested the OC Streetcar system could become "the hub of a light-rail system that could connect the county’s core," with potential future extensions to Disneyland, Anaheim's Platinum Triangle and the John Wayne Airport.[33][34] An extension north to Anaheim along Harbor Boulevard could connect with the controversial Katella Avenue streetcar project (Anaheim Rapid Connection), should that project be built in the future. Although the Anaheim City Council rejected the Katella streetcar in January 2017,[35][36] OCTA has listed a streetcar connection in its Central Harbor Boulevard Transit Corridor Study, leaving the possibility that it could be built as a county project, rather than a city project.[9]

OC Streetcar is one of two current transit projects intended to use the historic West Santa Ana Branch, the other being a Los Angeles Metro Rail West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor line.[37] The two services are not planned to connect; however, the possibility of re-establishing service between Santa Ana and Los Angeles has been studied by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) since 2012.[38] Restoring full service to the Pacific Electric Santa Ana Line via light rail would cost about $3 billion to construct, and is expected to serve about 80,000 riders daily.[39][40]