For the first time in modern days, people are riding a streetcar in Orange County.
For now, it isn’t commuters, but only the crews testing the Orange County Transportation Authority’s new OC Streetcar system.
And the train cars are only running on the old Pacific Electric right-of-way between Raitt Street and Harbor Boulevard, which is now part of the transit system’s 4.1-mile route. The train cars are not yet intermingling with street traffic, which the system will do once it is up and running its full route from the Santa Ana train station to a new transit hub at Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove.
“OCTA is working with the California Public Utilities Commission and meeting all the state and federal requirements for testing, which is checking to ensure that the vehicle equipment is working properly, as well as the overhead wiring,” OCTA spokesperson Eric Carpenter said. “It also gives the operators needed training. The first vehicle must run for 1,200 miles along the route, so it is taking some time, of course.”
It has taken years of construction and delays to get the streetcar system to this point, with officials now saying it will be ready for riders in the spring. The pricetag has grown — with complications in developing the system and hazards found while digging for the tracks — to $649 million, $302 million of which is funded by the federal government and the rest about evenly split between state and local sources.
Testing on city streets is expected to begin early in the new year, Carpenter said.
An education campaign is ramping up for when the streetcars begin rolling on tracks that have been laid along city streets, including Santa Ana Boulevard and stretches of Fourth and Mortimer streets.
The first train, built in Northern California, arrived in May, with more delivered through the summer. They will be powered by electric lines that have been run above.
There are eight that will be traveling the route, which features 10 stops.