Orange County Transportation Authority

Routes

OCTA operates 65 bus lines, encompassing every city in Orange County. Some of the lines serve the Los Angeles County border communities of Lakewood, La Mirada, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens and Long Beach along with express service to Los Angeles, the Riverside County cities of Riverside La Sierra Metrolink Station.

• 1-99 are the fixed routes that cover almost every city in Orange County. Buses operate on most major arterial streets. Route 1 is a "special case" in that it is the only single-digit route, acquiring the number from the Pacific Coast Highway (California State Route 1) and internally to the transit authority (as it was when it was operated by OCTD) the route number is 95. Routes 53, 57, and 64 also feature Xpress bus service with limited stop service between 6am and 6pm on weekdays. These buses are differentiated by adding an X to the end of each respective route.
• 100-199 routes descended from the old RunAbout service that formerly served residential neighborhoods, or provide service to portions of 1-99 routes which have reduced demand. Three routes (129, 143, 153) are routes that were truncated from routes 29, 43, 47, 53 and 59 as a result of the March 2010 service changes.
• 200-299 routes are intra-county express routes which travel solely within Orange County and utilize the county's freeways. These routes run from park-and-rides and transit terminals to the business districts and back. These routes operate only during weekday rush hours.
• 400-499 routes are the StationLink routes, Metrolink shuttles which travel from the Metrolink stations to business districts and vice versa. These routes operate only during weekday rush hours and do not operate reverse peak services.
• 500-599 Bravo! Express. These are routes that operate on heavily used routes. They make limited stops and only stop at transfer points to other routes. Currently routes 543 and 560 are in use, 543 operates on Harbor Blvd. from the Fullerton Transportation Center to MacArthur and Harbor in Santa Ana, and route 560 operates between the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center and California State University, Long Beach. It is named according to what route it accompanies, by just adding a 5 to the beginning of the route indicating express. The express busses have different color schemes from regular route busses.
• 600-699 are special use routes. The OC fair express shuttle fair-goers to different locations around Orange County and vice versa to the fairgrounds located in Costa Mesa. The Solar decathlon in irvine also used these special shuttle numbers.
• 700-799 routes are intercounty express bus services. Lines 701 and 721 go from the cities of Huntington Beach and Fullerton, respectively, to Downtown Los Angeles using the Harbor Freeway Transitway, while and Line 794 connects the city of Costa Mesa to Riverside. All five inter-county express routes charge an additional fare in addition to the base fare. These routes operate only during weekday rush hours and route 721 is the only inter-county express route that operates reverse peak services between Fullerton and Downtown Los Angeles.

Some routes operate short turn trips which either start or end in the middle of the route.

All OCTA buses are equipped with bike racks and can carry a maximum of two bicycles at any given time. Bikes are only permitted on board buses if both racks on any particular bus are taken and that same bus happens to be the last trip of the day.

South Coast Plaza is the most served attraction on the OCTA routes, served by 12 routes (55, 57, 76, 86, 150, 211, 216, 464, 794). The longest is route 1, (Long Beach–San Clemente) which utilizes Pacific Coast Highway for the vast majority of its route of over 40 miles. Trips take an average of 2 to 2.5 hours.

Routes 43, 50, 57, and 60 were four routes that formerly operated 24 hours a day. "Night Owl" service, from 1 a.m to 4 a.m., was dropped on March 14, 2010 due to budget cutbacks. OCTA also eliminated routes 62, 74, 75, 131, 147, and 164 and reduced frequency of trips in March 2010 to save money.^[12]

Roster

CenterLine light rail

Original 1999 proposed route for CenterLine from Fullerton to Irvine. Later, a truncated "starter line" from Santa Ana to Irvine was proposed

The CenterLine was a proposed 9.3-mile light rail system serving Irvine, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana. It was originally planned in the 1990s and was intended to open in 2009. Costing $1 billion, it was originally envisioned as a 30-mile route that would run from Fullerton to Irvine, through Anaheim, Orange, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa. The route would have served destinations including John Wayne Airport, South Coast Metro, South Coast Plaza, Santa Ana College and downtown Santa Ana.^[13]

While OCTA secured funding through Measure M, lack of support from Orange County's congressional representatives resulted in no federal funds obtained for the proposed transit line. In February 2005, the CenterLine was suspended indefinitely, and in May 2005, the plan was officially scrapped in favor of expanding express bus service throughout Orange County and improving existing Metrolink commuter rail service.^[14]

OC Streetcar

Pacific Electric West Santa Ana Branch Harbor & Westminster Westminster Avenue Willowick optional Santa Ana River Fairview Maintenance and Storage Facility Raitt Bristol Flower Ross Downtown French Lacy Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center Metrolink & Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

all stations accessable

As of 2016, OCTA is collaborating with the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove to build the OC Streetcar, a 4.15-mile (6.68 km), 12-station light rail line along Santa Ana Boulevard and 4th Street in the two cities, using portions of the West Santa Ana Branch of the old Pacific Electric right-of-way. The western terminus of the proposed route would follow the Pacific Electric right-of-way near the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove, then along street running track on Santa Ana Boulevard into Downtown Santa Ana, where it would reach the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center at its eastern terminus.^[15] In February 2016, $125 million towards the project was included in the proposed United States federal budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year.^[16] OCTA plans to begin construction in 2017 and open the project in 2020.^[17][18][14]

Recent projects

West County Connectors: In June 2010, OCTA broke ground on the West County Connectors project. The $328 million project is Orange County's largest stimulus project and one of the biggest construction jobs in nearly a decade. It will add a 6-mile carpool lane and directly connect the carpool lanes on the San Diego Freeway (I-405) with the San Gabriel Freeway (I-605) and the Garden Grove Freeway (State Route 22). The project also improved and rebuilt three freeway overpass at Valley View Street, Seal Beach Boulevard and the 7th Street Bridge into Long Beach.

Riverside Freeway (SR-91): This project added a new eastbound lane between the SR-241 in Orange County to the SR-71 in Riverside County, widening bridges and building new retaining and sound walls to reduce traffic noise.

This was the first project in a series of improvements planned for the SR-91. The second project added a new lane in each direction from the SR-55 to SR-241. The third project added a new westbound lane from SR-57 to Interstate 5. The project was completed in 2015.

Orange Freeway (SR-57): Work got started in the summer of 2011 on the SR-57 to add a new northbound lane from Orangethorpe Avenue to Lambert. The project was completed in early 2014. Another project, which added a new northbound lane from Katella Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, got underway in early 2012 and was completed by late 2014.

I-5 Gateway Project: Construction began in spring 2006 on the I-5 Gateway project. The four-year project widened the remaining two miles of the I-5 in Orange County from the SR-91 to the Los Angeles County line. The I-5 Gateway project is the final link in the original Measure M's freeway improvement program. The project was completed in 2010.

In addition to freeway improvements, OCTA is in the midst of the most comprehensive rail safety program in the nation that includes a public awareness program regarding safety near the tracks and implementing safety enhancements at more than 50 railroad crossings throughout the county.

The safety enhancements scheduled for completion in 2011 include:

• Upgrades to warning devices in place to advise drivers of train tracks ahead
• Additional gate arms to prevent drivers and pedestrians from crossing the tracks when the gates are lowered and a train is passing
• Extended and raised medians to deter drivers from passing around lowered gates
• Coordinated local traffic signals to prevent vehicles from stalling on the tracks

91 Express Lanes

OCTA owns and operates the 91 Express Lanes, after purchasing them in 2003 from the California Private Transportation Corporation. The express lanes are a four-lane, 10-mile toll road in the median of the Riverside Freeway (SR-91) between the Orange/Riverside County line and the Costa Mesa Freeway (SR-55).

OCTA purchased the 91 Express Lanes without taxpayer money and removed a "non-compete" clause that prevented safety and traffic flow improvements along the stretch of tollway.

In July 2003, OCTA adopted a toll policy for the 91 Express Lanes based on the concept of congestion management pricing, which is designed to optimize traffic flow at free-flow speeds. The policy calls for dropping and raising tolls based on traffic demand. Traffic volumes are monitored daily and adjusted quarterly.

The other tollways in Orange County are governed by the Transportation Corridor Agencies.