Orange Tales 9/17/01
Some of my OCTA travel notes from over the years (1.5 years, at last count). Enjoy, and share your own adventures!

and/or Bus Trip New Updates

12/26/00

Got the day off work, so used it to try out as many weekday-only routes as I could manage. Check out all the gory details in a separate article.

1/6/01

Picked off more of the south county action. Main goal was to try the #86 from end to end, but a delay at the
Irvine post office (day before the postage rate hike, doncha know)kept me from getting up to the Irvine Civic
Center loop in time, and I barely caught it at Harvard and Alton. Along the way I filled in a couple holes in my
route #79 usage, and finished off my missing chunks of the #85 and #89. Missed connection from the #1 to the
#89 at Laguna Beach, but it gave me a chance to try one of the little Laguna Beach Transit buses (the incredibly
scenic "Top of the World" route). The information on the above link is a bit stale, so also consult the Laguna
Beach city Web-site's bus page.

1/20-1/26

    Finally filled in my Costa Mesa gap on the #73, picked up the northern hook of the #167, and had a interesting discussion about the upcoming 2/10/01 Bus Book with a driver on the #71. Only some sample copies of this Bus Book had been released so far, so am still watching out for the release to the general public. Noted they did make the planned changes to the 14/39 and 16/41 combos, both with odd new numbers; the 15 and 42 have been re-combined as the #42 (gotta get out and use the 15 while it still exists as a separate route), and other combined routes include the 45 and 47 (as the #47), and the 22 and 26 (to be #26). The latter does not quite add up to the old #26, as the western terminus will be the Buena Park Beach/Manchester/Commonwealth
triangle, instead of the more useful Fullerton Park n Ride the old 26 used to use. The current Bus Books vanished
from the racks about 1/12/01, with only a few stray 10/17/00 Addendums seen on buses since.
[The post-2/10/01 system is on my OCTA Route List]
    Also attended the CenterLine open house at OCTA's HQ on the Santa Ana-Orange border. My brief report, from my posting on the SO.CA.TA member's message board:

    I barely made it up to OCTA headquarters in time for the tail end of the CenterLine open
house. For members who had attended last Saturday's SO.CA.TA meeting, the presentation was
similar, just with a Power Point slide presentation and a few more hand-outs. Oh yeah, also
some vocal opposition (as Charles Hobbs noted, the folks opposing the line are more obvious and louder than any supporters), who I am guessing will be out in force at this coming Monday's
public hearing in Santa Ana. One such presentation-interrupter was later handing out envelopes, telling folks to, "Read this later...it contains useful information". Well, I opened it up and saw it was only an anti-Leahy/CenterLine editorial from that bastion of progressive, far-
sighted thinking, the Orange County Register. I had intended to find ask where the promised
"information" was, and what she had to offer for an alternative plan, but she did her best to
ignore me by engaging in small talk with someone else. I'm not the strongest supporter of the
CenterLine plan, but meeting such mindless opposition makes me a bit more of a proponent.

1/27/01-2/22/01

Only a couple new or completed routes 1/26, thanks to other distractions such as, ironically enough, public
transit advocacy meetings. Only got to my third "Orange County Citizens Bus Restructuring Task Force" meeting,
this one in Fullerton on the evening of 2/8/01. I was wide awake at this one for once, a much smaller gathering
but quite a bit was discussed. Two days later, the Orange task force would merge with the Southern California
Transit Advocates, becoming the first of what SO.CA.TA envisions to eventually be a series of local committees
within the regional group. This reporter will be co-chairing the committee, so I'll almost have to attend some
OCTA meetings and keep in closer touch with the county's bus watchers. Anyhoo, on 1/27/01 I made sure to take in the entire #15, to get it before it's merged back in with the #42, and the #164 while it still connects with the Long Beach buses.

Tustin Metrolink, 70 from Coast to Coast 2/23-25/01
    Nasty rainy weekend, but OCTA behaved fine. I wanted to check the site of the Tustin Metrolink station Friday afternoon after work, and my work is a relatively easy walk from Jamboree so was thinking the #75 would work. What I did not factor in was the road situation up by the tracks, and the resulting lack of bus stops between Barranca and El Camino. Looking down on the tracks at the Edinger overpass, could see nothing which I could even guess was a station under construction. A couple OCTA maps had the site farther west anyway, so I decided to come back down here Saturday to investigate closer.
    Which I did by getting off the #73 at Red Hill and Edinger and walking the tracks east. This is not a pedestrian friendly area during a rainy period, as the patch of flat ground between the 4-lane, limited access road and the tracks is mostly wet dirt. Also hardly sceinc, with nothing but sound-walls and then empty fields of the old Marine base to look at when not having to watch one's step. Somewhere around 1½ miles, Edinger veered right enough squeeze a small business part in on the trackside. Was already near Jamboree, and still no sign of a station. A pick-up in one of the lots had an "I (heart) Trains" sticker, and its occupant did have some idea, pointing me towards a couple odd metal posts. Below these posts was the concrete foundation for a raised platform, and to the right a small muddy patch full of construction equipment. Took a bit of weaving through the auto parts stores and pet supply shops to find where the eventual entrance to the station area, and for now that is fenced off and has a sign claiming a May opening. The July I heard from another source looks more realistic, seeing how little they've done since starting work last December. A small lot, especially considering the lack of residential nearby, and the (typical for OCTA) lack of feeding bus service...the two planned "StationLinks" will act like all their others and feed OUT from the station in the morning, and back to it only in the afternoon.
    Sunday would be another "study tour", with another Southern California Transit Advocates member. We had intended to cover both of the OCTA combined LaHabra buses before trekking south to cover the entire full-length #70 line, but work and home manners delayed his arrival for the optimum connections. We did take the #111 from Fullerton Trans. Center to LhAbra/Beach, but then we baled out on the long wait for the #116 and made a mad dash for the southbound #29 on Beach. We could not help but notice there was a great spot for a bus stop just south of LaHabra Blvd., including a double-wide sidewalk, but the stop was about 100' to the south. Merchant complaints, maybe? I'd been on the #29 to the Huntington Beach AAA office twice on Sundays since November, and that run can get VERY crowded when the weather is good, but not today. Got off at Warner for the westbound #72 to the Sunset Beach turnaround and a quick lunch-stop at the Box. Pacific Coast Highway was closed south of that point, thanks to high winds, waves and rain. The full-length #70 zig-zags up to Edinger, which it stays on as it becomes Irvine Center, Moulton and then Golden Lantern during its long march back to the coast at Dana Point. The Edinger segment was pretty crowded, but it loosened up by Grand. Quiet until east Irvine. The rest of the way there were only about 6 or 7 riders at any one time, but constant turnover, much like my one previous ride on that stretch (on a much nicer day). Got off at Pacific Coast Highway, a few stops from the end, to make the connection to the #1, it being too cold, windy and wet for a long wait. PCH, and the #1, move quickly when weather keeps folks away from the beaches and Laguna Beach shops. The connection to the #47 at Newport Beach would have probably been messed up by traffic on a nicer day, and timing was even tighter than the schedule said, since the #47 bus stop is a long walk south of PCH! By themselves, the 45 was a medium-long route, and the 47 busy but quick, while as one route the #47 requires a nice long book.

[Update, 9/3/01 - Have made 3 more treks to the Tustin station site, in May, July and early September. Station is still far from complete. The due-date has officially shifted from May to July to "summer 2001", unofficially to September. Still a LONG way to go as of my 9/2 stop, but this time there was work being done on Saturday so guess they want to get it done?]

9/17/01 Extended weekend notes to follow.

See also my OCTA Route List for route details, and for the latest update/notes.

Contact the Author OCTA Web-site Southern California Transit Advocates (SO.CA.TA)