Orange County begins safety testing on long-awaited streetcars

After numerous delays, Orange County began testing its long-awaited streetcars that will connect Santa Ana and Garden Grove. 

The electric trains will run on the newly refurbished Pacific Electric line between the two cities. 

"We're excited," said Johnny Dunning, chief operations officer for OC Transportation Authority. "We're finally here. This is the first modern streetcar in Orange County, and it's something exciting. We're going to expand on our ordinary bus service. This project is going to connect to about eight or nine of our core routes. It's going to offer a lot of folks in the core of our county acess to anywhere they want to go."

Early next year, the trains will hit the streets for several months of practice runs required before passengers climb on board. The 4-mile route runs through Santa Ana's downtown train station and civic center to the west of Garden Grove, where it connects to one of OCTA's busiest bus routes. 

The OC Streetcar can accommodate more passengers than the transportation agency's average-sized bus. 

"It's a higher capacity service, meaning that our average 40-foot bus carries, roughly full, about 50 people," Dunning said. "The OC Streetcar single vehicle carries 211 people. It's over four times the number of people that you can carry."

When service begins, the streetcars will operate from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. and a few hours later on weekends. OCTA expects to have 5,000 riders a day. 

The cost will be $2 a trip, the same as a bus fare. The first passengers could board as early as next summer, but that's dependent on regulatory testing.