Orange County’s first modern streetcar will soon become reality with the award of the OC Streetcar construction contract.
“This is an important milestone that puts us one step closer to breaking ground on the OC Streetcar,” said OCTA Chairwoman Lisa Bartlett, also the county’s Fifth District Supervisor.
The OC Streetcar will run on a 4.1-mile route between commuter rail at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center and Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove, connecting with several of the county’s busiest bus routes along the way.
The route will serve Santa Ana’s thriving downtown and dense employment areas that include county and local government offices and courthouses in the Civic Center. The OC Streetcar route will also connect with many of OCTA’s busiest bus routes and Metrolink and Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. It is expected to carry more than 7,300 passengers per day within its first year of operation.
“OCTA, in partnership with Santa Ana and Garden Grove, has been planning the OC Streetcar for years and today is a great day as we look forward to starting construction on an exciting new transportation option in the heart of the county,” said OCTA Director and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.
The total OC Streetcar project is estimated to cost $407 million, with funding from a mix of federal and state sources, and from OC Go (also known as Measure M), Orange County’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements.
OCTA has been working closely throughout planning and design with the Federal Transit Administration, which is considering a full funding grant agreement that, along with other federal funding, would pay for about half of the project’s cost.
In March, the OCTA board approved a $51.5 million contract with Siemens Industries to provide the vehicles for the OC Streetcar system, which will have six vehicles in operation and two spare cars that can be rotated into the system as needed.
Construction on the OC Streetcar is set to begin later this year with testing and operations beginning in 2021.
For more information about OC Streetcar, click here.