Good money after bad keeps heading toward the Santa Ana streetcar. Last week, it was announced that the $298 million, 4.1-mile route was slated for $50 million in congressional funding. The Orange County Transportation Authority sees this as an indicator of federal support for the project, which the transportation agency is hoping the feds bankroll to the tune of $148 million in total.
“We’re thrilled to see the federal government continue to join us at the local level in recognizing what a strong transportation project this is,” OCTA board member and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido said in a statement reported by the Register. “This project returns our federal tax dollars to Orange County, leading to additional jobs and increased economic development.”
But streetcars are only strong transportation projects in the minds of central planners. To us, they are a needlessly expensive, inflexible mode of transportation that rarely meets projections or comes anywhere close to recovering its operating costs.
According to the National Transit Database, streetcars almost never cover their costs. The average fare box recovery ratio in 2015 for light rail was 27.9 percent. By comparison, the Register reported in 2015 that “fares are projected to cover 30 percent of the estimated $5 million annual operating cost” of the Santa Ana project. Santa Ana taxpayers will pick up 10 percent of the difference; OCTA, and county taxpayers, get to cover the rest.
And asking taxpayers to subsidize more transit couldn’t come at a worse time as OCTA continues to grapple with a bus ridership crisis. Just last month the agency ended its reduced $4 fare program after it failed to stem hemorrhaging ridership numbers.
“It has not moved the needle in that our fixed-route ridership is still declining,” said Sean Murdock, OCTA’s director of finance and administration, the Register reported.
So why not invest in a fixed-route mode of transportation incapable of responding to delays or shifting user preferences? Buses are by no means a moneymaker, either, but the flexibility they provide is everything a streetcar is not.
If OCTA continues to fail to get people onboard its bus system, why should we be expected to hold out hope for the streetcar?