Orange County’s first light rail streetcar is here with seven more on the way

Originally promised in 2021, Orange County officials on Wednesday unveiled the first streetcar for a new light rail system that’s now heading into a testing phase.

Eventually, six trolleys will be operational, while two others will be kept as spares.

Orange County Transportation Authority officials will begin testing what’s called the OC Streetcar along its four-mile route from Santa Ana to Garden Grove.

“ We also want to make sure that the vehicle works as designed and it interfaces with the track and the stations and the signal system as designed,” OCTA CEO Darrell Johnson told LAist. “We want to make sure that all of that is working properly before we invite passengers to ride.”

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Inside the OC Streetcar.

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Yusra Farzan

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LAist

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The OC Streetcar will connect passengers from the Santa Ana Regional Transportation System, which sees more than 60 Amtrak and Metrolink trains pass through daily, with the  Santa Ana Civic Center, the county’s second largest employment center. Johnson said it will also connect the Harbor Boulevard bus route in Garden Grove, OCTA’s busiest.

Johnson said the OC Streetcar is expected to carry around 5,000 passengers daily.

How we got here

The OC Streetcar project was expected to be opened in 2021, costing $288 million to build. However, the project has already cost $649 million, with funding coming from federal, state and local sources.

An OCTA spokesperson previously told the Orange County Register that the project encountered delays because of “identifying the location of old utilities in city streets, contaminated soil and the discovery of Native American remains.”

And a lawsuit filed against OCTA by the contractor hired for the project for allegedly changing the scope of the agreement exacerbated delays.

Possible spring opening

“ Construction projects are always a little bit painful,” Johnson said. “They take a long time regardless of what you're building, but when you get to the end, you start seeing things that are exciting. And for a rail project, the most exciting part is seeing that first rail car.”

He added that he was “quite confident” riders will be able to use the OC Streetcar by spring 2026.

“We do need to go through the testing and we are not going to open the system before it's safe and reliable and ready for the public, but we feel confident right now,” Johnson said.