COUNTYWIDE : Metrolink Trains to Join Commuter Line

Orange County commuters will step aboard plush, state-of-the-art trains for the ride to Los Angeles starting Tuesday, as new Metrolink train equipment is phased in on the county’s commuter rail line.

Pulled by a new generation of less-polluting diesel locomotives, the periwinkle-blue-and-white, double-decker trains offer cellular telephones and are also accessible to wheelchairs.

“They are much more comfortable cars, almost like airline seating. The older cars that we were borrowing were fairly primitive,” said Dana Reed, a member of both the Orange County Transportation Authority and Southern California Regional Rail Authority.

The four new cars seat about 86 people each, Reed said.

One train a day makes the round-trip to Los Angeles, but that number will increase to nine by 1994.

The new equipment replaces trains leased from CalTrain in the Bay Area for $1 a year.

The Transportation Authority has operated one round-trip commuter train from San Juan Capistrano to Los Angeles’ Union Station since 1990, which carries about 14,000 commuters each month.

The OCTA line will expand service and become part of the Metrolink network in December, 1993.

Metrolink, built and operated by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, will begin service on Oct. 26.

Using existing tracks, three lines will connect Moorpark, Pomona and Santa Clarita to Los Angeles.

Service will eventually be extended to San Bernardino and Riverside.

“The significance of all of this is that it shows our total commitment to commuter rail and finding alternatives to the private automobile,” Reed said.

“The tracks parallel the Santa Ana Freeway and I-5, and every person we get onto the train is one less person using the freeway. . . . Even the people who don’t use the train are benefited because we’re getting cars off the road.”

Reed and other county transportation officials will celebrate the arrival of the new trains with a 9 a.m. celebration Monday at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center, 1000 E. Santa Ana Blvd.