Telepeer

OC Streetcar’s first train arrives, will connect Santa Ana to Garden Grove

May 7, 2025

The first blue and orange OC Streetcar train has arrived, a milestone for the delayed project that will soon start testing on tracks and aims to start service in a year.

OC Streetcar is a 4.15-mile system from the Santa Ana train station, through downtown, to the southeastern edge of Garden Grove at Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue.

Construction broke ground in 2018, and after delays, the Orange County Transportation Authority expects service to begin in spring 2026. Building the system has reached $649 million in costs.

OCTA unveiled the first train delivery on Wednesday, May 7, at a maintenance facility in Santa Ana to its board members and local elected officials. The train was built in Sacramento and delivered on April 30, with seven more to come over the next two months.

“We’re very excited about the investment in central Orange County for the project,” OCTA CEO Darrell Johnson said. “There’s been a lot of construction over the last number of years around stations and tracks and all the things there. But this really is what people are going to use, the streetcar vehicle.”

The trains are like other light-rail vehicles used in transit systems around the state. The seats are slightly padded, and there are hanging straps to grab hold of for standing passengers.

The trains will carry up to 211 passengers and go up to 44 mph when traveling along the old Pacific Electric right of way. Throughout the train, there are accessible seats, bike racks and displays showing travel information.

“It’s like, wow,” Fourth District Supervisor Doug Chaffee said upon seeing the first vehicle. “It’s the first of eight cars, and it’s kind of a culmination of a lot of years of waiting and work. It’s finally here, and you can finally get it tested, put it out on the street and have our passengers enjoy the ride.”

Chaffee said the hope is that OC Streetcar will be a boon to businesses along the route, like in downtown Santa Ana. Many have had to contend with closures over the years during construction.

Success, Chaffee said, will be judged on ridership.

“Hopefully, it will be standing-room only going back and forth,” Chaffee said.

Officials tour the first streetcar at the Orange County Transportation Authority facility in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. The streetcar is the first delivery for the OC Streetcar project. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The trains will mix in with traffic along much of the line, where the vehicles won’t go over the speed limit.

Johnson said a public awareness campaign will start about six months before operations begin to teach people how to drive safely with streetcars in traffic and make people aware that the system will open for service soon.

One modern feature for the trains allows them to run for 300 feet off an emergency battery if power is lost from the overhead centenary system.

The streetcar system will have 10-15 minute headways at all of its 10 stops in each direction. Fares will work like OCTA’s buses, where people can purchase a single ride or a day pass.

Johnson said the overall project is 92% complete, and testing will begin in the late summer or early fall ahead of its planned service start the following spring.

“We feel like we have enough schedule capacity to mitigate any delays,” Johnson said. “Of course, if there’s something that’s significant, we will have to readjust. But right now we feel fairly confident for the spring of ’26.”

Talks about the future of OC Streetcar have been around well before the system broke ground. Connecting the OC Streetcar system north into Anaheim or south toward John Wayne Airport has been brought up, but past efforts to get a head start on expanding the system never came through.

Johnson said there aren’t any plans for the future of the system, but “the general consensus is this is the beginning of something.”

“This is not a standalone project,” Johnson said. “What happens next is unknown. We’ve done transit studies as part of our long-range transportation planning process of looking at key corridors. Harbor Boulevard has been talked about; that’s our busiest bus route.”

“But we don’t have any plans at this point, and our focus right now is getting this up and running in the spring of 2026,” he added.

Second District Supervisor and OCTA board member Vicente Sarmiento, who represents the area the system is in, said the arrival of the first vehicle was a milestone for the project, but “comes at the end of a long and painful journey for many reasons beyond the control of OCTA.”

“In order to serve the community well and specifically to meet the needs of working families, students, and seniors, expansion that allows for the development of a true system is critically important,” Sarmiento said.

Santa Ana city council member Phil Bacerra sits at the controls of the first streetcar at the Orange County Transportation Authority facility in Santa Ana. The streetcar is the first delivery for the OC Streetcar project. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

1 of 3

Expand

OC Streetcar’s first train arrives, will connect Santa Ana to Garden Grove Orange County Register

News Details

OC Streetcar’s first train arrives, will connect Santa Ana to Garden Grove

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

News

CONTACT INFO

QUICK LINKS

SERVICES

CURRENT NEWS