April 2026 OCStreetcar Tour
What is it about a brand new facility that is so exciting?
The freshly painted walls? The layout that considers little details, like automatic safety lockout latches on gates, and a suspended air delivery system that keeps hoses off the floor? The shiny new bays? The Streetcar ready for its next test? Or maybe the infectious enthusiasm of the OCTA/Herzog team on the edge of their grand opening?
30 RASC members were treated to the first-ever tour of OCTA’s new OCStreetcar Maintenance Facility on Thursday, April 2.
With construction noise as her backbeat, Kelly Hart, Director of Rail for OCTA, talked about the goal: first/last mile connection. The Cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove teamed up to identify route alignment, city stops and maintenance facility location. They’ve stayed closely involved throughout the project, which runs through one of the most densely populated corridors in Orange County. Utilizing the Pacific Electric right-of-way, the OCStreetcar will be able to travel at up to 44 mph, running every ten to fifteen minutes and carry 211 passengers.
Kelly didn’t sugar-coat the challenges the project has faced, but she was passionate about the needs and benefits: a transit connection delivering mobility, equity and community access to the county seat, Metrolink, jobs, education, healthcare and culture with zero-emission vehicles. She praised the City of Santa Ana for its forward-thinking encouragement of transit-oriented development along the corridor.
Cleve Cleveland, Program Manager for the OCStreetcar, stepped in to give us an overview of the facility: 38,000 square feet of office, shop, and storage. He outlined how the team identified design details that improve the safety and usefulness of the shop, from those lockout latches to giant glass folding doors with a forced air system to let light in and keep bugs and birds out.
He described the four bays and key insights learned from active facilities like Kansas City, which uses and maintains the same equipment, where the team learned about a wheel truing machine which simplifies the process and saves on overcuts. Cleve talked about the wye track and described it as “one of those tools you don’t know you need until you need it.”
Cleve told the audience about the clearance testing his team had performed just that week along the entire right-of-way to check for conflicts, including moving a couple of rocks. And the potential comments sure to come when they tow one of the vehicles on the ROW during the day for the first time. Power testing will follow, including running the system, how to accelerate, stop, deal with traffic. Every car goes through 600 miles of testing, and must travel its last 100 miles of testing error-free. The goal is safe, reliable service.
And then, Cleve says, “We’ll be taking rides!”
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Huge thank you to Dave Simpson and Herzog for arranging the tour and providing lunch. Special thanks to the OCTA/Herzog Team for the behind-the-scenes tour: Kelly Hart, Cleve Cleveland, Ben Burns, Louie Pelicano, and Gracie Guerrero. As always, thank you to our attending RASC members, and our 2025 Platinum Sponsors HDR and Moffatt & Nichol, our Gold Sponsors GHD, Olsson, Jacobs, Mott MacDonald and Zephyr Rail, and our Silver Sponsor Earth Mechanics, whose participation makes our scholarship program not only possible, but robust!
RASC is committed to the education of the next generation of rail engineers, with the goal to provide scholarships for undergraduates interested in transportation. Funds raised from these luncheons support that initiative directly.
Join us! Sign up now to become a member of the Railway Association of Southern California, 2026 RASC Membership, and be first in line for the next program.
Sponsor us! Help us grow our scholarship base. Contact Mark Chang, machang@HNTB.com for more information or follow this link RASC 2026 Sponsorship.
