After spending about three weeks in San Diego I moved again. I traveled by Amtrak to Irvine Amtrak Station and then took four local buses to Laguna Beach. OCTA buses 86, 70, 89 and 1. (OCTA stands for Orange County Transportation Authority.) An all-day pass on OCTA costs four dollars.
Actually the way I went was the long way. Next time I will get off Amtrak at San Juan/Capistrano and take OCTA bus 91 which goes down Del Obispo Street to Dana Point and change to the #1 bus to Laguna Beach. Even better would be to get off at the San Clemente pier and then take OCTA buses 191 and the #1 bus. But not all the Amtrak trains stop at San Clemente pier. Whichever route you take, you usually end up on the #1 bus that goes through Laguna Beach along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).
I actually rode on The Coaster from San Diego to Oceanside ($6.50 one-way). It stops at Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside. Very nice ride with views of the ocean.
In Oceanside I expected to change to the Metrolink train that goes up to Los Angeles Union Station. This would have been both cheaper and more convenient than Amtrak. More convenient because Metrolink stops in San Clemente right near PCH to get the OCTA #1 to Laguna Beach.
But it turned out that I just missed a Metrolink train by about 15 minutes and the next train wasn’t for another five hours! So I had to take Amtrak which did not stop in San Clemente, to Irvine ($14 one-way). More expensive.
Public Transportation in OC
This is the problem with public transportation southern California. They don’t run frequently enough because they don’t have enough riders. When people try do to ride, say when gas prices go up, the trip takes so long that they give up and go back to driving. It is a chicken and egg thing: they need more riders to justify having more frequent service; and more frequent service is needed to attract and keep more riders.
The buses from the Amtrak station to Laguna Beach took about 1-1/2 hours. Driving would take less than 30 minutes. No wonder bus riders in OC are people without cars, either too young or too poor.
I know public transportation can be made to work in California because it works everywhere else in the world I visit. Here is my simple plan. California should raise gas prices to $5 per gallon so that people will start riding public transportation. Then use gasoline taxes to build public transportation infrastructure like trams and trolleys. Then they can add more trains and buses because the ridership will be there.
