Orange Co 91X Doing Fine

ORANGE CO

91X doing “fine”

91 Express, the Orange County CA tollster upped its tolls again recently by a quarter, the top ones going to $3.50 and the bottom ones to 75c. This is a sign they are doing well and that the fears were unfounded that they would lose serious traffic to the new Eastern Toll Road opened late last year by the municipal Transp Corridors Agency. Only for the first few weeks after the Eastern was opened did the investor-built toll express operator lose much traffic, and for some of that the new pike was offering introductory free rides.

91X collects about 30k tolls/day from motorists wanting a way past congestion on the free CA91, an 8-lane freeway that accommodates 230k veh/day positioned astride the four investor built toll express lanes. The highway follows the canyon of the Santa Ana River through the Santa Ana mountains that divide San Bernardino and Riverside counties, largely bedroom communities, from the job-rich, hightech Orange Co and the heart of the greater LA area. The road is about 40km (25mi) southeast of central Los Angeles.

Joe El Harake, Caltrans toll roads liaison tells us traffic on CA91 has rebuilt completely and that 91X is doing “fine” because it continues to offer a substantial time savings and better service than the free lanes alongside.

“The regional economy is just booming and we see traffic everywhere increasing,” he said. Moreover latent demand quickly asserted itself as motorists who might have deferred trips until out of peak, or who used local streets, took to the freeway in rush hours.

There is no more being heard of 91X’s idea last fall of forming a private non-profit – a kind of Orange County Olympic Organizing Committee? – to take over the $130m road. Gary Hausdorfer named as chairman of Newtrac told us that contrary to a press release put out by 91X saying that the non-profit had been formed and had approached 91X, it had been quite the other way around. He had been approached by 91X to form Newtrac.

“It was all their idea,” he said at the time. 91X was also paying the costs of forming the non-profit because its owners then wanted out. (Joe El Harake 949 724 2373)