Santa Ana–Huntington Beach Line

{{short description|Pacific Electric streetcar line (1907–1922)}}

{{Infobox rail line

|name = Santa Ana–Huntington Beach

|image = File:PELogo.svg

|image_width = 175px

|color = {{rcr|Pacific Electric|Santa Ana–Huntington Beach}}

|type = Interurban

|system = Pacific Electric

|locale = Orange County, California

|start = Santa Ana

|end = Huntington Beach

|stations =

|routes =

|ridership2 =

|open = July 5, 1909

|close = {{end date|1922|03}}

|owner =

|operator = Pacific Electric

|character =

|stock =

|linelength_mi = 13.31

|tracklength =

|tracks =

|gauge = {{RailGauge|sg|allk=on}}

|electrification = {{600 V DC|conductor=overhead}}

|speed =

|elevation =

|map = {{PE S Santa Ana–Huntington Beach}}

}}

The Santa Ana–Huntington Beach Line is a former Pacific Electric interurban railway line in Orange County, California. Unlike most of the company's services, trains did not travel to Downtown Los Angeles and instead provided a suburban service between Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, for a time running as far as Balboa.

History

The route was laid out by the Pacific Electric Land Company in 1907;{{cite news |title=Pillsbury and committee meet |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114432725/ |access-date=11 December 2022 |newspaper=Santa Ana Register |via=Newspapers.com |date=13 August 1907 |page=1}} {{free access}} the company existed solely to build and lease lines for Pacific Electric to operate. Service began on July 5, 1909.{{cite news |title=Nation's natal day and opening of electric line jointly celebrated |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114432254/ |access-date=11 December 2022 |newspaper=Santa Ana Daily Register |via=Newspapers.com |date=6 July 1909 |page=2}} {{free access}} Several spur lines were constructed to transport sugar beets from farms near the route. The line came under full ownership of PE in 1911, two weeks following the Great Merger.{{cite web |title=Santa Ana-Huntington Beach Line |url=http://erha.org/pessahb.htm |publisher=Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California |access-date=14 January 2021}}

The service was truncated to terminate at Huntington Beach in the south starting on October 15, 1912.{{Veysey-PE-1958 |pages=74–75}} An evening car ran as far north as Orange in 1915.{{cite news |title=Pacific Electric Time Table |newspaper=Santa Ana Register |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94972295/ |access-date=14 February 2022 |agency=Santa Ana Register |via=Newspapers.com |date=January 6, 1916 |page=13}} {{free access}} As a result of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, frequencies were reduced to a single daily round trip starting on October 27 of that year. In November 1921, a second round trip was added, but this was short lived as service was discontinued outright by the following March due to a bridge on the route being damaged in a flood. The line was formally abandoned on January 30, 1931.

The establishment of the Santa Ana Army Air Base in 1942 brought about demand by the government for direct rail service. As a result, PE built a single-track line which was owned by the government. No passenger service was provided; freight was exchanged at Greenville.{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{cite book|author=California Department of Transportation |title=1981 Inventory of Pacific Electric Routes |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/pacificelectric/1981-caltrans-inventory-of-routes.pdf |website=Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority |pages=139–141}} }}

By mid-1948, Pacific Electric had purchased the requisite Southern Pacific Railroad lines to allow them to move freight to Newport and Huntington without the trip through Long Beach and Sunset Beach.

By the 1990s, the route through Santa Ana had largely been converted to the Pacific Electric Bicycle Path.

Route

Leaving the Santa Ana Pacific Electric Depot, cars ran south on Maple Street to New Delhi, where a couple of branch lines met the main tracks and turned to the southwest for about a mile before continuing west, paralleling Alton Avenue. The line crossed the Santa Ana River, continuing until Bushard Street to turn south into Huntington Beach.

A segment of the right of way west from the former Dyer spur is used as the Union Pacific Santa Ana Industrial Lead. The north–south segment in Santa Ana paralleling Rousselle and Maple was partially rebuilt as a rail trail.