Irvine residents looking for public transportation options will have more routes to ride on the city’s free shuttle service after officials approved an extension and expansion to the program.
Irvine City Council members authorized an expansion of the Irvine CONNECT shuttle service — originally approved as a one-year pilot program last April — and directed staff to research additional routes.
The current route uses five buses to connect the Irvine Station and Spectrum Center down Barranca Parkway and north to Irvine Boulevard, with about 70 bus stops along the way. Other notable access points along this route include Hoag Hospital and the Northwood Town Center, along with several schools and parks.
[Read: Irvine Launches New Shuttle System as OC Bus Service Continues Shrinking]
The expanded route will add an additional bus and five more stops to extend the route further north to Portola Parkway. The new route is expected to launch in July.
During the council meeting on April 22, the council took a variety of actions relating to this bus system.
The first vote unanimously approved the shuttle expansion north to cover Portola Parkway and extended the life of the program to the end of the current fiscal year.
“I think it’s well-used and it’s continuing to increase,” Councilmember Kathleen Treseder said at the meeting.
“The public would like us to expand it.”
While one new route was approved, there could be more expansions later this year.
A second vote directed staff to study and create a budget plan for two other shuttle routes that would create linked access to John Wayne Airport, UCI and the Irvine Business Complex with three extra buses.
That item passed in a 4-2 vote. Councilmembers Mike Carroll and James Mai voted no.
Carroll said he supported the shuttle service but voted no for this additional expansion research because it was premature to expand the program that’s only existed for a year.
“I think that we are going perhaps a little bit too fast, too soon,” he said during the meeting. “That’s just my view.”
Mai said he wants to review feedback from the larger Irvine community through a survey before moving forward with a major expansion.
“I think we need to get ridership up before anything else,” Mai said. “I think we’re jumping ahead here and talking about the expansion that costs millions and millions.”
The city plans to fund expansions using mostly Prop 116 state transportation funding, although the city would most likely still have some leftover costs to cover after using these funds.
Creating additional bus routes could cost the city anywhere from $3 million to $10 million annually — after utilizing Prop 116 funds — depending on which routes the council decides to implement.
Council members also voted 4-2 directing staff to study another new route to connect to the Great Park. Carroll and Mai also voted no on this part of the item.
“I will be voting no on a massive expansion of a bus system in our city when we have existing OCTA buses, and we have an existing sort-of pilot, sort-of somewhat successful CONNECT system in an embryo stage that we need to run through its paces,” Carroll said.
The cost for the expansions will vary depending on which routes the council moves forward with and whether or not all routes operate at 20-minute or 60-minute intervals.
Staff is expected to put together cost analyses for all the different route options and return to the council for further discussion later this year.
“I think we’re on our way with a terrific vision for a transit system,” Mayor Larry Agran said at the meeting.
It comes after the county transportation agency has made various service cuts over the past several years as ridership declines among certain routes, including in Irvine.
One of the main reasons Irvine initiated the program in the first place was because transportation authority officials wouldn’t increase bus routes in the city, Irvine City Manager Oliver Chi said in an interview last year.
[Read: OCTA Makes Bus Service Cuts, But Withdraws Some After Opposition]
City staff said the shuttle system averages about eight boardings per hour across each bus. Since it was launched in April 2024, the shuttle service has had over 141,000 boardings, staff said.
Susan Sayre, an Irvine resident who lives at the Regents Point senior community, has been advocating for increased bus routes to help older residents get around town.
“The purpose for Irvine CONNECT should be more than taking cars off the road and supporting students,” she said at the meeting.
“The goal should also include meeting needs of seniors, members of the disabled community, those who do not drive and business customers and employees by giving them access to local businesses, grocery stores, pharmacies, post offices (and) shopping centers.”
Councilmember Melinda Liu said she supports expanding the program as much as their budget will allow.
“If we are able to find more funding sources, I would like to see a bigger expansion in the future,” she said, “but right now, I think this is not a terrible idea to expand what we have and bring more services to the residents.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.