Irvine Votes for Big Irvine Connect Expansion, Sort of

• April 24, 2025, 8:34 pm America/Los_Angeles

The Motion

On April 22, 2025, Irvine City Council, after much drama, voted 4-2 (with Mike Carroll and James Mai voting against) to approve a series of motions to expand Irvine Connect. In February, the council had tasked city staff with coming up with proposals for expanded service, and they brought their proposal forward at the April 22 meeting. The initial Yale-Barranca route had doubled in ridership over the course of the year and had served nearly 150,000 rides in that time, so the next step was to add new routes.

Below was the map of routes city staff proposed, which were generally based on proposals from the original Transit Vision Study that had been prepared based on traffic studies in cooperation with a consultant.

Referring to the map, here are the 5 motions that were approved.

1. Expand Yale-Barranca to go up to Northwood High.
2. Develop a budgetary plan for the Jamboree route and West Barranca routes.
3. Build all requisite new bus stops and negotiate with the contractor for operations.
4. Cancel iShuttle and transfer their funding and buses to iConnect.
5. Come up with options for funding the Great Park route in 6 months.

Council Members Carroll and Mai did vote for items 1 and 4 while voting against the rest. 

What Was Actually Approved?

The staff report had a baseline of 20-minute frequencies for Yale-Barranca and 60 minutes for West Barranca and Jamboree, along with other options. However, the motion that was approved does not specify what frequency these new routes would run at, despite Mayor Larry Agran’s and Councilmember Kathleen Treseder’s acknowledgement during the meeting that 20-minute frequencies were key to the success of the existing route. Presumably, staff would come back with several options for frequency and their costs, but no instruction was given to staff despite their request for feedback.

This leaves Irvine in a strange state where the city has committed to the Jamboree and West Barranca routes at a yet to be determined frequency, and the Great Park route is being considered with no clear plan.

What Are the Options and Costs?

The staff report did include costs for various options, but it was presented in a somewhat abstract and complicated way based on inflation-adjusted calculations over the next 16 years. The arbitrary number of years is based on a county transit funding program called 116 which will partially fund Irvine Connect for the next 16 years.

Below is a table with a simplified list of options and an estimate of the cost strictly for the next fiscal year to make it easier to understand the annual cost. The cost is based on the number of buses it takes to run a service relative to Yale-Barranca, whose cost was presented by city staff.

Baseline Option

The most inexpensive staff option would run Yale-Barranca up to Northwood and keep the 20-minute frequencies. West Barranca and Jamboree would run hourly (the least enticing option for potential riders of the West Barranca and Jamboree lines). The city would have to spend $1.7 million from its budget next year to provide this service, as $3.7 million of the cost is covered by the 116 program’s County funds in all scenarios.

Upgrade West Barranca to 20-minute Frequencies

Because West Barranca is a short route, it does not cost much to increase frequencies from hourly to every 20 minutes. The Jamboree route would still run hourly under this option. Under this option, the entire Irvine Connect program would cost Irvine $2.3 million out of its own budget next year.

Upgrade Jamboree to 20-minute Frequencies

Jamboree is the route with the highest potential as it serves UCI, the Irvine Business Complex, John Wayne, Tustin Station, and the Marketplace. Upgrading this to 20-minute frequencies (in addition to West Barranca) would cost a bit more but this would be easily the highest ridership route in the city. Under this option, the entire Irvine Connect program would cost $4.1 million out of the city’s budget next year.

Great Park Route

The Great Park route has been separated out in the approved motion, and if it were implemented as proposed, it would cost $3 million per year. That would bring the City’s cost for Irvine Connect to $7.1 million next year.

A Budgets is an Expression of Values

Irvine has an annual budget of $250 million. It does have the money to fund any of these options and even the most expensive option it can easily afford, as long as it chooses to prioritize public transit. Even $7.1 million is not a large expenditure compared to other cities. Culver City is of similar size as Irvine and spends 10% of its budget on public transit. With all 4 routes at 20 minute frequencies, Irvine would still only spend around 3% of its budget on transit. 

For context, other things Irvine spends money on include:

• $100 million for a new badminton gym
• $14.1 million for a parking lot in Wild Rivers
• $4.3 million on video scoreboard upgrades and stadium improvements at Bill Barber Community Park
• $3.2 million for pickleball courts at Mike Ward Community Park
• $13 million to widen the Jeffrey / Irvine Center Dr intersection

If you want to see Irvine with a high quality public transportation network, with shuttles running every 20 minutes, contact city council and tell them to prioritize it in the budget.