IRVINE

The city’s proposed Guideway Demonstration Project received much-needed support from the California Transportation Commission recently when that agency voted to approve funding for a $2.4-million feasibility study. The commission had questioned the viability of the four-mile rail project and the proposed expenditure, but Irvine Councilman Mike Ward lobbied the agency to present the city’s case.

“This approval was critically important so we can find out if this system will really work,” Ward said. The rail project, which would be in the Irvine Business Complex, was specifically mandated for Irvine by Proposition 116.