Subway Proposed as Alternative to Light-Rail Line

Several leading San Fernando Valley legislators offered a plan Wednesday they say will permit substituting a Metro Rail subway line for the proposed Valley light-rail line and also will provide money for two Valley commuter-rail lines.

The far-reaching plan, which is to be introduced in the Legislature today, also would provide money to assure completion of the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway.

If passed into law, the proposal could simultaneously extinguish raging controversies in the Valley and in Hollywood over proposed above-ground rail projects. A county transit official familiar with negotiations over the plan agreed Wednesday that it might work, although he said it was “not a certainty.”

Among the supporters are State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), State Sen. President pro Tempore David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo, who represents Hollywood and part of Studio City.

Woo, the council’s appointee to the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, described the plan as a breakthrough and a “neat solution all around.”

Although no firm cost estimates were available, Robbins and Woo were certain the plan would provide enough money to extend Metro Rail as least as far west as the San Diego Freeway. Robbins said it might possibly go as far as Warner Center, which also is the proposed western end of light rail.

The plan appears to solve a pressing political problem for each of the sponsors.

Robbins said the proposal grew out of an urgent request from Los Angeles County’s two transit agencies for the Legislature to repeal a state law prohibiting the sale of more than $100 million in bonds to build Metro Rail.

The Southern California Rapid Transit District and the County Transportation Commission are racing a federally imposed Oct. 1 deadline to put together a plan for paying for the second phase of Metro Rail, which is to go from the terminus of Phase One at MacArthur Park to Universal City.

County transit planners say they are $400 million to $700 million short of the $2.1 billion needed for Phase Two, and must have a state-mandated bonding limit of $100 million repealed so they can borrow money to bridge the gap. The debt would be paid from the half-cent sales tax Los Angeles County voters approved in 1980 for mass transit.

Robbins said he will amend a bill he previously introduced in Sacramento to include lifting the bonding limit. He said he also will include a provision prohibiting construction of a ground-level or above-ground rail line in residential areas of the Valley--effectively requiring that any Valley rail line be an extension of the Metro Rail subway.

To prevent county transit planners from responding by dropping plans to build a cross-Valley rail line, Robbins said, another section of the bill will set up a trust fund for building a Valley rail line west of the North Hollywood Metro Rail station.

County transit agencies will be required to place 15% of all funds spent on rail projects in the county into the fund, he said. Also, interest from the fund will be earmarked to subsidize two proposed Valley commuter-rail lines.

Local elected officials have proposed two commuter lines on Southern Pacific tracks in the Valley--one from downtown to Oxnard via Glendale, Burbank, Van Nuys, Chatsworth and Simi Valley and the other from downtown to Saugus on tracks paralleling San Fernando Road in the Valley.

A similar trust fund plan approved by the Legislature last year holds money for construction of the Universal City-to-North Hollywood segment of Metro Rail.

Interest from that fund also is designated for Valley commuter-rail lines. Commuter-rail lines, unlike light-rail and subway lines, use existing railroad tracks and standard rail passenger cars that are pulled by diesel engines.

The plan announced Wednesday would ease intense pressure on Robbins and Bane from constituents fighting a proposed above-ground light-rail line from North Hollywood to Warner Center via Chandler Boulevard, Oxnard Street, Victory Boulevard and Topham Street.

The Chandler-Victory route, which was recently endorsed by an advisory group created by the City Council, traverses numerous quiet residential areas. Residents of those communities have demanded that Robbins and Bane stop efforts to build the line in their neighborhoods. For Roberti and Woo, the plan would ensure that the projected shortage of money for Metro Rail Phase Two does not force transit planners to elevate the line through Hollywood as a cost-cutting measure.

Many Hollywood residents and business interests have organized in opposition to an elevated line in their community.

Woo said that although the plan “probably means that the Valley rail line will be built somewhat later than if it was a light-rail line, it will be a first-class system and will not disturb residences.”

The system would be built later because it would take longer for the county Transportation Commission to accumulate the additional money necessary. Construction costs for heavy rail systems, such as Metro Rail, are as much as four times higher than costs for light rail.

Richard Stanger, program director for the County Transportation Commission, which controls all local spending for rail projects, said the plan “probably will produce the money that will enable us to eventually do the things its sponsors want.”

But he said that once other areas of the county see there is a prospect of extending Metro Rail beyond its currently approved downtown-to-North Hollywood route, “people from the Westside and the Eastside will all begin pressing for extensions to their communities.”

“I can’t predict what will happen then,” he said.