L.A. ‘Turf Battle’ Over Metro Rail May Delay Funds

Metro Rail supporters in Congress and a Reagan Administration transportation spokesman warned Thursday that funding and construction of the next phase of the subway project could be delayed if a local bureaucratic turf fight over who will build it is not resolved rapidly.

The warnings came the day after the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission moved unilaterally to form a new commission-controlled rail corporation that would take future Metro Rail work away from the RTD. With the RTD vowing to resist the effort, the commission voted to consolidate the building of the $3.4-billion subway with the commission’s connecting trolley system, also a multibillion-dollar program. The RTD would complete the first 4.4-mile downtown leg of the subway, now being dug from Union Station to MacArthur Park.

Unable to Agree

Both agencies agree some sort of consolidation of mass transit development makes sense, but they have been unable to agree on how that should occur. As of Thursday, officials with both agencies were saying they plan to be the grantee, or recipient, of federal funds for the next $2.2-billion phase of Metro Rail from MacArthur Park to the San Fernando Valley.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), a key supporter of the project, has discussed the struggle with Los Angeles transit officials and “thinks there are real potential problems if this debate is not settled quickly, amicably,” said Larry Goldspan, a Wilson legislative assistant in Washington.

“The conflict about the grantee could ultimately place in jeopardy the progress of funding for Metro Rail,” said Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Los Angeles). But Dixon, a member of the House Appropriations Committee who has often played the fireman, dousing the political brush fires that swirl about the controversial project, said he was optimistic this problem also would pass.

‘A Turf Fight’

“It’s a turf fight,” he said. “It is in the nature of massive projects to have these kind of obstacles come up.”

A spokesman at the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration said a single, qualified transit agency must step forward. “It’s a lot better to have cooperation than confrontation in L.A.,” said Buddy Bynum.

There was no sign Thursday that the two agencies were on the road to cooperation.

“The commission for too long has not meant business,” said Jacki Bacharach, a commissioner who is influential in rail decisions and who would be among those overseeing the new rail corporation. “This time we do mean business.”

“It’s time for the parties to get together and say the decision (for the commission to take over Metro Rail) has been made,” she said.

But RTD board member Marv Holen said his agency is “going forward in a workmanlike fashion to complete” the Metro Rail project. “There is no other grantee,” he said.

Warning on Delay

Holen said the commission is not certified by UMTA to receive Metro Rail funds and said that process--presumably without the RTD’s cooperation--could cause months of delay.

Indeed, such disputes have caused significant delays in other cities. Several federal officials cited the example of St. Louis, where a turf battle broke out between two local agencies over control and funding of the project, and it has been delayed nearly a year.