Study Hints at N. Hollywood, Universal City Trolley Link

Setting the stage for a struggle over the San Fernando Valley’s share of the Metro Rail subway, planners Monday released a study indicating that a lower-cost trolley could be built instead at street level between central North Hollywood and Universal City.

The study was commissioned to find a cheaper alternative to the state-mandated leg of Metro Rail between the intersection of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards and Universal City.

Planners estimate the trolley alternative would shave nearly 10% off the subway project’s $3.3-billion cost.

But Valley legislators have vowed to halt any effort to substitute a light-rail trolley for the subway in North Hollywood.

At the ground-breaking ceremony for Metro Rail on Monday, state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) pointedly reminded transportation officials that a bill passed by the Legislature in 1984 requires construction to start on the subway tunnel in North Hollywood within 12 months of the start of downtown work.

The bill, introduced by Robbins, was supported by Los Angeles subway advocates as a way of getting the support of Valley legislators for state Metro Rail financing.

Robbins said in an interview that the law would be repealed “over my dead body.”

Reasons for Preference Told

Valley officials prefer the subway because it would carry more passengers at higher speeds than the trolley, and would not disrupt street traffic.

But officials of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission said in May that they doubt there will be enough money to complete the designated 18-mile Metro Rail route from Union Station in Los Angeles to central North Hollywood.

Substituting a trolley for a subway along the 2.3-mile segment in North Hollywood will not only save Metro Rail money, but will also make the proposed Valley trolley line more attractive in future competition for transit funds, commission members say.

The 14.3-mile Valley trolley, estimated to cost $300 million, is one of three projects competing for the next round of funds to be distributed by the commission, which gets its money from the extra half-cent sales tax authorized by Los Angeles County voters in 1980.

Commission staff members predict that extending the eastern end of a Woodland Hills-to-North Hollywood trolley to the southeast along Vineland Avenue would raise overall ridership by connecting two major activity centers, Warner Center and Universal City.

Say Talk Is Premature

Commission members have refused to say how they plan to get around the state law mandating a subway for North Hollywood, insisting that it is premature to discuss Metro Rail alternatives for the Valley until completion of preliminary studies, including cost and ridership projections.

But Jacki Bacharach, who heads the commission’s rapid-transit committee, has said that “any law can be changed or repealed.”

A key question has been whether street traffic along Vineland is so heavy that the trolley line would have to be elevated, adding to the expense and reducing the cost advantage that light rail has over a subway.

The new study, by Bechtel National Inc., says the trolley would have to be elevated only at the three-way intersection of Lankershim, Vineland and Camarillo Street, and possibly at the intersection of Chandler and Lankershim.

Susan Rosales, a commission staff member, said the staff will prepare recommendations for the commission by the end of the year regarding the proposed Vineland Avenue extension.

Within a year, the commission is expected to choose among the Valley trolley line, a proposed South Bay trolley line and a route from downtown Los Angeles through Lincoln Heights to Pasadena.