Rail Plan May Get 2nd Chance : Transportation: County officials ask Caltrans to reconsider a proposed LAX-to-Palmdale line that has been passed over.

Los Angeles County supervisors and other elected officials on Tuesday called for revival of a proposed magnetic levitation rail line from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale that was spurned by Caltrans last month.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion urging the state transportation agency to continue studying the 125-m.p.h. line, which would be built by a private partnership on freeway shoulders or medians.

In addition, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, told a Lancaster civic gathering that the proposed elevated “maglev” line is “one of the most innovative projects I’ve seen in a long time.” He also vowed to “make this project work one way or the other.”

Caltrans two weeks ago passed over the rail line in favor of four proposed toll highways--two in Orange County, one in San Diego County and one in Alameda County east of Oakland. The four winners were among eight projects competing in a new state program that allows privately owned transportation projects on public land.

The LAX-to-Palmdale line, on which trains would be propelled by electromagnetic force on a cushion of air, was designated as an alternate, to be selected only if one of the highway projects falters.

Recently, Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Nikolas Patsaouras, a member of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, have suggested that the commission might sponsor the futuristic line.

Patsaouras acknowledged Tuesday that the state controls the needed right of way, but said, “We think the proposal should be out there to see if they can be persuaded to give up the right of way.”

He called it “too good a project just to let die” and said he has asked the commission staff to suggest ways for commissioners to sponsor the project.

A report is expected later this month, said Patsaouras, who also heads the Southern California Rapid Transit District Board of Directors.

The commission in 1980 designated the San Diego Freeway corridor from Sylmar to LAX as a part of the 150-mile rail system it is building with the proceeds of the extra half-cent sales tax approved by county voters.

Although the corridor is expected to yield a high ridership, all rail construction funds have been committed until at least 2002, planners say, adding that it would be at least 15 years before the commission could build a rail line along that route.

Katz has said that if the maglev line does not win inclusion into the Caltrans privatization program by the end of the year, he will introduce legislation to permit the medians and shoulders of the San Diego, Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways to be used for the line.

But he acknowledged Tuesday that such special legislation might be difficult to get passed and that the easiest route to success is to pressure Caltrans to belatedly designate the line as part of its privatization program.

He again attacked Caltrans for passing over the project, which he called “a little too creative and a little too innovative for people who are used to pouring concrete all their lives.”

In urging supervisors to approve his motion Tuesday, Antonovich called the rail line a “vital link providing transportation from the Antelope Valley to Los Angeles.”

The maglev line was proposed by a consortium formed by Massachusetts-based Perini Corp., the Los Angeles engineering firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall and the HSST Corp. of Japan.

After construction, the partnership would deed the project to the state, then lease it back for 35 years. Profits would be generated by fares.

Starting at LAX, the line would travel the median of the San Diego Freeway, stopping at the Marina Freeway, Wilshire and Victory boulevards and the Simi Valley Freeway.

The line’s 31-mile-long first phase would end in Santa Clarita and would cost $1.3 billion. Rail planners say it would carry about 55,000 passengers daily, most of them commuters.

Experts say that after being extended 38 more miles to Palmdale Airport, the line would attract airport-bound passengers as well as those bound for Las Vegas, who could connect at Palmdale to a proposed high-speed maglev line connecting the gambling mecca to Southern California.

Times staff writer Lynn O’Shaughnessy contributed to this story.