Deal Struck on Transit Service in S.D. : Commuting: Southland agreement includes 82 miles of right of way for rail service between Oceanside and San Diego, and a trolley line from Oceanside to Escondido.

In a breakthrough for mass transit in San Diego County, regional transportation officials Thursday ended years of bare-knuckle backroom negotiation and agreed to buy from the Santa Fe Railway 336 miles of track needed for trolley and commuter train lines throughout the Southland.

The $500-million deal includes $90.5 million to purchase 82 miles of right of way to establish commuter rail service between Oceanside and San Diego and a light rail trolley line from Oceanside inland to Escondido.

Jubilant officials from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties made no effort to contain their enthusiasm as they joined Santa Fe Railway executives in Los Angeles and San Diego to announce the agreement.

“This is probably the most significant transportation project for San Diego and greater Southern California over the last several decades,” said Ken Sulzer, executive director of the San Diego Assn. of Governments, a regional planning agency.

Susan Cornelison, a Riverside County Transportation Commission member who helped craft the deal, said, “There is a great deal of satisfaction knowing that something that was destroyed long ago--rail service for the people of Southern California--is going to be restored.”

The track purchased Thursday will let the Southern California Regional Rail Authority’s Metrolink commuter service extend from Los Angeles to San Bernardino and Orange counties, and between Riverside and Orange counties. The services, which should be running by the end of 1993, will be in addition to the existing Amtrak service in these and other areas.

San Diego County isn’t part of Metrolink and will operate its rail service under the North County Transit District.

Commuter trains, unlike subways or trolleys, are designed for long-distance commuting and have stations generally about 5 miles apart.

The deal also includes land needed to extend the Blue Line trolley from Union Station in Los Angeles to Pasadena.

For San Diego County, the agreement ends a two-year delay in starting commuter rail and light rail systems that are envisioned to ease freeway congestion, improve air quality and accommodate the large commuting work force in fast-growing North County.

When commuter rail begins in 1994, transit officials anticipate 3,500 riders daily, a figure they hope will reach 10,000 daily by the year 2010. Meanwhile, 17,000 patrons a day are expected when the light rail starts rolling in 1999.

Local officials believe the commuter rail will woo riders from their autos and reduce the county’s high numbers of employees who drive alone to work, worsening the area’s smog problem.

Last year, smog exceeded state standards on 106 days, and county officials are considering an air-quality plan that would pressure major employers to make their workers use mass transit. Under the plan, non-ridesharing employees might face penalties such as having to pay for parking at the job.

Funding for San Diego County’s $90.5-million purchase of right-of-way that has been owned by the railroad since the 1880s comes from several sources. One-third is generated by the special half-cent local transportation sales tax approved by voters in 1987. The remaining two-thirds is provided by two bond measures approved by statewide voters.

Improved rail service in other counties will also be a boon to San Diego County residents who travel north on Interstate 5 for jobs and attractions elsewhere in the Southland.

“Highway 5 gets worse and worse if you’re trying to get to Los Angeles or Orange County,” said former state Sen. Jim Mills of San Diego, chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board.

Mills wasn’t the only prominent official buoyant over the long-negotiated deal with Santa Fe.

“It’s a historic breakthrough,” said Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, whose staff helped to keep talks going during several impasses. “People said they wanted transportation, wanted an alternative (to cars), and said they were willing to tax themselves to get it. . . . Now they will get it.”

Several speakers mentioned the unusual degree of cooperation among the five SCRRA counties, which they said will make it far easier for the region to coordinate cross-border bus services and countywide plans to ease congestion.

Securing the property also gives transportation officials a boost in the November election, when they will ask voters to approve another $1 billion in bonds to expand rail service. Bonds approved two years ago were used to swiftly buy the tracks, stations, locomotives and coaches that make up the Metrolink service, scheduled to start Oct. 26. That service will cover 132 track miles. Eventually, the system will span 448 miles.

The $500-million purchase price falls halfway between the Southern California Regional Rail Authority’s $300-million bid made last summer and Santa Fe Railway’s subsequent $800-million counter offer. But the final deal involved far more than splitting the difference.

To reach a middle ground, the SCRRA slowly added more money to its bid while Santa Fe added more properties to the package. The final agreement includes several assets--notably the Harbor subdivision track from Los Angeles to Long Beach through Torrance and the Escondido branch of track from Oceanside to Escondido in San Diego County--that were not involved in initial discussions.

“It lets them get more funds out of (the deal), but it lets us get more value,” said Neil Peterson, executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and one of the SCRRA’s lead negotiators.

Santa Fe also was wooed with several sweeteners besides the $500 million. The counties, for example, have agreed to forgive millions of dollars in loans made years ago to Santa Fe to upgrade its track between Los Angeles and San Diego, and have promised to urge Sacramento to forgive the state’s share of the loans.

Those loans total about $50 million, and were made to improve service on the commuter-style passenger trains being run by Amtrak.

In addition, SCRRA has promised to spend tens of millions of dollars to expand and upgrade Santa Fe’s remaining east-west line, which commuter trains and freight cars will share. These improvements, including new sidings and sophisticated signaling, will accommodate commuter trains without interfering with the railroad’s $1-billion-a-year freight business in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The first phase of this upgrade will cost $80 million. Subsequent improvements, which would be made only as traffic requires, would come in steps of $48 million and $85 million.

“We were able to assist the counties to put in commuter service, but also protect our freight business, . . . which is an important part of the local economy,” said Santa Fe Pacific Corp. Vice President Robert L. Edwards.

The deal, announced with grace and good cheer, was reached only after some unusually bitter name-calling that once included a particularly colorful transit official accusing Santa Fe of attempting a “train robbery in reverse.” At several points, each side demanded that the other replace its negotiators.

RAIL SERVICE: Future of mass transit in San Diego County assured. B1