EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Antelope Valley Gets Metrolink a Decade Early

The plan was to start commuter train service to the northernmost reaches of Los Angeles County in about a decade. But that plan didn’t include a 6.6 earthquake that would knock freeways out of service.

So in the pre-dawn darkness Monday, one week nearly to the minute after the devastating Northridge quake, Metrolink service began in the Antelope Valley, a service that will probably remain in effect even after the freeways are repaired.

For Palmdale resident Mark Collison, the conversion from motorist to train rider took only a few attempts last week to reach his job in Burbank by freeway. He switched to the Metrolink out of Santa Clarita last week and on Monday was among the first 400 people to board the train in Palmdale.

About 30% of the 250-person work force at the stainless-steel manufacturing firm where Collison works live in the Antelope or Santa Clarita valleys. “We’ll be having production meetings on the train,” Collison said.

With repairs on the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways not expected to be completed for a year, Richard Stanger, executive director of Metrolink, said commuters from north Los Angeles County have become a captive audience.

Metrolink ridership has soared since the earthquake, with nearly all of the increase from the Santa Clarita and just-opened Antelope Valley stations. Total ridership from the two stations was expected to reach 16,000 Monday, compared to 13,000 Friday and 1,000 before the quake from Santa Clarita. Ridership systemwide has jumped from 10,000 to 25,000 since the quake.

“It was great. It was very non-stressful, very relaxing,” said Timothy Velasquez, 40, of Quartz Hill, as he stepped onto the platform at the newly built Palmdale station about 6:30 p.m. Monday, ending a day that began with a 3 a.m. wake-up to catch a 4:26 a.m. train.

Velasquez said he is considering sticking with Metrolink, even though the round trip to his job in Glendale takes more than four hours, about an hour more than in the van pool he previously used.

U. S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, who was helicoptered to the Antelope Valley for a short visit Sunday and then on Monday rode the Metrolink from Santa Clarita to Downtown Los Angeles, said auto ride-sharing also will be critical in the coming months.

Necessity, he said, should put an end to the predominance of single-occupant cars, at least in some parts of the area.

Antelope Valley commuters, already contending with lengthy commutes to their San Fernando Valley and Downtown work sites, are facing very long travel times. Monday morning, traffic through the southbound Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways’ detour was backed up as much as two hours.

California Highway Patrol Officer Glen Dominguez credited the relative calm on commuter familiarity with the alternate routes, employers instituting flexible schedules, increased car-pooling and the Metrolink expansion.

One morning last week, Lancaster resident Dennis Marks spent four hours trying to get to work. Other mornings it took him three. On Monday, Marks boarded a Metrolink train in Lancaster for the first time and said he was “going to try it and see” if it was a viable solution to get him to his Studio City job.

Although they came out in droves Monday, some riders expressed concern about the cost of Metrolink. Riders who catch the train in Lancaster or Palmdale must pay $208 for a monthly pass, $65 for a 10-trip ticket or $14 each for round-trip tickets, which will be on sale at the Lancaster and Palmdale stations beginning Wednesday.

Metrolink head Stanger noted that for residents who ride from Lancaster to downtown Los Angeles, the cost of a monthly pass is equivalent to 7 cents per mile, compared to 5 cents per mile for the cost of gas.

“It means getting up earlier and leaving sooner,” said Daniel Curvin, who lives in Valencia and teaches at a Burbank elementary school. “I’m getting tired of this, and I think a lot of other people are too.”

“How safe is this if there is an aftershock?” asked Jane Roffi, a financial consultant who lives in Saugus, answering her question: “It’s got to be better than driving on the freeway.”

While the train is competitive on a time basis for now because of the horrendous traffic, Stanger said work is already under way to reduce the two-hour, 25-minute travel time between Lancaster and Union Station. Within just a few weeks, the trip will be reduced to two hours by signal and track improvements, Stanger said.

On Monday morning, Burbank debuted as a major transportation connection point as hundreds of commuters from Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley stepped off the Metrolink platform there and stepped into waiting shuttles, vans, buses, cabs and car pools to make connections to their jobs or classrooms.

“The ironic thing is that I lived in New York City for two years and never had to take a train or subway,” said Ed Burke of Santa Clarita, as he waited for his car pool to his advertising job at Sony Pictures in Culver City. Monday was the first day since the earthquake that Burke tried to get to work. Last week he worked from home.

Sam Mclawyer, Metrolink line supervisor at Burbank, estimated that there were 1,500 to 1,700 passengers from Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley getting off at Burbank on Monday morning. About 400 got off the first train, arriving just before 6 a.m.

Some employers arranged shuttle service for their workers, and drivers held up placards with company names on them for commuters to find their way. Other commuters had arranged for a car pool or a friend to meet them, or lined up at the pay phones to call someone to pick them up.

“We had about eight buses here,” said Jerry Broomfield, a bus driver for UCLA, as he read the morning paper spread over the steering wheel at the midpoint of the morning rush. “We’ve only used two of them.”

Broomfield guessed that not everyone was aware of the service, free to UCLA students or faculty members who buy Metrolink tickets.

Many of the new train riders missed the freedom, independence and flexibility of using their own automobiles.

Metrolink workers were handing out flyers explaining how to buy tickets, with a listing of departure and arrival times on the back--along with detailed instructions on how to read a timetable.

G. William Lundgren, transportation administrator for the city of Burbank, said passengers were having a smoother time making their connections than last week. “There’s a lot of people helping each other,” he said.

“I’m just disappointed that there were no restrooms or free coffee,” said Marc Gagnon, who lives in Santa Clarita and works in the wardrobe department at Warner Bros. He said he especially misses being able to drive to Burbank, where he can stop at a coffee shop and read the paper before going into work in the morning.

He also missed driving his Honda Civic, which costs him $40 a month for gas. “This is costing me $144 a month,” said Gagnon, who got out of bed at 3 a.m. and left the house at 4 a.m. to catch his train.

“I don’t think they’re taking into account the total cost of an automobile,” said Judith Johnston-Weston, executive director for the Burbank Media District Transportation Management Organization, which saw the ridership on its shuttles between the station and employers increase sixfold because of the Northridge earthquake.

She argued that the train still costs a lot less than a car, considering the payments, maintenance, insurance, parking and other expenses.

“I’ve been waiting for at least a half an hour,” said Joe Kennedy, a driver for Celebrity Cab Co. “They put too many cabs on the stand.”

Kennedy, who picked up fares from the station last week, said that business was slower than expected for him.

“Between all the vans and shuttles, I think people are being served quite adequately,” Kennedy said.

The Metrolink station parking lot was nearly full Sunday night, with the cars of commuters who had parked them there for convenient use once they got off the train.

“Patience is running thin,” said Kris Benavidez, of Santa Clarita, as she waited in line to use a pay phone to call someone to take her to her job in Burbank as a sales manager. “It’s hard to get up early in the morning.”

Meanwhile, state lawmakers Monday approved a $400,000 grant toward the construction of the Sylmar Metrolink station and an adjacent child-care center.

The Senate passed a bill by Herschel Rosenthal (D-West Los Angeles) that would make $300,000 immediately available to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for station construction and $100,000 for the child-care center next to the commuter train stop at 1st and Hubbard streets.

The entire amount had originally been earmarked for the child-care center and was included in the 1992-93 state budget. But because of federal guidelines governing use of the money, which comes from a special account, lawmakers had to amend its distribution and rushed to approve its disbursement in advance of the 1994-95 budget.

Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who represents Sylmar, said the money was especially vital because “the region’s damaged transportation network threatens the economic stability and tens of thousands of jobs.”

The bill has been sent to Gov. Pete Wilson’s desk.

Transportation officials hope the $1.7-million construction project, which has been plagued by delays, will be completed within a few months.

Times staff writers Henry Chu and John Chandler and correspondent Douglas Alger contributed to this story.