As Freeway Opens, Many Stick to Mass Transit : Commuting: Experts warn that Metrolink, other services need aggressive marketing. Real test is expected in July, when Antelope Valley interchange opens.

Despite the opening Wednesday of the entire Golden State Freeway in Santa Clarita for the first time in four months, hundreds of northern Los Angeles County commuters stuck to mass transit, following a routine they adopted after the Northridge earthquake cut off road access to the south.

But advocates of public transportation warned that commuting alternatives such as the Metrolink train service will need to aggressively market themselves both to attract new passengers and to retain those recent train recruits no longer faced with impossible driving conditions. And even then, experts said, drivers are likely to return to their cars.

“We have to keep it in front of the public eye,” said Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jan Heidt, who is a Metrolink alternate board member.

“I’m very happy that the I-5 is open from the standpoint that less will be happening to our city,” Heidt said, noting that heavy traffic has clogged and rutted area roads. “On the other hand, I’m ambivalent about it. After the quake we were telling people to get out of their cars and take alternate transportation. What message are we sending to people now?”

Southbound lanes on the Golden State were opened Tuesday, three weeks earlier than expected. Two lanes on the northbound Gavin Canyon overpass were opened before dawn Wednesday after work crews finished clearing away a detour on the neighboring Old Road. The remaining lanes were opened by 4 p.m.

Although the freeway was available for a seamless commute on Wednesday, about 5,500 people still chose the white-and-periwinkle Metrolink trains for their journeys to and from Downtown Los Angeles, a number that was about average during the past two months, officials said. Deputy Executive Director David Solow said the rail service does not expect a sharp drop in train patronage from the renaissance of the I-5, which lies “substantially west of the Santa Clarita train station. It’s not the right market.”

But officials acknowledged that the real test will come in a few weeks when monthly passes expire and again at the end of July, when Caltrans expects to reopen the crucial interchange between the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

“That’s the one that’s a direct link” to Downtown for the vast majority of Metrolink riders from the north, Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said.

Indeed, Merci Shaw, whose husband currently shuttles between Lancaster and Downtown Los Angeles by train, said that when the Antelope Valley Freeway opens, “We’ll be praising God. . . . For our family, the 5 means nothing.”

To persuade passengers like Shaw’s husband to stay loyal, Metrolink is looking at ways to reward longtime riders with prizes or incentives similar to the frequent-flier programs used by airlines, said marketing manager Ray Shea. Plans also call for a high-profile promotional campaign aimed at drawing new riders to begin next month, including a free trial ride offer to be advertised in newspapers, over the airwaves and in direct mailings to about 400,000 households along the Santa Clarita and Ventura County rail lines.

Workers are scrambling to finish $50 million in track improvements by June 20, a few weeks ahead of schedule, to keep train use appealing by shaving 26 minutes off the ride from Lancaster to Union Station. Currently, the journey takes more than two hours.

The temblor was a blessing in disguise for Metrolink, which swiftly added five new stations on the Santa Clarita line and then watched its ridership shoot to nearly 22,000 daily, up from about 1,000. However, the number has since dropped to 5,500.

“Mass transit under any circumstances is not prepared to compete at all with heavily subsidized automobiles,” said Martin Wachs, who teaches urban planning at UCLA. “The commuter will choose the mode of travel that is most convenient, cheapest and most reliable. For most people in most locations in most circumstances, that’s the automobile.”

“The numbers are trying to tell us a story--that as soon as people could, they found alternatives to Metrolink,” added Peter Gordon, professor of urban and regional planning and economics at USC.

But Solow said even a 25% to 30% increase over pre-quake levels--or 1,300 riders--would match the retention rate of new riders by the Bay Area subway system after the Loma Prieta quake in 1989.

“I think we’ll do better than that,” Solow said.

Times staff writer Abigail Goldman contributed to this story.