Bernson Backs Above-Ground Commuter Rail Across Valley

In an effort to quell the uproar over a controversial plan to fund mass transportation, a Los Angeles city councilman proposed a new commuter rail line for the San Fernando Valley on Friday while a state lawmaker called for express busways to serve the inner city.

The two proposals are the latest attempts to revise a new transit funding plan adopted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority two weeks ago as part of an effort to win back the federal government’s support for the troubled agency.

The transportation master plan was ordered by federal officials to convince them that the MTA can afford to complete promised projects including the $6.1 billion subway and a nearly $1 billion in court-ordered bus improvements.

But the MTA’s plan drew local opposition this week when the City Council voted to withhold $200 million in payments to the MTA due to continued delays in the construction of an east-west Valley subway line.

State lawmakers also criticized the MTA’s plan, saying it doesn’t provide enough transit services in the Crenshaw and Exposition corridors.

To speed up construction of a Valley rail line, Councilman Hal Bernson convinced Metrolink officials Friday to study running a commuter train along the tracks parallel to Burbank and Chandler boulevards. Bernson is a member of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which manages the Metrolink commuter system.

The tracks are owned by MTA, which has for years planned to build a subway along the route. But the MTA’s so-called recovery plan proposes delaying construction of the Valley subway line from 2004 to as late as 2011.

“Hey, it’s better than what we have now, which is nothing,” Bernson said, adding that a commuter train can be built much faster and cheaper than a deep-bore subway.

But Bernson’s plan was quickly dismissed by his fellow Valley council members and residents, who said they would oppose running a loud commuter train through dense residential communities.

“It has to be done in a way that makes sense,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who lives in and represents neighborhoods that the line would bisect. “I’m not sure this does.”

Meanwhile, Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles) pledged Friday to seek funding for the design of the east-west Valley subway line and to study and design express busways on Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards.

Murray, who heads the Legislature’s Black Caucus, had threatened to block a $54-million state loan for a Los Angeles-to-Pasadena light rail line unless the MTA improves transit service in the Crenshaw District and West Los Angeles. The MTA is seeking that loan to keep the project on track to open in 2001.

But Friday he said he will withdraw his opposition if the agency considers building the express busways.

Murray also said he would seek legislation providing $51 million to begin design in the year 2000 of the Valley subway line and a $30-million loan for the busways study.

The proposals by Bernson and Murray exemplify the thorny situation of MTA officials, who lack the funding to meet demands for new transit service throughout the region.

MTA’s acting chief, Linda Bohlinger, said the state loan would go a long way to helping the MTA out of its financial and political dilemma. She said she is still looking for ways to advance construction of the east-west Valley subway line from 2011 to at least 2007.

Councilman Mike Feuer, who led the charge to withhold the city’s $200 million payment to the MTA, said Murray’s legislation probably won’t speed up construction of the Valley subway line, and therefore won’t end the stalemate between the council and the MTA.

He also said he was “not enthusiastic” about Bernson’s commuter train proposal.

Murray, who recently joined MTA officials on a tour of Curitiba, Brazil--where fast-moving, high-capacity accordion-like buses are widely used--said busways could be built faster and cheaper than rail lines. Buses could roll just as fast as trolley cars if given priority at green lights, he said.

One MTA official said that a busway on the Exposition Boulevard right of way between Santa Monica and USC would run into a “buzz saw” of opposition from Westside neighborhoods concerned about the noise.

But Murray said that a busway would be less disruptive and less noisy than a train. “No beeping of a horn at all hours of the night,” he noted.

Murray acknowledged that the busway could face a political problem: “How do you tell people that in one place they get a billion-dollar subway, and we get a bus?”

But, he said, he is not giving up on rail lines on Crenshaw and Exposition but wants some kind of mass transit in his district now.

“By making our proposal more modest, we get something now,” Murray said.

It appeared that Bernson’s commuter line would also face vehement opposition by Valley residents along the route.

“‘I don’t think it will fly with a vast majority of people,” said Guy Weddington McCreary of the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

He added that Valley residents are frustrated with the continual delays to construction of a Valley rail line.

“This has gone back and forth, up and down like a roller coaster,” he said.

Another critic is Rabbi Marvin J. Sugarman, leader of the Shaarey Zedek synagogue in North Hollywood, who has led the fight to build a subway along Chandler Boulevard to keep from splitting a Jewish community with an above-ground rail line.

He said residents in his neighborhood will not allow an above- ground commuter line along the route.

“It’s not going to happen,” he said. “People are not going to let it happen. We are going to fight it tooth and nail.”

But Metrolink officials say Bernson’s plan is not farfetched. They said a Metrolink line can be built for about $3 million a mile, compared to a subway line, which can cost up to $300 million a mile.

Peter Hidalgo, a Metrolink spokesman, said Metrolink can reduce the noise and pollution of a typical commuter train by using smaller passenger cars that carry about 55 passengers, which are pulled by a quieter diesel engine.