Subway, Light-Rail Cameras Approved

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted Thursday to spend nearly $7 million to equip subway and light-rail trains with a state-of-the-art security camera system and develop anti-terrorism training.

The MTA’s closed-circuit TV system will have high-resolution digital cameras capable of panning and zooming in on suspicious people and objects. It should be a vast improvement over current stationary cameras and their low-grade images, which are not always recorded, agency officials said.

For the first time, MTA’s entire fleet of 225 subway and light-rail train cars will have cameras inside, and all images will be recorded and stored. Currently, there are cameras on buses and at train stations.

“By the end of the year, we’ll have an incredible system in place,” said MTA board member David Fleming. “It’s a big step forward, and I think the public will feel a lot safer.”

The MTA staff speeded up plans to upgrade security after last month’s deadly bus and subway bombings in London. Recorded images of suspected bombers in London helped with the investigations there, and Los Angeles officials wanted that capability, too.

The cameras still will have to be monitored by staff looking at TV screens, said Paul Lennon, the MTA’s director of intelligence and emergency preparedness. Future upgrades will allow cameras to flash a warning at the control center if something suspicious, such as people in a tunnel, is detected.

The board awarded a $2.2-million contract to Orange County-based AJK Communications Inc. to design and install cameras, and $3 million to add surveillance personnel and other upgrades. An additional $1.5 million was allocated to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,-based RailSecure LLC to jointly develop training for non-police personnel to recognize and deal with terrorist weapons.

In another matter, several state legislators petitioned the board to investigate whether a contract bus service provider violated labor laws on two lines the firm runs in the San Fernando Valley. Several dozen unionized bus drivers have been picketing the contractor for nearly a month to protest hiring practices and reduced wages.

In response, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the MTA board chairman, asked the agency’s staff to research the Teamsters’ allegations against Transportation Concepts, which recently took over a contract for the two lines.

State laws give a bidding preference to transit contractors who retain employees of a previous firm, but Transportation Concepts failed to make written offers to employees who worked under the old contractor, said state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sun Valley), chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, in a letter presented to the board. Alarcon said he also felt “gravely troubled” by the reduced wages and benefits.

Alarcon’s concerns were echoed by Assembly members Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Cindy Montanez (D-San Fernando), all of whom sent letters to the MTA board.

Janice Campbell has been picketing an East Los Angeles bus yard since Transportation Concepts took over the contract on Aug. 1. Previously, Campbell made $10 an hour, she said, but if she drove for the new employer her pay would be $8.50 an hour.

“It’s unfair,” Campbell said. She said her family of nine is struggling to get by on the salary of her husband, the arts and crafts director at a Girls & Boys Club. “I don’t want to be on welfare to help my family.”

Rich Rogers, chief operating officer for Irvine-based Transportation Concepts, said his company offers a different pay scale than before but that it was legal. He did not offer specifics.

“We have no obligation to offer them comparable wages,” he said, adding that jobs were offered verbally and that it was a “clerical oversight” not to send offer letters.

Before Thursday’s meeting, Villaraigosa led a posse of MTA directors to ride the Pasadena Gold Line with him from a station near his Mount Washington home to the transit agency headquarters downtown.

“We believe it’s important to do our part to relieve traffic congestion,” said Villaraigosa.

At a news conference after the ride, the mayor touted the money commuters can save by riding transit. According to MTA estimates, it costs $6,075 a year to drive solo to work -- assuming $2.80-per-gallon of gas, a 30-mile round-trip commute and the costs of parking, car repairs, and insurance. In contrast, riding MTA transit costs $624 a year.

“Let me tell you -- it’s a great ride,” Villaraigosa said. “It’s a bargain. You’ll be able to relax, catch up on reading ... instead of fighting gridlock.”