Support Vowed for Train to L.A. : State Officials Would Act to Keep Rail Link on Track

State transportation officials on Wednesday pledged to mount a state and local effort to save at least some passenger rail service between San Diego and Los Angeles should Congress approve President Reagan’s budget proposal to eliminate Amtrak subsidies.

If Amtrak funding is eliminated, as Reagan has proposed in his 1986 budget, “we would sit down with the unions, with the Santa Fe Railway; with Amtrak, which would have equipment to sell off; with affected communities, and try and figure out a solution,” Dana Reed, undersecretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, told officials from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties meeting here.

“The San Diego-Los Angeles corridor ought to be the last train corridor to go in the Western United States. It’s heavily populated, has only one major north-south freeway, and no real air service.”

Reed and other officials met here in the first session of a three-county task force seeking to boost ridership along the line without incurring large cost increases.

He added that continued rail service--on a reduced schedule --would be possible in the face of a budget cut because more than 75% of the operating cost of the San Diego-to-Los Angeles service is covered by fares paid by its 1.2 million passengers each year. That is one of the best fare-to-cost ratios in the national Amtrak system. The state also pays $3 million a year to cover remaining costs for three of the seven round trips daily.

Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset, host for the task force meeting, said that state and local investments on the 128-mile corridor have totaled more than $50 million in station, track and grade-crossing improvements in the last 10 years.

“We have a valuable stake in this corridor. The federal proposals jeopardize the investments we’ve made,” Griset said.

Amtrak will submit its own budget request to Congress on Feb. 15, asking for $684 million to cover 40% of its costs, the same amount Amtrak is receiving this year. Jim Barber, Amtrak intergovernmental affairs director, told the task force that Amtrak will lobby Congress strongly to stay alive.

If Amtrak wins the budget battle and federal funding remains at current levels, officials hope to more than double ridership in the corridor within five years through aggressive fare discounts, better connecting bus service and construction aimed at slashing running times by as much as 30 minutes.

Such improvements would cost relatively little, officials said.

Reed said the state believes strongly that train ridership, now comprising only 2% of all travel in the Los Angeles to San Diego corridor, can be raised to 5% within five years through aggressive marketing. Ridership has been stagnant since 1981, he said, when fares were raised and one-way running times increased 10 minutes--to 2 hours, 45 minutes.

The question of faster running times, considered a key to attracting more riders, came into sharp focus during Wednesday’s meeting when Amtrak announced that its controversial extra-fare Metroliner train will stop at all Orange County stations beginning Feb. 17. The express train has been skipping San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana and Fullerton to meet its promised 2 1/2-hour one-way time.

Despite plans now to stop at all stations, the train will still run on an express schedule, 15 minutes faster than all other corridor trains. The full-stop Metroliner will be replaced in April by a regular train and the schedule will become 10 minutes slower.

That led former state Sen. James Mills from San Diego to question statements by Amtrak and Santa Fe officials that faster trains must await additional track construction and other capital improvements.

“The (every-stop) Metroliner shows that you can run in 2 1/2 hours now with the present track conditions,” Mills said. “The train doesn’t go any faster because you have to pay $5 more for the fare.”

Amtrak spokesman Arthur Lloyd suggested that the Metroliner, with fewer coaches than the other trains, might need less stopping time at each station. However, he conceded that all trains probably could run about 10 minutes faster without track improvements.