Save the Rail Service

The heavily traveled rail line from Los Angeles through Orange County to San Diego is once again in jeopardy, just when it seemed finally to be getting some of the attention that it deserves.

In a recent meeting in Santa Ana of a three-county task force, Dana Reed, undersecretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, told officials from the three counties that if Amtrak funding is eliminated from the federal budget as President Reagan has proposed, “the San Diego-Los Angeles corridor ought to be the last train corridor in the western United States to go.”

We don’t think that it ought to go at all. Amtrak is seeking $684 million in the new federal budget, the same amount that it is receiving this year, to cover 40% of its costs. We urge Congress to make every effort within budget constraints to ensure the continuation of Amtrak and of rail service between San Diego and Los Angeles, the two largest cities in the largest state in the nation. The corridor has only one major north-south freeway and limited air service.

The fact that 1.2 million passengers use the trains each year (the second most popular rail route in the nation) and that the line has one of the best fare-to-cost ratios in the nation, with more than 75% of operating costs coming from fares, is a compelling reason for being sure that the line does not fall victim to false economies.

Another reason for preserving rail service in the corridor is that transportation officials believe that ridership between San Diego and Los Angeles can be more than doubled within the next five years. In fact, discussing ways to do just that without increasing operating costs was one of the main reasons for the tri-county session with the state.

State and local agencies have invested $50 million in the 128-mile corridor in the last decade, a strong indication of how much they believe that the rail service is needed. And state transportation officials have pledged to mount a state and local campaign to save some passenger service in the corridor if federal subsidies to Amtrak are lost. Congress should be as committed to saving passenger service on the second-most used rail corridor in the United States.