Council Must OK Line Through Compton : Officials Meet in Effort to Save L.A.-to-L.B. Trolley

In a weeklong series of meetings, city, county and railroad officials have intensified their efforts to save the proposed $675-million Los Angeles-to-Long Beach trolley line through Compton while relocating the freight train traffic the City Council says could stop downtown redevelopment here.

Negotiators have set a joint meeting for Monday in hopes of reaching a compromise before the Tuesday deadline for Compton approval of the 21-mile electric railway from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Long Beach.

Los Angeles County Transportation commissioners have said that unless Compton agrees to cooperate by the April 9 deadline they will probably kill the trolley line through Compton. Instead, they could choose an alternate route between Long Beach and Los Angeles or decide to make a completely different line the first link in a 150-mile rapid transit network for metropolitan Los Angeles.

The Transportation Commission meets Wednesday.

Freight Train Problem

Compton has insisted that the commission include in its light-rail planning a solution to Compton’s decades-old freight train problem, which is expected to get worse as freight hauled from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach tincreases.

From the Transportation Commission’s point of view, the two issues are “totally separate,” said commission chairwoman Jackie Bacharach.

Long Beach and Los Angeles, the other two cities through which the light rail would run, have endorsed the Transportation Commission’s plan.

While redoubled bargaining efforts have produced no agreement, city officials said they were encouraged by a Wednesday after noon meeting with executives of the Southern Pacific Transportation Co.

Railroad executives told the city that they would go along with any city or county plan for track realignment through Compton as long as government pays the bill and the railway’s freight-handling capacity is not jeopardized.

“They say they’ll do anything we want,” said surprised Councilman Maxcy Filer, a leading opponent of light rail.

But Filer noted that any agreement would have to include the city, the railroad and the Transportation Commission, whose light-rail plan Compton has rejected.

Longtime Position

Rick Richmond, Transportation Commission executive director, said the railroad was simply restating its longtime position, and the question of who will pay extra expenses on the two alternatives favored by Compton is still unresolved.

The county plan calls for construction in Compton of two trolley lines at street level next to an existing freight line along Willowbrook Avenue, which runs between the modern City Hall and the new $20-million Town Center shopping center.

In response, Compton endorsed a plan March 26--the initial deadline set by the county--that would allow the trolley and freight lines on Willowbrook only if they were placed in a trench below street level, thus reducing existing noise and traffic problems. The Transportation Commission has rejected that alternative because it would add at least $130 million to construction costs.

At the same meeting, however, the City Council majority made it clear that it might endorse an alternate proposal. The council would approve light-rail construction at street level on Willowbrook if the Transportation Commission would guarantee that freight train traffic, expected to at least double in a decade, would be moved into a trench along Alameda Street, about one-third mile east of City Hall. Though still close to the new shopping center, the Alameda track runs primarily through industrial areas and has far fewer homes near it than the Willowbrook route.

‘Have to Do Something’

“Nobody is against light rail, but the heavy rail is such a problem here that we just have to do something about it,” said City Manager Laverta Montgomery, a longtime light-rail supporter.

Transportation Commission spokespersons said they were unable to provide a written guarantee that the freight traffic would be shifted to Alameda, but they agreed to work with Compton and Southern Pacific to that end.

If the trolley project is allowed to move forward, the Transportation Commission will also lobby for state and federal funds to lower the Alameda line, county officials said.

But the council majority--Mayor Walter Tucker and council members Filer and Jane Robbins--said the Transportation Commission’s good intentions ensured nothing, and the council voted 3 to 2 for the subterranean Willowbrook route.

Councilmen Floyd James and Robert Adams Sr. said the light rail is too valuable for Compton to lose and favored the county plan.

Thus, after two years of negotiation, there is still no agreement.

The Transportation Commission has argued that the light-rail construction and the freight train problem should be separated.

Light-rail transit, funded through a half-cent countywide sales tax approved by voters in 1980, has been analyzed and construction is set to begin in October, commission chairwoman Bacharach said. Unlike freight trains, the two-car electric trolleys stop at the same traffic signals as automobiles and do not pollute.

Environmental Problems

On the other hand, Los Angeles County is just now beginning to consider how it will handle environmental problems caused by the increasing number of freight trains hauling cargo from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to regional rail yards near downtown Los Angeles, she said.

The Ports Advisory Committee of the Southern California Assn. of Governments favors the consolidation of three freight lines serving the ports into a single route, Compton’s Alameda Street line, Bacharach acknowledged. But it may be years before multimillion-dollar funding is secured and design completed and light-rail projects cannot wait, she has argued.

The Compton council majority, however, has said it doesn’t mind waiting for light rail if it can get its freight trains off Willowbrook and onto a lowered Alameda track.

This stalemate has gone on for months without much word from Southern Pacific. Compton learned of the railroad’s positions only through the Transportation Commission, Filer said. In fact, until this week Compton and railroad officials had not met for discussions in many years, he said.

That is why he was startled Wednesday when the railroad agreed without reservations to work with the city, the councilman said.

Not Opposed to Light Rail

Peter Baumhefner, regional assistant superintendent for Southern Pacific, said he met with Compton officials at a council meeting Tuesday and privately Wednesday to make it clear that the railroad was in no way opposed to light rail.

“We are not intending at all to be a roadblock to the light-rail project,” said Baumhefner. “I have spent an awful lot of my time working with them in the design phases, and we have supported the concept all along.”

The railroad has negotiated a tentative agreement to sell the Transportation Commission a right of way for the light rail that could be signed this month, said Baumhefner.

“If someone wants us to move (off Willowbrook), we’re not averse to that,” said Baumhefner. Nor is the railroad opposed to subterranean tracks on Willowbrook or Alameda, he said.

“The only question is who’s paying for it,” said Baumhefner.

New Line Required

Closing the Willowbrook line to freight would require that a new track be built alongside the existing one on Alameda if Southern Pacific is going to handle the expected increase over the next decade from 10 to at least 20 daily trains, he said.

That 18 to 20 miles of new track, with signals, would cost $25 million to $30 million to lay, and 13 underpasses and overpasses at major intersections would cost between $50 million and $100 million more, he said.

Placing both Alameda lines below street level would add tens of millions more in cost, Baumhefner estimated.