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Trolley Officials Take a Stab at Swaying Feds

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Times Staff Writer

San Diego officials plan to testify before a congressional subcommittee May 2 in Washington in hopes of persuading a reluctant Reagan Administration to help fund an $80-million extension of the San Diego Trolley to El Cajon.

The White House opposes further federal funding of new mass transit projects. But City Councilman Dick Murphy, who is chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, is “somewhat optimistic” that the Administration can be persuaded to share costs of the 11-mile East Line extension, which the MTDB unanimously approved Thursday. So he plans to plead San Diego’s case before a House of Representatives Appropriations Committee subcommittee.

After Murphy warned of a “breakdown” of San Diego transportation by the year 2000, MTDB officials voted Thursday to choose the downtown San Diego-to-El Cajon extension rather than six alternative proposals. Alternatives ranged from doing nothing to adding buses to extending the East Line to Santee.

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The MTDB’s next step involves sending an environmental impact statement to the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) in Washington. It wants half of the $80 million in projected funds to come from the federal government.

Congress has already appropriated $11 million for the extension, but the Administration has held up the funds.

On Friday, UMTA officials reacted cautiously to news of the MTDB vote.

The unanimity of the vote won’t affect the size of any federal funding, UMTA spokesman Joe Slye said in Washington. “The proposed 1986 budget puts limitations on funding of new mass transit programs,” he said

“Right now the Administration is saying they will not fund any more new (mass transit) starts until the budget deficit is under control,” said Brigid Hynes-Cherin, regional administrator for UMTA in San Francisco.

“The White House has recommended no funding for our project or any other mass transit project in the United States,” Murphy said Friday. “However, our project compares favorably to almost any other mass transportation project in the United States by the Administration’s own criteria because it has such a low cost to build and such a small amount of operating subsidy.”

The extension would cut traffic and smog, Murphy said.

“I think San Diego is doomed to a breakdown of its transportation if it does not build an alternative to the automobile by the year 2000,” Murphy continued. “Our existing freeways, particularly the east-west freeways, are already at capacity. If we don’t provide some other way for people to get around the San Diego region, our freeways are going be just like the freeways in L.A. within 10 years.”

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The first 4.5 miles of the East Line--from downtown to Euclid Avenue--are being built and should be open for business early next year, transit planners have said.

Murphy said he has spoken twice to UMTA Administrator Ralph Stanley and gotten from him “a kind of a non-commitment. He was not negative, but he’s working for an Administration that does not want to spend any money on mass transit.”

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