Senate Votes Trolley Funds for Extension Into El Cajon

Struggling to meet budget spending targets, the Senate on Wednesday approved a $9.9-billion 1986 transportation appropriations bill that preserved funds for the San Diego Trolley’s East Line.

The bill, which now goes to a joint conference committee to resolve differences with a House-approved version, includes about $18.5 million in 1986 financing for the eastern extension. The House version allocated $8 million for the expansion. It also includes language rejecting an effort by the Reagan Administration, which opposes new commuter rail projects, to postpone disbursement of an additional $129 million previously approved by Congress. The Administration’s proposal would have frozen an additional $11.3 million previously approved for the trolley’s Euclid extension, the first portion of the East Line.

The Senate also voted large cuts in the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Coast Guard.

MTDB officials hope to have the 4.5 miles of track to Euclid operating by spring. Construction already has begun on the Euclid extension and the trolley cars that one day will run on its rails have arrived from Europe.

Tom Larwin, general manager of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, said Wednesday that under a new financial plan for the eastern extension scheduled for approval by MTDB directors this morning, the $18.5 million would be the last federal grant necessary to complete the $40-million, 12.9-mile extension to El Cajon.

Originally, $40 million in federal funds had been requested for the project, but Larwin said, “If we get the full $18.5 million, that gives us about $29 million in federal money, and we can secure funding elsewhere for the final $10.2 million. That’s why we’re hoping the final version of the bill will be the same as the Senate’s.”

MTDB officials hope to have the East Line in operation to Grossmont Center and El Cajon by late 1988.

The East Line will run parallel to and just south of Highway 94, passing through La Mesa and Lemon Grove before turning north to El Cajon. Transit officials predict that, by the mid-1990s, 20,000 passengers, almost half of them commuters, will ride the East Line daily. It is expected that the trolley will help ease traffic congestion on Interstate 8 and Highway 94, the major thoroughfares linking East County with downtown San Diego.

“We consider this to be a crucial project for San Diego,” said Otto Bos, an aide to Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who opposed the Administration’s attempts to cut funding for the East Line. Bos said, however, that the conference committee’s final version of the bill would likely leave “something less than $18.5 million for the trolley. Usually, the final figure is a compromise between the earlier versions approved in the House and Senate.”

Also included in the Senate bill was about $84 million in 1986 financing for the first 4.4-mile section of the proposed Los Angeles Metro Rail subway. The bill also contains good news for Los Angeles County bus riders because it includes only a minor reduction in aid to local transit systems, meaning fare increases or service cutbacks being studied by the Southern California Rapid Transit District probably will not have to be made at the end of the year.

In addition, the Senate rejected an attempt to abolish Amtrak by cutting off its proposed $616-million subsidy for next year.

The Senate bill is nearly $1 billion below the House-passed version and nearly $2 billion below the 1985 transportation appropriation.

A group of senators led by Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.) tried unsuccessfully to restore some of the $500 million in cutbacks the bill includes for the FAA, which has been the focus of attention recently because of a series of airliner crashes, and the Coast Guard, which has assumed a major role in the government’s war on drug smuggling.

Kassebaum and her allies argued that backers of the bill were “confining the misery” of budget cuts to two high-profile agencies, while protecting “some very controversial” programs--an apparent reference to mass transit projects opposed by the Administration.

Sen. Mark Andrews (R-N.D.), floor manager for the bill, called the Kassebaum amendment “an attack” on mass transit and other programs. He acknowledged that concentrating cuts on the Coast Guard and the FAA was part of a strategy to build congressional and Administration support to exceed the $9.9-billion transportation spending outlay, which he called “wrong-headed.”

Kassebaum said that approach was “not responsible” and instead called for a 6% across-the-board cut in the transportation bill--a reduction that would have meant a loss of several million dollars in Metro Rail funding and bus subsidies for Los Angeles.

California Sens. Alan Cranston, a Democrat, and Pete Wilson, a Republican, were among those voting down the amendment. Both expressed hope that additional funds can be found for the FAA and Coast Guard when Senate and House conferees consider the measure. A 6% across-the-board cut would have “under-funded the requirements of mass transit,” said Wilson, a Metro Rail supporter.

Noting that $84 million is far below what the RTD wants, Cranston said: “The Los Angeles Metro Rail is not getting what it needs. I didn’t want to see further cuts.”

After the Kassebaum amendment was defeated, a smaller 1.6% across-the-board cut in the bill was made to bring the overall total into compliance with previously approved spending targets. In terms of Metro Rail, there will be two key issues when House and Senate conferees draft the final version of the bill in meetings expected to begin within the next few weeks.

RTD officials want to boost the Senate’s $84 million 1986 appropriation for the project closer to the House figure of $117 million. More importantly, they want the final bill to include a guarantee that the full $429 million in federal funds needed to complete the project will be available. The first phase of Metro Rail is to run from Union Station to Alvarado Street.

Language ordering the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to enter into a so-called full-funding contract is in the House version, but was excluded from the Senate version. Andrews, who chairs the Senate appropriation transportation subcommittee, has said he strongly opposes the full-funding language--which would apply to Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami--because it reduces Congress’ funding options in future years and gives these cities preferential treatment.

But the Senate bill, as amended Wednesday, orders the Administration to release transit construction funds it has been withholding. Earlier this month, the Administration had notified Congress that it intended to postpone spending $223 million for Metro Rail and projects in several other cities, including the $11.3 million for the San Diego Trolley.