‘Metro Rail Is Dead . . .’

Waxman makes a good case for investigating other rapid transit possibilities rather than settling for a subway system beset with potential safety problems and ever-diminishing hope of adequate financing. Since it seems clear that the public transportation funding pie will be considerably smaller in the future, we will need to use what money is available very wisely.

I support his advocacy of using freeway right-of-way for light-rail lines. This is a concept that has been used successfully in Chicago, which now has three rapid transit lines running down freeway medians. Just last year the final section of the line running down the Kennedy Expressway was completed, giving downtown Chicago direct rapid transit access to O’Hare Airport. Building such lines is not cheap, but is still a far cry from the expense involved in tunneling through pockets of natural gas, old oil wells, and earthquake faults.

We already have something like this on our freeways: the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific both have lines that share freeway space with auto traffic. Two years ago I returned to Los Angeles on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, which arrives during the morning commute. It was a distinctly enjoyable experience to be clipping along in a comfortable seat sipping coffee while smiling benignly on the poor souls who were struggling along in their cars along the Foothill Freeway. And did I detect some envious glances from those commuters as they battled their way into the city that morning?

JEROME P. STACK

Norwalk