Funds OKd for Trolley’s East Line : State Restores $6.5 Million; Construction to Begin in Fall

Construction on San Diego’s trolley line to El Cajon, derailed when Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed state construction funds, will begin this fall, as the California Transportation Commission on Thursday restored $6.5 million for the project.

The state commission voted the trolley extension project a slice of leftover state transit funds, enough to qualify the East County trolley project for an already-approved federal grant of $20.3 million endangered when state matching money was vetoed by the governor in June.

The commission Thursday also approved funds to add an eighth daily Amtrak passenger train between Los Angeles and San Diego starting next July. The new train will offer the first direct service between San Diego and Santa Barbara.

Thursday’s vote on trolley funds will allow start of the East Line construction this fall, with completion of the 11.1-mile, $87-million project east from its terminus at Euclid Avenue in Southeast San Diego to Main Street in El Cajon expected by early 1989. A four-mile, $33-million portion of the eastern extension--from downtown San Diego to Euclid Avenue--opened in March.

Metropolitan Transit Development Board officials Jim Mills and Tom Larwin attended the crucial commission session Thursday to lobby for restoration of the state funds needed before federal funds for the project would be released.

Assemblyman Larry Stirling, R-San Diego, praised MTDB Chairman Mills and Robert Nielsen, executive director of the state Transportation Commission, for rescuing the trolley project, which appeared doomed when Deukmejian vetoed $35 million in public transportation funds, including an $8-million allotment for the San Diego trolley extension.

Stirling, who also appeared before the transportation commission board to urge funding of the project, called the mass transit project “critical” to eastern San Diego County to relieve increasing traffic congestion on the two major east-west highways serving the area--Interstate 8, which reaches near-gridlock conditions during peak commuting hours, and California 94.

The East Line will serve a 114-square-mile area with a population of nearly 500,000 in East San Diego, Encanto, Spring Valley, Lemon Grove, La Mesa and El Cajon. Congress has reserved an additional $31 million for completion of the East Line trolley system, but local funds will be required in future years to gain release of the federal money.

Judy Leitner, spokeswoman for MTDB, said the transportation commission decision Thursday was “the last major hurdle” before ground breaking on the trolley line, probably in October or November. Remaining steps include awarding the construction contract and ordering trolley cars for the expanded system.

The state funds came from $9.4 million in unexpended state transportation money from last year’s budget, sufficient to cover partial funding for only four top-priority projects proposed in this year’s transportation budget. The trolley extension was the fourth and final project funded.

The Transportation Commission action comes on the San Diego Trolley’s fifth anniversary. The system began operation on its 15.9-mile South Line from downtown San Diego to the International Border at San Ysidro in July, 1981. It carried more than 7 million passengers during the year ending July 1 and set a record 90% fare box recovery rate--one of the highest in the nation. The fare box recovery rate indicates that passenger fares amounted to 90% of the line’s operating costs.