Caltrans Rail Coach Sale Criticized : Officials Say Cars Could Have Been Used in Southland

Despite an 11th-hour protest, the state has sold 46 railroad cars coveted by Southern California transportation officials eager to expand passenger train service in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange counties.

California Department of Transportation officials said Tuesday that they have completed the $750,000 sale of the rail coaches to a Seattle-based tour group, despite objections from local lawmakers and transit authorities.

Opponents of the sale contend that the 140-passenger rail cars could have been used to help establish new commuter rail links in the Southland, including twice-daily service between Oceanside and San Diego. In addition, they argued that the sale price for the cars represents a mere fraction of their true worth.

‘Significant Opportunity’

“We feel this is a significant opportunity that may have been missed,” said Byron Nordberg, vice chairman of the Oceanside Transportation Commission. “It’s a $60-million asset that’s being given away for less than $1 million.”

A study is under way on the feasibility of establishing commuter rail lines along the existing railroad right-of-way between Orange County and downtown Los Angeles, as well as along the San Diego County coast. Although the study is not scheduled to be completed until next year, many Southland transit officials are confident that the report will conclude that such commuter runs would prove workable.

In such an event, the bargain-basement railway cars being sold by Caltrans could have served as a cheap and effective alternative to buying new models, which run in excess of $1 million per car, local transportation officials said. Moreover, the Caltrans rail cars could have been upgraded for $100,000 to $125,000 each, they said.

Only Bid Received

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said: “For the life of me, I don’t understand what the hurry was. I can’t imagine why Caltrans would conduct what amounts to a fire sale for trains.”

But Caltrans officials said the offer from Tour Alaska, a Seattle firm that packages tourist excursions by sea and rail, was the only bid they received for the coaches.

“I know some officials in Southern California would like the state, with all its big bucks, to hang onto those cars forever, but we don’t have the money to do that,” said Warren Weber, rail services chief for Caltrans. “In the interest of the taxpayers, we did the right thing.”

Until last year, the rail cars had been part of the commuter line along the San Francisco Peninsula, between San Francisco and San Jose. Caltrans began replacing the coaches, most of them at least 20 years old, with newer models in June, 1985, as part of a $100-million upgrade of the system.

Since then, the vehicles have sat in storage at a Southern Pacific Railroad yard in the Bay Area. In February, Caltrans sent out bid notices and advertised the pending sale of the cars in major railroad publications, Weber said.

The sale went largely unnoticed by Southland transit officials until the matter was brought before a regional rail committee about three weeks ago. When members of the group heard that the cars were available, they launched a last-ditch campaign to have the sale delayed.

Letters were dispatched in recent days by Katz and other state and local lawmakers pleading that the sale be postponed until Southern California officials had a chance to put together a package that could bring the trains south. In addition, protests were filed by the transportation commissions for Los Angeles and Orange counties, the San Diego Assn. of Governments and the cities of Santa Ana, Fullerton and Oceanside.

Caltrans officials considered the pleas but decided to go ahead with the sale because Southern California officials could provide no concrete plans or financing packages to handle moving and storing the cars, Weber said.

If Caltrans had opted to hold onto the coaches, it would have cost $14,000 a month for storage, he said. Moreover, if plans to use the cars on commuter links in the Southland fell through in a few years, the state would have faced having to sell the vehicles for an even lower price, Weber said.

“I think that, had they come forward and said, ‘We, the local agencies, are willing to pay,’ we probably would have acted differently,” Weber said. “Now it’s basically too late.”

Nordberg speculated that arrangements to move and store the vehicles, possibly at Camp Pendleton, could have been made in 30 to 90 days. The cars could have remained there until local agencies were prepared to go forward with local rail service, he said.

Some critics suggest that Caltrans deliberately sold the rail cars to an out-of-state firm in an effort to undercut efforts to establish commuter rail service in California. As critics like Katz see it, Caltrans officials historically have had “an anti-rail bias.”

‘Short-Sighted and Stupid’

If local officials decide to establish commuter links, they now will have to pay a much higher price for rail cars, they noted.

Noel Braymer of Los Angeles, Southern California vice president of the Railroad Passengers Assn. of California, said the sale “is just very short-sighted and stupid.”

Katz agreed, saying he felt it would ultimately prove to be a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“It’s one thing to sell those cars if there’s no one else who cares,” Katz said. “But there was definite interest expressed, folks who don’t want to shell out a lot of money sometime down the road for similar vehicles.”

Braymer said his group may go to court in an effort to block the sale. In addition, the organization has taken its complaints to gubernatorial candidate Tom Bradley in hopes of putting pressure on Gov. George Deukmejian to nix the sale.

Nonetheless, several Southland transit officials conceded that they felt such steps would be for naught, stressing that it would be practically impossible to reverse the sale.

“As far as I can tell, the opportunity is gone,” said Sharon Greene, manager of technical programs for the Orange County Transportation Commission. “With more time, we could have put together a package to accommodate Caltrans’ concerns. But they decided to act on what they saw as a certainty--an offer to buy.”

Greene suggested that, should the Southland commuter lines now under study prove feasible, a deal could be struck later with Tour Alaska to lease or purchase the cars. Tom Rader, president of Tour Alaska, said his firm would be interested in discussing such an arrangement.