List Narrowed to Victory, 2 Rail Routes for Valley Trolley

Light-rail planners Friday recommended that Victory Boulevard and two Southern Pacific railroad lines be designated as possible routes for the proposed east-west San Fernando Valley trolley.

Staff members of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission also urged an end to consideration of four other proposed cross-Valley routes--Sherman Way, Ventura Boulevard, the Ventura Freeway and the Los Angeles River Flood Control Channel.

The commission’s Rapid Transit Committee is scheduled to vote Friday on the staff proposals, said Rick Richmond, the commission’s executive director.

The full commission, which is using sales tax receipts to build a countywide light-rail system, is to decide Jan. 28 which routes to subject to a yearlong environmental study.

The latest three routes are being considered because of public opposition to the staff’s first choice, the Southern Pacific freight line along Chandler and Victory boulevards. Yet that route remains as one of the three alternatives endorsed Friday. That is because commission members refused to omit it entirely while agreeing to look at alternatives.

In the report released Friday, the commission staff did not give an edge to any of the three recommended routes.

Same Terminus Involved

Each of the three would connect with the proposed Metro Rail subway station at the intersection of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

The Victory Boulevard route would follow Victory from North Hollywood to the intersection of Victory and Topanga Canyon boulevards at the Woodland Hills-Canoga Park border.

As proposed by the staff, west of the San Diego Freeway the trolley would use the Southern Pacific’s freight line, whereas east of the freeway it would be an aerial line along Victory.

One of the two endorsed railroad routes is the Southern Pacific mainline, which runs along the southern edge of Burbank Airport, then traverses the Valley diagonally to Chatsworth.

The other is the railroad’s little-used freight line in the median of Chandler Boulevard west from the proposed subway station. West of the San Diego Freeway, the trolley would continue on the railroad right-of-way to Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Citing opposition to trains on Chandler, the staff also has endorsed a variation of this route that would place the trains on elevated tracks along Oxnard Boulevard from the North Hollywood subway station to Woodman Avenue.

The variant would avoid Chandler but would create noise for residents along Oxnard, the report noted.

West of Woodman, the trolley would follow the railroad right of way to Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

The staff has proposed that Lankershim and the Hollywood Freeway be studied as possible routes to connect the proposed subway station with the Southern Pacific mainline, the Victory route or the Oxnard variation of the freight line.

The four routes which the commission was urged to drop were downgraded by the staff as too costly or on the grounds that they would disturb too many residents and businesses.

Planners say that, during rush hour, trains will run every six minutes in each direction.

Richmond has estimated that a Valley trolley could be in operation by 1995.

However, the commission has said that the Valley is in competition with a proposed South Bay line and a downtown Los Angeles-to-Pasadena line.

Richmond has estimated there will only be money available to build one new line before the mid-1990s.