Valley Leg of Metro Rail to Start by Fall, RTD Pledges

Under grilling from state Sen. Alan Robbins, a top Southern California Rapid Transit District official Thursday promised the California Transportation Commission that the RTD will comply with a state law requiring work to begin on the San Fernando Valley end of Los Angeles’ Metro Rail subway project by the end of September.

The assurance came from Albert Perdon, acting assistant general manager of planning and communications for the RTD, who appeared at a commission meeting here at Robbins’ request.

Robbins (D-Van Nuys) had himself appointed to the commission by the state Senate Rules Committee because, he said, the RTD was not doing enough to comply with the 1984 law he authored that requires the RTD to initiate construction of the Valley end of Metro Rail within one year of beginning construction in downtown Los Angeles. Ground breaking took place downtown Sept. 29.

“What my constituents have been afraid of all along is that they’ll get the shaft instead of the tunnel,” Robbins told Perdon during the commission meeting. He was referring to RTD promises to build the northern end of Metro Rail to win crucial Valley political support for the project and to allay fears that Valley taxpayers will shoulder a large share of the cost but receive little benefit.

Amendment to Delay Building of Station

Robbins said he had agreed to sponsor an amendment to the law, as requested by the RTD, to allow the Valley end of the project to begin with a tunnel from Universal City toward North Hollywood. The law now requires the RTD to begin by building a station at the northern end of the planned subway, at Chandler and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood.

Robbins said the RTD wants to delay the station because of uncertainty over the route of a proposed trolley line that would connect the station to the West Valley. The design of the station depends on the entry point for the trolley line.

Robbins said he had no problems agreeing to the change, which simply involves starting from the south end of the Valley segment instead of the north.

“It doesn’t matter to me whether they dig from Universal City to North Hollywood, or from North Hollywood to Universal City,” Robbins said.

Perdon said he doubts that actual tunneling could begin by Sept. 30, but promised that the RTD will have awarded the contract by then for work on the Valley end, estimated to cost $250 million to $270 million. Construction will begin within 60 to 90 days after the contract is awarded, he said.

“That’s something I can live with,” responded Robbins, who commented after the meeting that he believes the RTD is making a good-faith effort to comply with the law.

Link Between Downtown, Valley Uncertain

But Perdon also said that uncertainty over the future of Metro Rail leaves unanswered the question of when--if ever--the downtown and Valley parts of the subway will be linked.

Because of this question, Perdon told the commission, RTD officials believe that the Legislature should consider changing the law requiring construction to start in the Valley within a year after ground breaking downtown.

Robbins has said he has the political clout in the Legislature to block any effort by RTD to get out of starting Metro Rail in the Valley this year. Perdon said he doesn’t know whether that is true, but the RTD “has an obligation” to “present the alternatives,” including delaying construction on the Valley end.

“Should we start construction in the Valley, leaving the gap between that and the downtown portion and have this gap for five years, eight years or who knows how many years?” Perdon asked the commission, “or does it make more sense to build it out as fast as you can” from downtown “and hope it gets out to the Valley?”

The uncertainties looming for the subway project include financing and resolving the route through the Fairfax district. The RTD has been ordered by Congress, as a condition of more federal funding, to examine alternate routes because of the danger from gas accumulations in the district, a former oil field.

Rick Richmond, executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said in an interview after the meeting that he doubts that work should begin on the Valley end of Metro Rail when the question remains whether the RTD ever will have enough money to connect it to the tunnel downtown. The commission is one of a number of government agencies providing funds for Metro Rail.

Richmond said he will continue studying the possibility of terminating Metro Rail in Universal City, instead of North Hollywood, and substituting a trolley link to the West Valley.

‘Waste of Time, Money’

Robbins called Richmond’s efforts “a waste of time and money.” He said that, politically, there is no way the RTD could escape its obligation under the law he authored to extend Metro Rail to North Hollywood. Robbins also said he will continue trying to abolish the county transportation commission on which Richmond serves.

No agreement has been reached among the city, county, state and federal governments over funding the Valley segment of Metro Rail. But, Perdon told the commission, the RTD could divert funds from the stretch of Metro Rail now under construction downtown, which could be used to comply with Robbins’ law, at least for the first year of construction.

The Robbins law requires the RTD to spend on Valley construction 15% of the non-federal funds spent the previous year on the downtown end. That means the RTD must spend $13 million on the Valley end of the project by June, 1988, Perdon said.

The commission asked Perdon to have the RTD present a construction schedule for the Valley end of Metro Rail at the commission’s Feb. 19 meeting in Sacramento, giving specific dates when engineering studies will be complete, when contracts will be awarded and when construction will begin and end.