Dole Says No to Money for Next Metro Rail Leg

Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole said Friday that she opposes legislation calling for spending up to $870 million for the proposed second segment of Los Angeles’ Metro Rail transit line.

Instead of counting on money from the federal government, Dole said, Los Angeles should find its own way to pay for an extension of the line beyond the initial 4.4-mile section now under construction.

“We are not looking to more federal funding,” Dole said. “We are looking to the local folks to pick up on the eight or the 18 miles.”

At a breakfast interview session with reporters and editors of The Times’ Washington Bureau, Dole also said that raising the speed limit on rural interstate highways to 65 m.p.h. could improve safety by freeing police to crack down on more dangerous drivers.

Both the Metro Rail funding and the speed limit provision are included in a massive highway construction bill that is pending before a two-house conference committee in Congress.

The House version of the bill would authorize $91.6 billion for road construction and mass transit projects, including $870 million for Metro Rail. The Senate version would authorize $65.4 billion for transportation projects and includes a general authorization for the Los Angeles transit line without specifying a dollar amount.

The states and the highway construction industry say that they desperately need passage of the legislation to begin work this spring.

But Dole pointed out that the Administration has threatened to veto the bill if it exceeds $77 billion. She stopped short of saying that President Reagan would veto the legislation solely because of opposition to the Metro Rail funds.

Last year, Reagan denounced the transit line as an example of “a ton of fat” in the federal budget. But Congress has won approval of funds to help pay for the first Metro Rail segment by including the money in other major legislation that the President did not want to veto.

Since signing a contract last year committing federal funds to the first Metro Rail segment, Dole said that she now feels more welcome when she travels to Los Angeles.

“It has been nice to be able to go into Los Angeles recently without being bombarded from all sides,” she said. “For a year or two there it was amazing, I’d step off a plane and that’s all I heard from everybody, everywhere I went.”

Rick Jager, a spokesman for the Southern California Rapid Transit District, said that the agency had no comment on Dole’s opposition to further federal funding.

The proposed second segment of the line would begin at MacArthur Park, the end of the first 4.4-mile section, and run four or five miles to Hollywood along a route that has not been determined. Ultimately, the line is planned to travel at least 18.6 miles, from Union Station to the San Fernando Valley.

On the speed limit issue, Dole discounted warnings from some lawmakers that raising the 55-m.p.h. speed limit because it is disregarded by drivers would invariably lead to a sharp increase in road deaths.

“I would support giving the governors more flexibility with regard to rural interstates where you have the best-built (highways and) low-volume traffic,” Dole said. “You can do that, certainly, and not feel that you’re spilling blood.”

Dole, discussing the department’s decision to implement drug testing, appealed to unions to drop their opposition to the testing of airline pilots, railroad employees and other transportation workers. She argued that the testing could help workers responsible for travelers’ safety overcome their drug addiction by providing counseling and treatment.

“I wish the unions would work with me on this,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is give people a chance to say ‘I have a serious problem, I want some help.’ We’ll give them counseling, we’ll give them rehabilitation. . . .”

Dole noted that her stand on drug testing had created some antagonism among rank-and-file pilots--as she learned on a recent flight.

“I got off the plane and kind of looked in the cockpit and I said, ‘Enjoyed being with you all, have a good day,’ and I got the cold shoulder. No response,” she recalled.