State Ready to Finance Valley Leg of Subway

The California Transportation Commission on Friday signaled its approval of a financing plan that subway proponents said will bring Metro Rail to the San Fernando Valley by 1994.

Under the plan, the commission will pay $37 million toward building the 2.3-mile subway leg from Universal City to Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

The most controversial provision of the plan is a requirement that the city and county each chip in $18.5 million for the project. To make certain they do, a majority of the nine commissioners said they would withhold other funds designated for Metro Rail construction in Hollywood.

The commission, which is appointed by the governor and controls highway and transit spending in the state, directed its staff to prepare documents so that a vote can be taken on the plan at its June or July meeting.

Despite the lack of a vote Friday, Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), who has led efforts to force construction of the Valley leg, said after the commission action: “I now believe for the first time that we are going to get Metro Rail in the Valley as promised.”

Robbins and John A. Dyer, general manager of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which is building Metro Rail, both predicted that, because of the threat to withhold funds, the city and county will come up with their shares.

Little Enthusiasm

When the financing plan was revealed a month ago, city and county officials expressed reluctance to contribute to building the Valley section.

Robbins and other Valley elected officials have for years expressed fear that RTD would indefinitely postpone construction of the Valley leg of the North Hollywood-to-downtown system.

Robbins sponsored a 1984 state law that requires the start of construction on the Valley end within one year of the Sept. 29, 1986, ground breaking downtown.

The law also requires RTD to spend on the Valley part of the subway 15% of the non-federal funds spent on Metro Rail construction outside the Valley.

RTD officials said the 15% will amount to $74 million between now and 1994, when the district expects to complete Metro Rail from downtown to Universal City.

Despite repeated threats from Robbins and others to take punitive legislative action, RTD until a few months ago had taken no action to abide by the law, saying it had no money.

Dyer, who presented the financing plan to the state commission Friday after getting it approved a day earlier by RTD directors, acknowledged in an interview that Robbins’ “very cleverly drafted” state law spurred the district to prepare the plan.

He said the $74 million will build 4,500 feet of a twin tunnel from Universal City to the Ventura Freeway that will initially be used to store trains.

The remaining 1.3 miles of the Valley leg, plus additional tunneling for train storage, will be completed after 1994, simultaneous with construction of a Metro Rail branch on Wilshire Boulevard to Fairfax Avenue, Dyer said.

Another factor clouding efforts to bring the subway to the Valley has been a push by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to substitute a low-cost trolley for the Universal City to North Hollywood leg.

Light-Rail Substitution

The county commission, which is building a regional light-rail system, continues to be interested in substituting light rail for subway in the Valley if the Robbins-sponsored law is repealed, Rick Richmond, commission executive director, said Friday.

He said in an interview that, if a trolley line were substituted for the subway in the Valley, the proposed tunnel north of Universal City “would still be of use to store trains. It would not be money wasted.”

He said there is no way of knowing how the commission will react to the request for $18.5 million for the Valley leg, although he said the money is available.