Redondo and Torrance Seek Environmental Study on Rail Line Plan

Seeking to take advantage of a so-called “window of opportunity” for extra transportation funds, Torrance and Redondo Beach have endorsed preparation of an environmental impact study on construction of a South Bay light-rail line.

City councils in both cities unanimously approved resolutions this week asking the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to begin work on the environmental impact statement. The commission is expected to consider the request next month, but there is no guarantee that the study will be approved.

“I just don’t know if it is going to be possible to get the political support,” said Jacki Bacharach, a Rancho Palos Verdes councilwoman and member of the transportation commission.

The study would examine possible routes and station locations for a rail line that would run from Torrance to El Segundo, where it would connect with the Century Freeway light-rail line under construction. Construction of an elevated rail line from El Segundo through Torrance could cost as much as much as $450 million to $500 million, the commission has said.

The cities want the commission to prepare the study as the first step toward development of a rail project that could compete for $700 million in transportation funds that may become available in the early 1990s.

The money was originally set aside for rail lines in the San Fernando Valley, but that commitment is in jeopardy because of disagreements over light-rail routes there.

Sensing that an opportunity may exist to capture extra transit funds, local officials, acting at the behest of the El Segundo Employers Assn. and several South Bay chambers of commerce, have been building a case for moving ahead with the environmental study.

After smoothing over differences that cropped up last week, Torrance City Council members agreed Tuesday that the rail line should run along busy Hawthorne Boulevard all the way to the Los Angeles County landfill at the northern edge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Park-and-Ride Lot

Council members earlier had expressed concern that the line ended in the middle of the city, and Torrance could become a “dumping ground” for the cars of Palos Verdes Peninsula commuters headed for aerospace jobs near Los Angeles International Airport. The landfill, between Hawthorne Boulevard and Crenshaw Boulevard south of Rolling Hills Road, is big enough to accommodate a large park-and-ride lot.

A rail line using sleek, modern electric trains is seen as a way to relieve worsening traffic congestion that threatens to lead to gridlock on South Bay streets and highways.

In requesting the environmental study, the Torrance council said that “traffic congestion in the South Bay is approaching crisis dimensions (and is) threatening the well-being of its cities and residents.”

The Torrance council said any environmental study should examine alternate routes, construction schedules, station locations and the aesthetics of building a street-level or elevated system.

Although local governments have been lining up in support of the study, Bacharach said it appears that there isn’t enough money to do the whole South Bay rail network.

Longer Route More Difficult

If Torrance insists on a system that goes all the way to the landfill instead of one built in shorter segments, Bacharach said winning the transportation commission’s approval for the environmental study becomes a “much more difficult political battle.”

Normally, she said the commission does not proceed with an environmental impact report without a strong possibility that the rail line could be funded.

With such a big price tag and limited funds available, Bacharach said the commission is more likely to proceed with an environmental study of a cheaper $200 million to $250 million rail line running north from El Segundo to Marina del Rey.

“That alignment is pretty well known, scoped out and ready to go into an environmental impact statement,” Bacharach said.

However, the Rancho Palos Verdes official said, “traffic in this area is very, very severe and we could use some kind of relief.”