Antonovich Gets Mixed Reviews for Rail Proposal

A proposal by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to build a monorail or magnetic-levitation train along the Ventura and Hollywood freeways drew mixed reviews Monday, with a key transit official scoffing at the plan and some elected officials and a homeowner leader endorsing it.

At a news conference Monday, Antonovich gave details of the line he is proposing, which would employ new rail technology and would extend 26 miles along the 101 freeway from the Ventura County line to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Rather than rely on conventional light-rail technology, the proposed east-west Valley transit line should be a monorail, a magnetic-levitation train or utilize “other advanced concepts,” Antonovich urged.

The supervisor’s advocacy of new technology brought a sharp dissent from Jacki Bacharach, an influential member of the county Transportation Commission, which is building a countywide network of light-rail lines.

“We already are building a state-of-the-art system,” said Bacharach, who chairs both the commission’s Rapid Transit and Rail Construction committees.

Systems Never Proven

Bacharach said advanced systems never have been proven in commuter service. “There is not a transit agency on the planet that is building a monorail or magnetic-levitation system for revenue-producing use,” she said.

Such systems are confined to demonstration projects such as the monorails at the site of the Seattle World’s Fair and Disneyland, she said.

“Everyone says that Japan is on the cutting edge of technology,” said Bacharach, a Rancho Palos Verdes councilwoman. “Well, in Japan, they are building large numbers of light-rail lines such as ours and heavy-rail lines such as Metro Rail.”

Monorails ride on a single rail, usually on rubber tires, while magnetic-levitation trains float above a rail-like guideway, propelled by a magnetic force.

Antonovich, facing a vigorous reelection challenge June 7 from a handful of regional candidates, said he will ask the commission March 9 to finance a study of his proposal, using the estimated $400 million available for light-rail projects.

Bacharach, noting that an east-west light-rail line for the Valley is under consideration, said she doubted commissioners “would shift gears and study this new plan.”

The commission’s proposed Valley light-rail line would connect to the North Hollywood-to-downtown Metro Rail subway either in North Hollywood or Universal City.

Rosa Kortizija, Antonovich’s transportation deputy, said the supervisor’s proposed line, “if determined to be feasible and if a decision is made to build it,” would replace both the planned light-rail line and the planned Metro Rail leg through Cahuenga Pass.

Antonovich’s proposal was welcomed Monday by Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who has been critical of the commission’s handling of Valley light rail and also has waged a war of words recently with Mayor Tom Bradley over transportation and other issues.

Yaroslavsky, who represents Sherman Oaks and North Hollywood and is expected to challenge Bradley for the mayor’s post in 1989, has argued against a Bradley plan, tentatively approved by the City Council last week, to ask Valley voters in June if they favor a light-rail system.

Calling the proposed referendum a “motherhood question that should pass overwhelmingly,” Yaroslavsky said that “after June 7, we will be faced with the really important questions of what technology and what route, and Mr. Antonovich, at least, is not politically punting like the mayor and the council did last week. At least he is addressing these basic questions.”

Richard Smith, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn., said leaders of his group have endorsed Antonovich’s plan “because we felt it was important to support an elected official who is taking a step forward in solving our transportation” problems.

Smith said his association “has no problem with the freeway route; in fact, we think it makes a lot of sense.”

Smith also said the leadership “finds it appealing that under Antonovich’s plan, there would be no changing of trains in North Hollywood or Universal City.”

But Tom Paterson, president of the Valley Village Homeowners Assn., said he had “very strong doubts about a monorail or other type of elevated train on the freeway because the noise cannot be mitigated.”

Noting that a long-delayed widening of the Ventura Freeway got under way last month, he said it “seems unfair and unwise to disrupt the freeway twice. Either the freeway work should not go forward or this proposal should be dropped.”