Panel Orders Study of Antonovich Idea : Futuristic Transit Plan Gets Boost

A proposal by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to build a monorail or magnetic-levitation train along the Ventura and Hollywood freeways got a small boost Wednesday when the county Transportation Commission ordered one of its committees to study the futuristic plan.

Although keeping the proposal alive, the commission refused Antonovich’s request for immediate environmental and ridership studies.

On a 7-4 vote, the commission, which is building a countywide network of light-rail lines using conventional technology, referred the supervisor’s plan to its Rapid Transit Committee.

It also directed staff engineers to conduct research on monorail and magnetic-levitation systems in use throughout the world.

Antonovich, who represents most of the San Fernando Valley and is facing a vigorous reelection challenge June 7, said he considered the vote “a step in the right direction,” adding that he thinks the proposal will “eventually get a full study.” On Feb. 29, Antonovich unexpectedly introduced a new element into the years-long debate over Valley rail transit with his proposal to scrap the commission’s plan for an east-west light-rail line between North Hollywood and the Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

Monorail Urged

Instead of a 15-mile light-rail line, he urged that a monorail or magnetic-levitation train line be built along the 101 Freeway from the Ventura County line to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, a distance of 26 miles.

In interviews, commission staff members have reacted skeptically to Antonovich’s advocacy of new technology.

Richard Stanger, the commission’s director of program development, said existing monorails, which use a single rail, usually on rubber tires, are “mostly confined to amusement parks or small demonstration projects.”

Stanger said they are “operationally cumbersome because they don’t allow you to easily substitute trains when a breakdown occurs” and they present “significant safety problems because, when an incident occurs, you have only a 2-foot-wide beam or rail for passengers to walk on to escape.”

Magnetic trains, which float above a rail-like guideway and are propelled by a magnetic force, are too new to be in regular use anywhere in the world, he said.

But, he said, many transit experts feel “that mag-lev is the technology of the future. But I estimate their time is 10 to 20 years away.”

Rail cars ride on steel wheels on a steel track in conventional light-rail and heavy-rail lines.

The Rapid Transit Committee next meets March 18, but staff members expressed doubt that they could prepare a report in time for that session.