$2.2-Billion Metro Rail Plan Told

After months of negotiations, a tentative financing plan for the $2.2-billion second phase of the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway--to cover the costs of extending the system from MacArthur Park to North Hollywood--was unveiled Wednesday by city and county transportation officials.

If approved by various federal, state and local agencies, the plan would permit local officials to balance a number of sensitive political issues. Chief among those is avoiding running elevated trains through the heart of Hollywood because a recently adopted route calls for the entire project to be built underground.

It also would salve influential San Fernando Valley political leaders, who are fretting that their constituents may never get a piece of one the most expensive public works projects in California history.

The proposal calls for a total $3.45-billion, 17.7-mile system from downtown Los Angeles to the Valley, but one that would not be completed until 1997, a few years later than previous proposals circulated by the RTD.

The financing plan received a warm initial reception at Los Angeles City Hall, where the City Council’s Traffic and Transportation Committee unanimously recommended its adoption by the full council.

But the plan, which calls for sharply increased contributions from various funding partners, is far from a done deal.

Among other things, it assumes that the federal government will promise an additional $560 million for the second phase--on top of the $667 million already pledged in last year’s omnibus, multiyear Transportation Act.

Metro Rail supporters in Congress struggled to overcome the objections of the Reagan Administration and others to win the current commitment and the new plan could be even more difficult. “It seems like a bit much,” said Paul Schlessinger, an aide to Rep. Glenn Anderson (D-Hawthorne). “It’s not going to be easy.”

Anderson is the powerful chairman of the House Public Works Committee and a leading Metro Rail backer.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s overall commitment to the subway system would increase about $200 million, according to the panel’s executive director, Paul Taylor. Taylor also is recommending that the commission, using funds it derives from a local half-cent sales tax dedicated to transit, make up any shortfall in proposed federal financing.

If that became necessary, other rail projects planned in the San Fernando Valley, East Los Angeles and the South Bay might have to be delayed, he acknowledged.

Los Angeles’ share of the overall project would increase from $69 million to $124 million under the plan. While Metro Rail supporters predicted quick council approval and Mayor Tom Bradley has been a leading backer of the subway project, the proposal could become tangled up in mayoral election politics. An aide to Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is expected to challenge Bradley in next year’s mayoral race, said the councilman had not yet evaluated the plan.