Federal Transit Chief Sides With Commission, Not RTD

The Reagan Administration’s top mass transit administrator has stepped into a fight between Los Angeles County’s two big public transportation agencies with sharp criticism of the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

Discussing the fight between the RTD and the Transportation Commission over who should build the Metro Rail subway project, Alfred A. DelliBovi said, “If I was really asked if I thought who could bring it in quicker and at lower cost, I would put my money on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.”

Request for Comment

DelliBovi, who heads the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, spoke in a telephone interview Thursday night in response to a request for comment on the continuing war between the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the commission.

The commission, formed by the Legislature several years ago to make sense out of a jumbled local transit picture, has been trying for years to become the dominant agency, seeking control of construction and operations of surface commuter rail lines and the subway. At present, the RTD is building the subway and will operate it. The commission, meanwhile, is building surface trolley lines.

After Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed a consolidation bill, the battle shifted back to Los Angeles, with the commission determined to use its major clout: Under law, it distributes much of the money for public transportation in the area.

Last month, the commission voted to form a rail corporation that would take future work on Metro Rail away from the RTD. The RTD would complete work on the subway from Los Angeles Union Station through downtown to MacArthur Park, and the corporation would take over the next phase, which would extend to North Hollywood.

Action Held Up

At the Transportation Commission’s request, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration has said it was holding up action on the RTD’s request for money for the MacArthur Park-North Hollywood stretch so the commission could also submit a request. Presumably, the winner in the fight would get the money from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration.

In his criticism of the RTD, DelliBovi reflected some of the private enterprise thinking of the Reagan Administration, indicating a preference for the Transportation Commission, which favors decentralization of transit operations with smaller regional bus lines and turning over as much work as possible to private industry.

That is in line with the composition of the commission board, dominated by conservative-leaning suburbanites, including appointees of the Board of Supervisors, also made up of a conservative majority. The head of the commission board is Supervisor Pete Schabarum, a leading advocate of small regional bus lines and of contracting out work to private enterprise.

“The signs seem to suggest that the LACTC . . . hasn’t lost anything by its no-frills approach,” he said.

While the RTD’s big Metro Rail construction job is being done by private contractors using strict union contracts, the presence on its board of some appointees of urban, labor-oriented liberals has stopped the organization from moving heavily into turning over repair work and many other functions to private enterprise.

‘Lean and Mean Approach’

“Do you staff up with a big bureaucracy, as at the RTD, or do you go with the sort of lean and mean approach as the LACTC has done?” DelliBovi asked.

Alan Pegg, general manager of the RTD, said he thinks that the district should continue to build the subway.

“They (the commission) don’t even have a project of this scope,” he said. Referring to increases in projected costs of the commission’s Long Beach-to-Los Angeles trolley line, he said: “They have had planning and construction changes over there, and we are under budget at this point. Frankly, I think the track record of the two organizations are different.”

Gordana Swanson, president of the RTD board, said DelliBovi is “talking out of his head. He doesn’t understand the issue. . . . What is being done here is a very unfair and unwise thing for the commission. While they are trying to feather their political nests, they are holding the people of Los Angeles County hostage.”

She warned that delays will add $11.4 million a month to the cost of Metro Rail.