A Reasonable Plan for Mass Transit in County

Carl Schiermeyer in his Commentary (Jan. 15) produced some interesting data regarding existing rail transportation through Orange County. Building more sections of double track is a must and upgrading maintenance on the rolling stock mandatory, but these measures are mere Band-Aids on an already crisis transit situation. This is not to say that these measures should not be pursued immediately but that additional rail corridors should be on the drawing boards now.

The San Joaquin Freeway, which is estimated to cost $409 million, a portion of which is to come from user fees in the form of tolls, can only exacerbate our transportation woes. A rail system is the only user fee that can and will relieve motorized congestion. If, indeed, the purpose of the San Joaquin Hills Corridor is to forestall freeway gridlock and not, as many believe, open more land for development, then let the planners seek some real solutions to the transit mess.

What if we build a rail system in that corridor with depots only in the populated areas? What if that system would ultimately link all the coastal communities into Long Beach and beyond right into Los Angeles? Is it not possible that many would give up those second cars?

Would it not be possible for business and industry to provide van service for employees to and from the railroad stations? Turn some of the vast parking lots needed to provide employee parking to better use as child-care centers or parks. I would hope that the San Bernardino and Riverside communities would join in the effort to link all those Orange County and Los Angeles working people with an easier and more economical commute.

Is it too much to ask that if we must endure the haphazard growth that the despoilers of the environment have inflicted on us and future generations, that we must also be a party to their Neanderthal notion that more freeways are the answer to the problems they have in part created?

MARY LOU RIPLEY

Laguna Beach