Robbins Introduces 2 Bills to Require Rail System to Be Partly Underground

Los Angeles County transit officials would be forced to build an east-west rail system in the San Fernando Valley that would be underground in residential areas under two bills introduced Friday by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys).

The measures are similar to bills Robbins has pushed unsuccessfully in recent sessions of the Legislature.

Robbins and several other legislators are seeking to force the county Transportation Commission to build the line as a subway in residential areas.

The commission is studying construction of a line either along the Ventura Freeway shoulder from Universal City to Warner Center or along a railroad freight right of way that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards from North Hollywood to Warner Center.

It has not been decided whether the line, if it is built, will be all ground-level and elevated or will be part subway.

One Robbins bill would prohibit the construction of a line except as a subway from the Hollywood Freeway to Hazeltine Avenue and would ban all but a subway or a line in a deep trench along the freeway from Wilbur Avenue to Warner Center.

The other would require the commission to set aside for a Valley rail line 15% of the rail money it collects each year through the extra half-cent sales tax that county voters approved in 1980.

The fund would accumulate about $20 million a year for three years, Robbins said. After that, the commission could spend the money as it sees fit.

Cost estimates for proposed Valley rail systems range from $900 million for a surface line along the Chandler-Victory route to $3 billion for a freeway line that would be subway near houses and elevated elsewhere.

“It’s not enough to build a system,” Robbins said in a telephone interview. “But it will prevent the commission from cleaning out the cupboard and then saying there is nothing left for the Valley. I think it will prod them to build a Valley line.”

He said the bill setting up subway-only zones is “just a first proposal. I wanted to get it out there so everyone can comment on it, and then we’ll see if we can reach some kind of an agreement.”

Hearings will be conducted in mid-April by the Senate Transportation Committee, he said.