Assembly Committee OKs Bill to Extend Metro Rail Subway

Despite opposition from the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, a bill that would force transit officials to extend Metro Rail partly underground through the east San Fernando Valley cleared its first hurdle Wednesday in Sacramento.

The Assembly Transportation Committee approved the measure 9-0 despite objections from the county Transportation Commission that it interferes with local decision-making authority. State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), author of the legislation, told the committee the bill represents a long process of compromise and has the support of all state legislators from the Valley.

“After a great deal of fighting in the community, we finally have achieved a bill that approaches community consensus,” Robbins said.

The bill would require that any new rail line built through the residential areas bordered by the Hollywood Freeway on the east and Hazeltine Avenue on the west be underground. It further requires that within that four-mile zone, any rail line between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Woodman Avenue be at least 25 feet deep.

County Transportation Commission Chairwoman Christine E. Reed, who voiced the only opposition to the bill Wednesday, protested that it would allow “the state to make route selections on entirely locally funded projects.”

In the past, the commission, which is building a countywide network of rail lines with the additional half-cent sales tax approved by county voters in 1980, had won battles with Valley legislators over bills dictating routes and technology for a Valley line.

Because the underground Metro Rail system would be more costly than a surface route, Robbins and Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, co-sponsor of the plan, acknowledge there would be enough money only to extend the line from North Hollywood to the Sepulveda Basin. They envision riders transferring to express buses to get to points farther west.

The bill now goes to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.