Panel OKs $140 Million for Metro Rail 2nd Phase

A House subcommittee Wednesday approved $140 million for the second leg of Metro Rail construction, $10 million less than requested but an amount still greeted with sighs of relief by backers of the Los Angeles subway project.

“This is much better than I had anticipated,” said Cliff Madison, a lobbyist for Metro Rail. “If they had done across-the-board cuts, we would have taken a much bigger hit. . . . We look on it as very good news.”

Out of requests submitted by more than a dozen cities for $613 million in transportation grants, the House appropriations subcommittee on transportation approved a total of $422 million.

Expected Larger Cut

Madison said he had expected a heavier cut because more cities were competing for tighter federal dollars than last year, when the Metro Rail project won $148 million out of a total appropriations package of $402 million. The federal government has contributed $347 million to the project so far.

The appropriations bill is expected to be approved by the full House Appropriations Committee next week, but no action is expected on a Senate version until September.

In Los Angeles, transportation officials said the reduction would cause slight delays in an already drawn-out construction schedule.

‘Not a Major Setback’

“We didn’t keep quite as much as we wanted,” said Richard Stanger, director of rail development for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. “It’s not a major setback, but it’s a disappointment. It just delays the eventual completion of the project.”

The project’s second phase, expected to be finished by the end of 1998, begins at Alvarado Street and Wilshire Boulevard.

The total cost of the second leg is projected at $2.5 billion, with the federal government expected to pick up a little less than half the cost.

Noting that air quality laws are being tightened, Stanger said the cut could crimp Los Angeles’ efforts to develop alternatives to auto travel.

“It seems a little inconsistent,” he said, “to tighten air standards but not give us the wherewithal.”