Purchasing Railroad Rights of Way for Transit

Your editorial urging the L.A. County Transportation Commission to purchase five little-used railroad rights of way is right on track! These rail lines would allow construction of an above-ground or trenched rapid transit system--the most practical and inexpensive way to bring badly needed rail transportation to the Los Angeles basin as soon as possible.

What the commission must also begin doing is to demonstrate to skeptical property owners along these routes that modern metropolitan transit rail systems are quiet, attractive, and will not decrease property values.

I suspect that much of the opposition to the use of these routes for transit, or the insistence on exorbitantly expensive subways, comes from outmoded images of clanking, smelly, unattractive trains. Indeed, the landscaping that will come with the transit construction will make these areas look much more attractive than the bare strips littered with trash that exist today.

JOHN GLASS

Studio City