Long Beach Line ‘Arrives’ in Los Angeles : Transit: The tunnel is completed downtown but the RTD is behind schedule on the companion Metro Rail station it is building.

The first of several railroad tunnels now being built under the Central City was officially completed Friday, moving Los Angeles a step closer to having what other world-class cities have--a subway system and a rail network reaching to the suburbs.

“We are pleased to open this tunnel on time and on budget,” Mayor Tom Bradley said to a small crowd of reporters gathered in the half-mile-long, $21-million Long Beach Light Rail Line tunnel under Flower Street, near 7th Street. “This is the first link in the 150-mile rail transit system . . . and we are proud of this accomplishment.”

Next summer, trains are expected to start running on this “Blue Line” segment of the county transit system, carrying commuters along surface rights of way from Long Beach 22 miles north into the downtown Los Angeles area. Up to 50,000 riders a day will travel the line by the mid-1990s, according to Los Angeles County Transportation Commission experts, builders of the $752-million Blue Line.

Eventually, Blue Line trains coming into the city center will dive underground at 12th Street and travel through the just-completed half-mile, double-tracked tunnel into the Metro Rail Station at 7th and Flower streets. There, commuters will link up with the Southern California Rapid Transit District’s $3.4-billion Metro Rail Red Line, also under construction.

However, because of delays in the construction of the giant underground station that is being built by the RTD, the tunnel completed during Friday’s ceremonies cannot be used until sometime in 1991, commission officials told reporters. The officials are disturbed by the delays and critical of the transit district’s handling of the Metro Rail construction project.

“We are very frustrated . . . by these delays,” said Neil Peterson, the commission’s executive director. He explained that until the RTD finishes the big station, the light rail trains will be stopped at Pico and Flower streets. There, commuters will have to be transferred to shuttle buses for the ride into various parts of downtown.

Transit district officials acknowledge that the $43.3-million station project is nine months behind schedule. The RTD Board of Directors has authorized an additional $500,000 to speed up construction. But the station is not expected to open before July, 1991, a spokesman said. Friday’s ceremony, with an emphasis on the Metro Rail delays, was the latest flare-up in an escalating, often confusing battle between the commission and the transit district. The two agencies are fighting for control of the 17-mile Metro Rail subway project that will eventually link downtown Los Angeles with the San Fernando Valley.

Metro Rail is financed by federal, state and local money that is funneled through the commission. While the commission has veto power over such projects, it is the RTD that is building the first 4.4-mile leg of Metro Rail, at a cost of $1.3 billion. The district, which will operate the trains, also wants to build the remaining 13 miles of the project.

But the commission is trying to wrest control of the project from the RTD, contending that the district’s management has wasted money and caused delays. A commission audit of Metro Rail last summer reported the RTD-run project was nearly two years behind schedule and would run $135 million over budget.

At Friday’s ceremony, commission officials said RTD delays in completing the 7th and Flower station would hold up completion of the Long Beach line for at least a year.

When the station is completed, the Blue Line trains will dip down through the half-mile tunnel and into a 970-foot-long station platform, one level above the Metro Rail Red Line trains. When the Metro Rail subway is completed, sometime late in the 1990s, Blue Line passengers will be able to transfer to Red Line trains bound for the Civic Center and Union Station, or they can continue north on the Red Line to the San Fernando Valley.

The ceremony began at street level, where Commission Chairwoman Christine E. Reed pointed to the resurfaced and freshly striped Flower Street, telling reporters: “We are giving the street back to the people.” The street had been snarled by excavation gear and other heavy equipment during construction.

Then she led Mayor Bradley down into the tunnel 35 feet underground. There, workers were getting ready to install the train tracks and put the finishing touches on the electrical systems.

“In an earthquake, this would be the safest place to be,” Reed said, pointing out that the modern tunnel design used here is similar to that used by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system that withstood the powerful Oct. 17 quake.