Wilshire-Inglewood Light-Rail Draws Support : Transportation: An advisory panel recommends building the rail line in the early 21st Century. Proponents say it would ease congestion and serve minority residents already dependent on mass transit.

Supporters of a newly proposed light-rail transit line that would haul commuters between the Mid-Wilshire area and Inglewood say it would relieve traffic snarls around the Forum and Hollywood Park while preparing for expected growth in an area where mass transit is already a fact of life.

A study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments, released last week after 3 1/2 years of preparation, said such a line would have strong ridership potential, cost less than a Metro Rail extension along Wilshire Boulevard into Santa Monica and fill a void in the county’s current mass transit plan.

The rail line would carry an estimated 59,000 riders a day and serve a region that is expected to experience a 20% increase in population and 25,000 new jobs by the beginning of the 21st Century, the study said.

In comparison, the Norwalk-El Segundo light-rail line is expected to have a daily ridership of 65,000, and the Long Beach-Los Angeles line is expected to carry 35,000 people a day.

Members of the SCAG committee that prepared the $150,000 report cautioned that it remains an unofficial document and that the rail line is at least 15 years away from implementation, with neither funding nor official government support.

But the concept has been endorsed by a number of elected officials, including Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent, who chaired the committee, several members of the Los Angeles City Council and state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles).

“It’s the kind of thing that is far in the future,” said Inglewood Assistant City Manager Norman Cravens, who attended several committee meetings during the preparation of the report. “There isn’t any money for this light-rail line. You’re talking 20 years down the line.”

The report, called the Airport Southwest Area Transportation Study, was criticized by some committee members for concentrating on light rail while neglecting shorter-term solutions to the area’s transportation problems.

The technology being discussed is magnetic levitation, similar to the system proposed for a high-speed train between Anaheim and Las Vegas. But even this is only speculative, officials said.

Two light-rail options are outlined in the study, both beginning on Wilshire Boulevard.

Under the first plan, called Line A, the rail line would run south generally along Crenshaw Boulevard, angle west onto Prairie Avenue, go south past the Forum and the race track and connect with the Century Freeway at Hawthorne Boulevard.

Line B would run south along Vermont Avenue to the University of Southern California, west on Exposition Boulevard to Crenshaw, south to Florence Avenue and west along the Santa Fe right of way to a parking lot near Los Angeles International Airport.

The cost of building the line and the precise route were not specified in the report. SCAG project manager Betty Werthman said the money would come from federal, state and local government, and other details would be cleared up as support for the plan developed.

Werthman said the plan would make up for the current lack of Proposition A funds being spent in the Southwest area. Proposition A is a half-cent sales tax approved by county voters in 1980 to fund transit programs.

“We don’t have, right now, a proposed light-rail system to serve the minority community,” said Werthman, a planner in SCAG’s Transportation Department. “This provides an improved public transport system in an area that is predominantly dependent on mass transit.”

Parviz Koupai, transportation engineer for the city of Inglewood, said the rail line would relieve frequent traffic jams on the Harbor and San Diego freeways and on major surface streets.

“They are congested, and they are only going to get worse,” Koupai said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden said he supports the Crenshaw light-rail proposal but realizes that limited resources will delay it until after light-rail extensions are completed to Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley.

The SCAG committee was made up of association staff members, elected officials, transportation specialists and business people. Most of them endorsed the light-rail concept, but others involved in the study dissented.

“We felt the report’s sole purpose was to justify a light-rail transit corridor as opposed to looking at the area’s total transit needs,” said Jim Ortner, a transportation planner with the Southern California Automobile Assn. “It will be years before they will be able to build that thing. If the concern is to improve public transportation, we saw no significant short-term plans coming out of the report.”

Rob Collins, the Forum’s assistant general manager, said the sports arena is taking a neutral position on the plan. “Mass transit is a good idea, but in Southern California is anyone going to use it?” he asked. “I really don’t know.”

In addition to the light-rail recommendation, the SCAG report suggests a number of street improvements and signal changes to improve transit in the 39-square-mile area bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway and Imperial Highway on the north and south and by the Harbor and San Diego freeways on the east and west.

The report’s recommendations will be taken to the city councils of Inglewood and Los Angeles within the next few months for approval, Werthman said, and then will go before the RTD and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

If the concept for a light-rail line is approved, the next step would be to seek funds for a feasibility study. An environmental impact report would also precede construction, Werthman said.