Panel OKs $2.2-Billion Plan for 3 Rail Lines : Transit: A county committee recommends acceptance of a proposal linking the Valley Metro Rail extension to construction of two L.A. lines.

A key county rail transit committee Monday tentatively approved a $2.2-billion plan to build a San Fernando Valley extension of Metro Rail as well as two light-rail lines elsewhere.

By a 3-1 vote, the Transit Committee of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted to recommend to the full commission, which will make the final decision, acceptance of a staff plan to build all three projects over the next 11 years.

In addition to the Valley Metro Rail extension, the plans call for a downtown-to-Pasadena light-rail line and a spur off the Century Freeway light-rail line to serve Los Angeles International Airport.

Commissioners, who already have two light-rail lines and Metro Rail under construction, warned that they will scuttle the plan unless voters on June 5 approve ballot propositions to raise the state gasoline tax by 9 cents per gallon and to sell billions in rail-construction bonds.

Without that income, they said, the commission probably will have enough money to build only one of the three projects in this century.

The staff proposal, endorsed by the committee, recommended building the LAX spur first, the Pasadena line second and the Valley project third. Under the plan, the airport link would be completed in 1994, the Pasadena line would open in 1998, and the Valley project would be finished in 2001.

The designated Valley route is a Southern Pacific railroad right of way that crosses the Valley from North Hollywood to Warner Center parallel to Chandler and Victory boulevards.

However, because of the high cost of tunneling in residential neighborhoods of North Hollywood, the commission has decided it can build no farther west at this time than the San Diego Freeway.

Commissioners appeared to be on the verge of withholding their endorsement of the staff’s 11-year rail-construction plan Monday when they learned that the proposal includes funds for two not yet authorized extensions off the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway--east through East Los Angeles and west to Westwood.

Although the plan envisions setting aside $770 million for those two extensions, “we have never voted to do those extensions and haven’t even picked routes,” said Commissioner Jacki Bacharach.

And Commissioner Carole Stevens complained that inclusion of the East Los Angeles and Westwood extensions would push the opening of the Valley line back several additional years for lack of funds.

Several commissioners noted that Valley elected officials and civic leaders have complained about building the Valley project last.

But commission staff planners reiterated that it would make no sense to open a cross-Valley line before the subway from downtown reaches North Hollywood, which is scheduled to occur in 2001.

Neil Peterson, the commission’s executive director, said that the East Los Angeles and Westwood extensions of Metro Rail were included because they are large enough to qualify for federal matching funds and because they have a projected ridership “much, much greater than any of these three lines” under consideration.

However, staff members were ordered to prepare an alternate rail-construction plan without the East Los Angeles and Westwood extensions before the full commission takes up the issue on March 28.

Several commissioners also noted that without the east and west extensions from downtown, a projected shortfall of $496 million in the 11-year-plan would disappear.

The staff has proposed closing the gap between revenue and cost by asking the affected cities--chiefly Los Angeles, but also Pasadena and South Pasadena--to make up the rest. Other options include dropping stations, building some segments of single-track line and getting developers to share the cost of stations.

The 5.6-mile Valley Metro Rail extension, which has a projected daily ridership of 41,000, would cost $1.3 billion if construction were to begin in 1996 as suggested in the staff plan.

The 13.5-mile Pasadena line, which has a projected ridership of 68,000 a day, will cost $688 million if construction is begun in 1994, the staff said.

However, that estimate does not reflect the cost of 26 new rail cars bought for future expansion of the nearly completed Long Beach-Los Angeles light-rail line. The staff is suggesting the cars be switched to the Pasadena line.

The 2.5-mile airport spur, a northward extension of the Century Freeway light-rail line from its western terminus in El Segundo, has a projected daily ridership of 12,000. It would cost $215 million if work is begun immediately, the staff reported.