CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / GOVERNOR : Van de Kamp Rides the Rails to Promote State Train System

Carried at the leisurely pace of a modern-day passenger train, John K. Van de Kamp traveled south through California’s Central Valley on Sunday to urge construction of a high-speed rail system that would stretch from Sacramento to San Diego.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate compared the proposal--which would cost at least $7 billion--to the freeway building boom under former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr.

“We’ve talked about our transportation needs. We’ve studied. We’ve planned. Now it’s time to act,” Van de Kamp said at a press conference in the Amtrak station here, after a three-hour train trip from Stockton.

Van de Kamp’s plan would include passenger trains from Bakersfield to Los Angeles, a link that he said “is the key to all future intercity rail transit in California.” He also advocated linking Sacramento and Stockton, which is the northernmost railroad station in the Central Valley, and speeding up rail transportation between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The attorney general’s proposal was announced against the backdrop of the familiar political tool, the whistle-stop train trip. Harry Truman used it to propel himself to the presidency in 1948. More recently, Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis rode the very same rails as Van de Kamp during the 1988 presidential campaign.

Van de Kamp, along with his wife, Andrea, and campaign aides, boarded a bus in Sacramento to take him to Stockton, where he hopped onto the Amtrak train traveling south.

He spent most of the time reading in his seat. But after two passengers walked forward from the lounge car and tried to beckon him back--”Voters!” one woman cried, pointing to the lounge--he navigated through three passenger cars, stopping once in a while to greet travelers.

During the day, the attorney general repeatedly contrasted the availability of rail service in countries like Japan and France with the shortage of such service in California.

“The notion that freeways can solve our long-term transportation needs is just about as dated as the Berlin Wall,” Van de Kamp said. “By the turn of the century, we should commit ourselves to attaining the basic standard of rail service that exists today in Western Europe.”

The seed money for a revamped transportation system would come from Propositions 108 and 116, which are on the June 5 ballot and which Van de Kamp supports. They would deliver about $3 billion in bond revenues over the next decade to pay for transit projects. The connected system he envisions would cost at least $4 billion more, Van de Kamp said. He suggested that the money be raised by selling more bonds.

In addition, he proposed creation of a state rail agency to plan commuter railroad systems and reform the state’s transportation plan and California Transportation Department operations to bring rail spending up to par with highway spending.

The tried-and-true train ride was not the only traditional device adopted by Van de Kamp on Sunday, nine days before he and former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein hear the judgment of Democratic voters.

Before boarding the train, he traveled to three Sacramento churches serving the black community and asked for support, at times sounding more like a preacher than a politician.

“We should love one another,” he told church members at St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church. “We should put behind us the hate and violence that’s become so prevalent.

“I’m running to do good things,” he said. “I’m running to change California, to break with the past, to set a new course.”

In Southern California, Feinstein also campaigned on the black church circuit--a spirited morning tour of four congregations in South Los Angeles.

At each stop, worship was halted so that Feinstein could take the pulpit with a two-pronged message. She appealed unabashedly for votes in the primary election now just a week from tomorrow, and she appealed for racial tolerance in the years ahead.

Feinstein, who has slowed the pace of her campaign this holiday weekend, described her mood as she spoke to reporters before services at First A.M.E. Church. “Exhilarated, yes,” she said. “But there is some anxiety, too, with the election so close.”

In her back-to-back church appearances, Feinstein quoted the late Martin Luther King Jr. on racial harmony: “There is no separate path to black power.”

Then, she added: “Do you think it’s time for us to be one people?”

“Yes,” the parishioners at Mr. Tabor Baptist Church shouted in reply.

Continuing her speech in this community where women are abundant among leaders, Feinstein generated some of the loudest approval of the day with this string of amen-sister questions: “Do you think a woman can lead? Do you think a woman can be a healer? Do you think a woman can bring people together?”

“Give us your prayers. Give us your votes,” she asked.

Feinstein scheduled a private fund-raiser in Chino later Sunday and had no public appearances planned for Memorial Day.

Reporters questioned Feinstein about her pledge on Saturday to allocate state appointive jobs to women and minorities based on their share of the population. She said her “goal” was to reach such parity in the policy-level ranks of government by the end of her first term.

“That’s what people yearn for, to share it,” she said.

And when a reporter persisted with questions about her commitment to quotas, she repliedtartly: “There are a lot of people who believe representative democracy is just that--that they have a chance to represent their people.”

Times political writer John Balzar in Los Angeles contributed to this report.