TRAFFIC WATCH : Rail Plan

The apparent popularity of the Blue Line has put more in motion than thousands of happy commuters. It also has injected new movement into stalled negotiations over unused right-of-ways that could form a new regional commuter-rail system.

More than a year ago, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads offered to sell the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) five little-used branch lines totaling more than 200 miles of track. When combined with the county’s right-of-ways, the lines would allow planners to assemble a mix of light- and heavy-rail lines stretching from San Bernardino to Santa Monica and from Santa Clarita to Long Beach.

Unfortunately, negotiations over the lines broke down in June, when the companies and the county were unable to agree on the formula for setting a price. Now both sides have announced a willingness to resume talks, though they also agree the monetary gulf is wide. But however gaping it may be, the Blue Line experience suggests that it’s worth bridging.

Few of the disastrous regional planning decisions made--or, for that matter, not made--over the past 30 years have been as obviously destructive as the dismantling of the 1,164-mile network of Red Car Trolley lines in 1961. To detail the consequences of that willful folly is to belabor what is obvious to every commuter who will spend unrecoverable hours of their lives next week stalled in traffic.