In a First, Groups Pitch Privately Funded Roads, Rail Lines : Transit: Caltrans will select four of eight proposals, granting rights of way but leaving construction and maintenance work to the winning companies.

In the first bids of their kind in California, eight private business groups Wednesday submitted proposals to Caltrans for road or rail projects to which the state would contribute only the rights of way, and all construction and maintenance would be paid for privately.

The proposals, of which Caltrans will select four for franchises next month, range from an 80-m.p.h. magnetically powered rail line from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale, to an array of toll highways in Orange, San Diego and other counties.

An aura of secrecy surrounded many details of the proposals after officers of some of the private firms said they had been warned by Caltrans against saying how much their projects would cost or what tolls or fares would eventually be charged the public.

Caltrans Director Robert K. Best later denied this. He said Caltrans wanted to be cautious about releasing details of the projects for proprietary reasons affecting the various businesses involved, and to avoid public pressure during its selection process. But, he said, each firm was free to say what it wanted about its proposal.

In Los Angeles, officials of a consortium including the Perini Corp., the firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall and the HSST Corp. insisted, however, that Caltrans had told them not to say how much their magnetic-levitation rail system would cost or give other specific details.

The result was that when Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and other area officials appeared at a San Fernando Valley news conference to endorse what is the only Los Angeles County project being proposed, they had to admit they were supporting it without being told what it would cost, how much the fares would be or what freeway disruptions might result from the construction process.

These were the projects proposed Wednesday, as described by the various firms, under legislation enacted last year to facilitate privatization of road and rail projects to supplement publicly funded freeways and other transportation systems:

The Perini-led consortium would build the magnetic rail line, using Japanese magnetic-levitation technology, to Santa Clarita by 1997 and extend later to Palmdale and a possible connection with the proposed Anaheim-to-Las Vegas high-speed magnetic line. That line, however, is supposed to use German technology, which would necessitate a change of trains in Palmdale. Intermediate stops in the initial Santa Clarita phase would be at Jefferson Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard, Victory Boulevard and Chatsworth Street.

The California Toll Road Development Group, composed of Parsons Municipal Services Inc., two French companies and an Australian company, would build a $1.2-billion, 90-mile toll road from Fremont to Vacaville in Northern California.

The California Private Transportation Corp., consisting of CRSS Commercial Group Inc., Citicorp and several other firms, would construct extra toll lanes for private vehicular traffic along the Riverside Freeway from the Riverside County line to the Route 55 interchange in Orange County.

PrivaCAL, a joint venture of the Bechtel Corp., D. J. Smith Associates Inc. and William R. Gray & Co., would build a toll road in San Diego County from California 54 in southeast San Diego to California 905 close to the Mexican border through a region now being developed.

California Transportation Ventures Inc., including Parsons Brinckerhoff Development Group Inc., Fluor Daniel Inc., GIE Transroute of France and Prudential-Bache Capital Funding, has a competing proposal for a San Diego toll road, but a spokesman for the group would not disclose exactly what route it would follow. Caltrans indicated it would largely follow the route PrivaCAL wants to use.

The Perot Group Consortium, composed of Greiner Engineering Inc. and seven other companies, would extend the 57 Freeway in Orange County in a toll road southwest along the Santa Ana River bed.

Transportation Systems Associates, including T. Y. Lin International, Morrison-Knudsen Engineers, Kidder, Peabody & Co. Inc. and GTM International of France, would build a two-mile $125-million Embarcadero expressway in San Francisco, either on the surface or below it, to replace the earthquake-damaged Embarcadero Freeway, which is now closed. Company officials said that unlike the other proposals, theirs would not be a toll road. Construction costs would be redeemed by selling airspace above the expressway.

Enserch Corp., with Ebasco Services Inc. and six other companies affiliated, would build a toll road from California 126 at the Los Angeles County line, running southwest in Ventura County to Tapo Canyon Road, with a second phase to carry the project to the 118 Freeway west of the Simi Valley.

Caltrans Director Best said he wants to avoid as much as possible popular agitation for or against the proposals while his agency decides which four to accept.

He said that there would be plenty of time for public discussion later during environmental studies and that all projects would be subject to the later final approval of Caltrans.

Even before Best spoke in a telephone interview, Mayor Bradley and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) tried to exert pressure on behalf of the Perini rail proposal through the San Fernando Valley, declaring at the news conference that Caltrans should definitely accept the only project proposed from the state’s most-populous county.

Bradley proclaimed himself a big supporter of so-called maglev technology, under which a train runs on a cushion of air, powered by electromagnetic currents. He said he had seen it run on test tracks and viewed it as unique.

The original legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman William P. Baker (R-Danville), requires Caltrans to select among the four approved projects at least one Northern California and one Southern California proposal. It then has a choice of the others.