Intercity Rail Lines--a Go-Slow Approach : Transit: Deukmejian aides talk of years before projects implementing Propositions 108 and 116 will begin.

Despite voter approval in June of $3 billion in bonds for rail projects, Deukmejian Administration officials say California will go slowly in sorting out options and deciding what is feasible before moving forward to build new intercity rail lines called for in Propositions 108 and 116.

The aides say that in the case of the $2-billion Proposition 116, it will take at least until early 1991 before the California Transportation Commission even sets guidelines for the acceptance of applications for the money. A portion of it is due to go to commuter rail and other local lines in any case.

At the same time, Administration aides are skeptical whether exotic proposals for privately funded high-speed maglev (magnetic levitation) lines will come to fruition before the mid-1990s, at the earliest. Some question whether they are technologically or financially feasible at this time.

Bob Remen, executive director of the Transportation Commission, adopting a cautionary attitude, said last week that authorities will insist on “responsible application” of public funds authorized in Proposition 116, which Gov. George Deukmejian did not support.

He noted that some Proposition 116 projects will require matching funds from various government entities and he said that a major question will be whether money would be available for operating the rail lines once they were built.

Much rail service requires hefty operating subsidies, Remen cautioned. “So applicants might have to demonstrate in advance there would be an operating budget,” he added. “The Transportation Commission will want reasonable safeguards that the public’s dollars (to build new lines) are being used prudently and effectively.”

As for the $1 billion in bonds in Proposition 108, which was backed by the governor and for which guidelines were adopted before the election, Cindy McKim, chief of Caltrans’ rail division, said that she is prepared to recommend adoption of $30 million in projects for this fiscal year at a meeting of the Transportation Commission next week.

This is a fairly small commitment. Assuming a 5% annual inflation rate, the $3 billion in total rail bonds available from Propositions 108 and 116 will depreciate in real value by $150 million in the first year alone.

Meanwhile, John H. Sullivan, undersecretary of the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, said a deliberate approach on moving forward with rail projects will mean that most of the key decisions will be left to the new governor who will take office in January.

“The capital investment versus operating costs is the most serious issue underlying all the planning decisions,” said Sullivan. He also said that basic rail lines, rather than “flashy new technology,” might be the preference of authorities in the near future.

Such reserved approaches are already coming under fire from those who would move more quickly to take advantage both of the public funds approved by the electorate and private investment proposals for maglev lines.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said last week that he believes a reorganization of Caltrans--the state Department of Transportation--is necessary to make sure that rail and urban transit projects receive fair and timely consideration in addition to the traditionally favored highway projects.

Katz said his committee will hold hearings this fall on proposed legislation that would mandate such a reorganization.

Under current plans, the electorate is supposed to be asked in 1992 and 1994 to approve a total of $2 billion more for rail projects, follow-up bonds to Proposition 108. But that plan was formed before the passage of Proposition 116.

Since then, there have been reports of discussions within the Deukmejian Administration on whether the Legislature should be asked to cancel the 1992 and 1994 bond votes, on grounds that with the passage of Proposition 116, the $3 billion amount originally envisioned for rail projects in the 1990s already exists and that $2 billion more should not be added to it.

Sullivan said, however, last week that no decisions about what to do about the 1992 and 1994 votes would be made before a new governor takes over.

There are some signs that no matter who is elected governor, Democrat Dianne Feinstein or Republican Pete Wilson, there will be a friendlier attitude toward rail projects than has been manifested in the present Administration. Both candidates have spoken favorably of rail proposals.

But even if this is the case, major questions remain as to what kind of rail projects may be constructed.

Some transportation experts express wariness that California may be tempted to build the high-speed maglev lines too soon, before that technology is firmly established as viable over long distances. Only short distance maglev lines currently exist.

The experts contend that a sounder strategy would be to concentrate on less exotic, already proven types of service, such as the kind of metroliner service that exists in the Boston-Washington rail corridor on the East Coast. These trains go a maximum of about 125 m.p.h. The maglev lines are projected as high as 280 m.p.h.

The issue of what kind of lines are most feasible recently came up in a state-sponsored study on implementing high-speed rail service between Los Angeles and Sacramento. The conclusion was that metroliner-type service would be feasible within the San Joaquin Valley in the near future, but anything faster would not be, and building any kind of direct line between Bakersfield and Los Angeles would have to wait.

Some question the study’s conclusions. Legislation is pending for another study on grounds that the first inquiry may have been too much influenced by small-town representatives anxious that any service stop in their communities. Maglev or high-speed French TGV service generally has stops only in major population centers.

Mark Watts, a former legislative staff member who helped draft the bill now in effect under which Caltrans will choose next month to endorse four projects for privately financed rail lines or roads in the state, said he feels that the first study was correct that “the public demand is simply not there to jump to an exotic system.”

“If you’re going to do something in California rail service,” he added, “I doubt it can be done by private enterprise alone. There would have to be public subsidies.”

Two private consortiums, led by the Bechtel and Perini corporations, respectively, are nonetheless currently proposing to build high-speed lines using maglev technology, one from Las Vegas to Orange County and the other from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale.

The only private subsidy they say they need is a state donation of rights of way. Otherwise, planning, construction and operating costs would be paid privately and reimbursed through passenger fares or sale of air rights above train guideways.

Putting the exotic technologies aside, the Deukmejian Administration’s go-slow approach also pertains to improvements in current, much-slower service.

For instance, Proposition 116 put aside $202 million for improvements along the Los Angeles-San Diego rail corridor, the second busiest intercity rail service line in the United States and also a line with much potential for commuter rail service.

Sharon Green, executive director of the Los Angeles-San Diego rail corridor agency, said in a recent interview: “We’re ready to go in terms of projects. But I’ve been told the process of developing guidelines for applying for the 116 funds could take 10 or 11 months.

“We’d like very much to expedite this process.”

So far, Caltrans’ McKim said, state authorities have identified roughly only $100 million worth of projects on the Los Angeles-San Diego line and those are stretched out over a five-year period.

Green said in an interview that hundreds of millions of dollars could be spent simply on grade separations in the corridor. She added that any higher speeds on the Los Angeles-San Diego line should await modernizing of an antiquated signal control system for which Caltrans has been willing to commit only a little money at a time.

McKim rejoined that Amtrak has not done all the engineering necessary to allow the signal work to go forward and that, until it is done, the Caltrans staff will not recommend making the money available. “I represent the taxpayers of California,” McKim said. “I cannot give a blank check.”

However, some Transportation Commission members expressed impatience with staff attitudes at the group’s meetings in June. The Transportation Commission has oversight responsibilities over Caltrans and must approve many of its decisions.

Told that it might take months for the staff to recommend the Proposition 116 guidelines for consideration, the commission, for example, called for the drafting of the guidelines to be speeded up. A discussion of the guidelines has been scheduled for a commission meeting this week.

“We understand these things don’t happen overnight,” said Gerald H. Meral, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, the sponsor of Proposition 116. “But we don’t want two or three years going by before this money gets spent. I think that’s the way the public feels too. They approved these things and they want to see them happen.”