Panel Agrees to Consider Public Money for Rail Line : Rapid transit: The county transportation commission decides to take a look at the use of a subsidy to finance LAX-Palmdale link.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission on Wednesday agreed to consider partial public funding of a proposed high speed rail line between Los Angeles International Airport and Palmdale, a project that originally was supposed to be entirely privately financed.

The decision came after the private consortium proposing the 69-mile system said it might require a subsidy because of uncertain ridership estimates.

The commissioners, however, appeared divided on whether they would be willing to help pay a bill that could reach tens of millions of dollars a year.

But the session did bring to light previously undisclosed details of the first phase of the project, from LAX to the Santa Clarita Valley.

Those included a $1.2-billion cost estimate, a fare of about $10 for the 36-mile trip, six station sites and an estimated $32-million-a-year operating cost.

Commission member Chris Reed said the panel’s decision simply allows its staff to explore options for a possible public subsidy of the project if the line is selected by Caltrans officials next month as one of four demonstration projects in a state transit privatization program.

Commission staff employees also said the panel’s vote could serve as a boost to the rail line when its private backers make their presentation to Caltrans officials on Tuesday.

In addition to agreeing to explore a public subsidy, the panel also endorsed the project, at least in concept.

“The greatest thing we can do for transportation right now is to connect LAX with the Lancaster-Palmdale area,” said Jerry Baxter, a Caltrans district director and an ex officio commission member. “I don’t believe there’s another project in the entire county that’s more important than this corridor.”

The consortium led by the Perini Corp. wants to use futuristic magnetic levitation technology to operate a rail line that would run along the San Diego, Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

It would have an average speed of 60 m.p.h. and could attract 55,000 to 100,000 riders a day, consortium executives said.

State officials have warned that the project’s chances of approval, particularly in a state program intended to demonstrate that transit projects can be privately operated for profit, could be jeopardized if it received too large a public subsidy.

Linda Bohlinger, the commission’s director of capital planning and programming, said talks have focused on a maximum public sector liability of 30% of the project’s annual costs if ridership lags.

That translates into upward of $20 million or more in annual public subsidy for the LAX-Santa Clarita line, she said.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman, who chairs the commission, voiced skepticism about the ultimate prospects of any commission subsidy for the project, despite the vote.

He warned that such spending could shortchange other rail lines the commission has already budgeted.

The consortium showed a rail route with stations near Lot C at LAX, on the San Diego Freeway at the Marina Freeway, Wilshire Boulevard, Victory Boulevard and at the Simi Valley Freeway, then ending at San Fernando Road and the Antelope Valley Freeway.

The $1.2-billion cost estimate was the most specific yet given by the consortium for the first phase.

The projection of a fare of 30 cents per mile also was the first such estimate made public, as was the $32-million-a-year operating cost.

No figures were released for the second, 33-mile, segment to Palmdale.