Deal Hailed as Key to Regional Rail System : Commuters: Agreement for 177 miles of rights of way in Los Angeles County is expected to hasten the opening of a 5-mile stretch of rail in northwest Orange County.

Los Angeles County and Southern Pacific Transportation Co. officials on Friday announced agreement on a landmark purchase of 177 miles of valuable rights of way expected to speed development of a regional commuter rail system with a critical link to Orange County.

The $450-million deal, reached for 40% less than the railroad was seeking, contains a five-mile stretch of the old Pacific Electric trolley line between Beach Boulevard in Stanton and the Los Angeles County line that Orange County transportation officials said could open the door to commuter rail traffic between Santa Ana and Los Angeles within five years.

Traveled by hordes of tourists and business people in its heyday, the Pacific Electric line is now mostly a weed-strewn dirt strip through one of Orange County’s most heavily populated areas.

Friday’s purchase agreement supports a plan developed by Orange County transportation officials to provide rail service to 10 cities in Orange County, stretching south to San Clemente.

“We think this is excellent!” said Dana Reed, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Commission of the purchase that now allows the five-mile segment to be joined with the 4.5-mile stretch of right of way that extends south to Santa Ana. The southern section is already owned by the Orange County Transit District, the county’s primary public mass transit agency.

“It’s now just a matter of laying the tracks and building the stations,” Reed said. “I don’t see why we can’t be fully operational in five years.”

But Reed said that timetable depends almost entirely on millions of dollars in operating funds dependent on voter approval of Measure M, the proposed half-cent Orange County sales tax hike for transportation improvements on the Nov. 6 ballot.

“If they do want these projects,” Reed said, “this (Measure M) is the way to do it. The next step is passage of Measure M, and we start laying the tracks.”

Some opponents of Measure M argue that public rail transit is too costly.

But Adrienne Brooks, manager of the OCTC’s rail program, said Friday’s announcement provides “exciting possibilities” for moving great numbers of Orange County residents back and forth to Los Angeles.

If operating funds become available, Brooks said, selection of a rail technology and an environmental impact study will follow.

The fact that rail service was once provided on the old Pacific Electric right of way could speed environmental approvals, Brooks said.

But now, homes and businesses back up to the dirt strip in many neighborhoods, and its unsightliness led the Garden Grove City Council to seek redevelopment rights along the narrow segment owned by OCTD. In the agreement eventually struck, OCTD retains rights to use the narrow pathway for transit purposes.

Los Angeles transportation officials said the purchase of such long expanses of existing track removes a major obstacle in the construction of a public transit system that includes the Metro Rail subway now under construction and the Los Angeles-Long Beach Blue Line, which began running in July.

After months of protracted negotiations, Southern Pacific agreed to sell the rights of way and adjacent land parcels for $450 million, 40% less than its original asking price. The sale is expected to become final within six months.

Station locations have not been determined. But the purchase fills in large gaps in an envisioned rail network establishing links with Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties, as well as with existing light rail systems, such as the Blue Line, which has exceeded ridership expectations since it began operating between Los Angeles and Long Beach in the summer.

County planners envision a public rail system that will put Los Angeles in a league with such cities as Paris, Chicago and Toronto, and believe that it will have a long-range impact in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. Planners anticipate that the 280-mile commuter rail system can be completed in four years.

Neil Peterson, Los Angeles County Transportation Commission executive director, called the deal “the single most important step we have taken” to fulfill the desires of Los Angeles residents for easier commuting and cleaner air. Moreover, because the agreement covers rail lines in areas that are not yet congested, it provides flexibility for planning, he said.

“We don’t want to repeat the mistake we made 30 years ago,” when the county sold the rights of way to Southern Pacific, said Peterson.

Southern Pacific Vice Chairman Robert Starzel, in a statement released Friday, said that the transportation company could have sold the rights of way for twice as much money to other buyers but finally agreed to the sale in part because it was easier than selling off separately the hundreds of parcels of land included in the package.

The county is buying “assets worth more than twice what it is paying for,” Starzel said, “but we’ve agreed to the price because we consider ourselves partners in the progress of Southern California and because we could sell all the lines at this time as a single package.”

About $245 million will be used to pay for railroad corridors, while $205 million will go toward purchasing potential station sites, maintenance yards and track rights.

Track improvements, rail cars and construction of rail yards will cost an additional $300 million, said commission spokeswoman Stephanie Rank Brady. Some of those funds will come from state Propositions 108 and 116, which voters approved last June. Proposition 108, a bond measure, provides $1 billion for rail and commuter transit while Proposition 116 will provide $1.9 billion for commuter rail systems to government entities throughout the state. Brady said the county hopes the remaining money will be provided by county Proposition C, a half-cent sales tax measure for public transit on the November ballot.

Three rail lines will open within two years--one through the San Gabriel Valley to San Bernardino, another to Simi Valley and Moorpark in Ventura County and a third via Glendale and Burbank to the Santa Clarita Valley, said Peterson.

“People . . . in Santa Clarita who are totally frustrated sitting on two-lane roads to get to Interstate 5 . . . will have some alternative to steaming in their automobile,” said Christine Reed, a county transportation commissioner.

Commuter rail trains would travel up to 70 m.p.h. between stations spaced about five miles apart, transportation officials said. One train traveling at full capacity during rush hour could effectively reduce traffic congestion by the amount of passengers commuting on one freeway lane, Peterson said.

Said Jim Sims, president of Commuter Computer: “I think this is a great day for commuters. Had we lost these rights of way, we would always have regretted it. . . . What it means for commuters is that in addition to express bus, car pools and van pools and rail transit, they’re also going to have one of the most extensive commuter rail systems in the entire country.”

Peter Gordon, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Southern California, disputed such claims, however. Citing studies he and other mass-transit experts have conducted, he said there is “not a shred of evidence that commuter rail does a bit of good. . . . There (have) been about 25 years of literature saying that these rail systems don’t work in modern American cities. (Commuter rail is not) a cost-effective investment.”

More effective and less costly solutions lie in better highway system management, he said, such as tollways with different pricing for rush-hour and off-peak times.

Southern Pacific offered to sell the rights of way in May, 1989, but negotiations broke down over price last June.

Southern Pacific’s Starzel gave Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley credit for getting county and Southern Pacific officials back to the negotiating table two weeks ago.

The purchase agreement includes rent-free use of 69 miles of the rail lines running to Moorpark and Saugus.

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson in Orange County contributed to this story.