Southern Pacific Deal a Green Light for Rail Projects : Transportation: The county pact triggers a 2-year timetable for lines linking L.A. and Simi Valley, Newhall-Saugus and San Bernardino County.

Operating on a fast track, transit authorities are optimistically planning to buy sleek, 70-m.p.h. commuter trains that will link downtown Los Angeles with the Newhall-Saugus area, Simi Valley and San Bernardino within two years.

The burst of enthusiasm voiced by transit planners Monday was touched off by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s announcement Friday that it had negotiated a $450-million deal with the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. for major rail development.

“It’s stunning--a major first step,” said Richard Stanger, the commission’s director of rail development, echoing the excitement expressed by his colleagues.

By the year 2000, transportation planners said, 350 miles of rail will link five Southern California counties, with most of the lines terminating at Union Station downtown. Ultimately, the rail network will carry commuter trains, light-rail trolleys and Metro Rail subway trains, they said.

Included in the purchase from Southern Pacific--which is expected to be completed within weeks--are 112 miles of right of way, operating rights on another 135 miles of track and enough land for stations, yards and shops, commission officials reported.

“This represents one of the most significant steps in the grand design to build a far-reaching rail system . . . throughout Southern California,” said Commission Chairman Ed Edelman.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley called the announcement “the culmination of a dream” and predicted that rail transit will not only provide alternative transportation for thousands of motorists, but will “substantially help clean up the air in the Los Angeles Basin.”

While negotiation of the Southern Pacific package is considered a major step forward, commission planners pointed out that it was only part of the complex, behind-the-scenes maneuvering under way to bring rail transit to Los Angeles.

Negotiations are still ongoing with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. for more right of way and operating rights that are a critical part of the regional rail plans, officials said. Included in the Santa Fe talks are plans for a Pasadena light-rail line and commuter rail links into Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

Commission officials emphasized that rail transit alone would not be enough to break the region’s gridlock. However, they see it as a critical part of a larger effort to get Southern California moving again.

“By itself, rail transit can’t solve the congestion problem,” said Neil Peterson, commission executive director. “But without it, we will really be in a lot of trouble. We’ve got to develop alternatives to the auto . . . and rail is one of those alternatives.”

By the turn of the century, the commission’s transit planners predict that 500,000 people will be riding trains daily and that buses will continue to carry 1 1/2 million riders or more a day, many of them on new, exclusive busways. And newer, high-tech freeways will be moving motorists faster, they predicted.

Once the Southern Pacific deal is complete, the commission staff expects immediately to order 17 locomotives and 40 commuter coaches, at a cost of $36 million. It will begin construction of rail yards, shops and maintenance facilities to serve the first three commuter lines.

The commission is paying $50 million for rights to operate on the three existing Southern Pacific routes. It will run 12 trains each morning and evening on these lines, carrying an estimated 7,200 passengers into and out of downtown Los Angeles starting in 1992, officials said. Another $150 million is being spent to expand and upgrade the three existing routes for commuter service, commission officials said.

The first of the three routes is to be called the Coast Main Line. It will run from Union Station north and west 36 miles across the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley to Moorpark.

The Saugus Line will carry passengers from downtown through Burbank to Santa Clarita, a total of 40 miles, giving motorists an alternative to heavily congested two-lane roads in the northern portion of the county, officials said.

The third and longest of the commuter lines will reach 60 miles from downtown to San Bernardino, running down the center of the San Bernardino Freeway through El Monte, then branching off through Baldwin Park and Claremont, officials said.

The four-car commuter trains--powered by $2-million diesel locomotives--each will carry up to 600 passengers at speeds up to 70 m.p.h., experts said. The new passenger coaches will cost $1.2 million each and resemble Amtrak cars, they said.

Development of train service on the rights of way being purchased in the Southern Pacific deal has been put on a much slower timetable, officials said. Each of these projects will be more costly because the commission will be starting from scratch, laying track and building stations and other facilities for the new train systems, officials said.

The most ambitious of these projects will be the development of the Southern Pacific’s Burbank Branch, a 20-mile freight line that extends west from North Hollywood to Warner Center. Under current thinking, part of this route will become an extension of the $3-billion Metro Rail subway that will run from downtown to North Hollywood.

The proposed extension of Metro Rail would connect North Hollywood to the San Diego Freeway and would be completed sometime after the turn of the century. Other sections of the branch line would feature light-rail trolleys from Warner Center north to Chatsworth and another line east from North Hollywood to Burbank, sources said.

Two other branch lines are being acquired in the deal. One would eventually allow a rail link between the University of Southern California campus and Santa Monica; the other would connect southern Los Angeles County with Orange County along the Southern Pacific’s existing West Santa Ana Branch freight line.

Funding for the three commuter rail lines and the first of the branch line projects is assured, Stanger said. The money will come from a half-cent local transit sales tax passed in 1980 and the new state transit measures passed by voters in June, he said.

Stanger said county officials are also hoping for the passage of Proposition C on the November ballot. The countywide measure, which asks voters to approve a half-cent sales tax increase, would provide another $400 million annually for transit projects.

Regardless of the election’s outcome, Stanger said there are no major roadblocks standing in the way of the Southern Pacific package deal.