L.A. and O.C. Officials Clash Over Control of Commuter Rail System : Transportation: At issue is whether a regional, joint-powers agency should operate the proposed 300-mile network or each corridor should be run separately.

A clash erupted Friday over who should control the commuter rail system planned for Southern California beginning in 1992, with a representative of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission objecting to a regional agency and the chairman of the Orange County Transportation Commission supporting one.

Mike Lewis, an alternate for County Supervisor Pete Schabarum on the Los Angeles commission, said he opposes any “SCAG for commuter rail,” a reference to the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Lewis told a meeting of transportation officials from four Southland counties, who gathered to consider how the commuter rail system will be run, that he fears an administrative morass in which, he contended, San Bernardino commuters finding that something was wrong would have to call Orange County for help.

But Dana Reed, the Orange County commission chairman, said he disagreed and hopes that a joint-powers agency will be created as early as next month by Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties to operate the proposed 300-mile system.

“We’re talking about 100 or so trains a day,” Reed said. “We are going to have to switch equipment between San Bernardino and Orange, if necessary, or Ventura and Orange. We’re going to have to share a common maintenance facility. We certainly don’t need four or five operating agencies.”

“Who answers the phone? That’s what I want to know,” Lewis rejoined.

“We need to have common authority,” Reed answered. “One of the problems we have in Southern California now is so many agencies running things like the buses. If we set up five separate agencies to run commuter rail, it won’t work.”

“There’s no proof there is an advantage in having a single operator,” Lewis argued. He said that each proposed corridor, such as Los Angeles-San Bernardino, should be controlled separately.

Afterward, a member of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission who was also present, Jacki Bacharach, a Rancho Palos Verdes city councilwoman, said that despite Lewis’ statements at the meeting, the Los Angeles commission has, as yet, taken no position on who should control the commuter rail system.

“My personal opinion is we are on the brink of an opportunity to establish a unified network,” she said.

If a joint-powers agency is established, Ventura County is unlikely to be part of it, officials at the meeting said, since that county has no available transit funds to contribute to the system, even though there are plans for trains to Moorpark and possibly Oxnard.

Reed said that if a joint-powers agency is formed, there must first be an agreement on representation. If it is by population, he said, Los Angeles County would have majority control, which might not be acceptable to the other counties. Perhaps, he said, representation could be allocated on the basis of track mileage or another standard.

Among the commuter links proposed as part of the system, besides those to Ventura County, are lines radiating from Los Angeles to Santa Clarita, points in Orange County, San Bernardino and Riverside. There would also be service between San Bernardino and Riverside and Orange County.

Participants in Friday’s meeting also heard a cautiously optimistic report on the status of negotiations to buy public control of at least 177 miles of Santa Fe right of way and rights to run trains on another 70 miles.