Officials Favor Alternatives Over Subway Extension

Two elected officials on Tuesday urged that plans to bring the downtown Metro Rail subway to the San Fernando Valley be scrapped in favor of a privately owned monorail or magnetic-levitation system along the Hollywood and Ventura freeways.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) predicted that a 22-mile futuristic system from the northern edge of Hollywood to Warner Center would cost a fraction of the planned Metro Rail subway.

While Antonovich said he favors monorail and Katz prefers magnetic-levitation technology, both said they were willing to “let the market decide” which is the more efficient system.

Monorail trains travel on rubber wheels on a concrete guideway, while magnetic-levitation trains ride on a cushion of air above a guideway, propelled by magnetic force.

Also on Tuesday, a key committee of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted to recommend that the full commission take the first step next week toward requesting bids from private investors for mass transit projects on public land, including freeways.

The commission, which is facing many more requests for rail projects than it has money to build, already has embraced the concept of allowing for-profit firms to build and operate transportation systems.

The Katz-Antonovich news conference represented the first time in recent years that any Valley elected official had suggested dropping long-standing plans to extend the Metro Rail subway to the Valley.

Katz, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said he has become convinced that 50% federal funding, which is essential to extend the Metro Rail, “just isn’t going to happen.” He cited the federal budget deficit’s strain on spending and a loss of clout by California’s two senators, Alan Cranston and newly appointed John Seymour.

Commission plans call for the federal government to pay half the $1.1-billion cost of extending the Metro Rail eight miles from Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood to Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

No federal funds are anticipated for building the line another 14 miles to Warner Center at a cost of $2.7 billion. Last March, the commission formally adopted as its cross-Valley route a Southern Pacific railroad right of way that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards and Oxnard Street.

Despite that adoption, however, alternative routes are still being studied.

In a report released Tuesday, a consultant said a 16.2-mile monorail or magnetic-levitation line along the freeway from Universal City to Warner Center would cost $2.3 billion, and extending the Metro Rail subway from Universal City to Warner Center would cost $3.9 billion.

After discussing the report, the commission’s Planning and Mobility Committee voted to recommend to the full commission that the elevated line along the freeway be studied further.

Norm Emerson, representing a consortium of private firms that wants to build a magnetic-levitation line from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale, said the group also would be interested in building an intersecting line on the Ventura and Hollywood freeways.

But he said he “just can’t explain” the consultant’s $140-million-a-mile estimate to build an elevated line on the Ventura Freeway.

Emerson said that private investors predict it will cost “no more than $50 million a mile” for the 69-mile LAX-to-Palmdale line.