Backers Expect Passage of 2nd Underground Rail Bill : Mass transit: An earlier measure was overwhelmingly approved by the Legislature in June, but vetoed by then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

For the second time in nine months, a bill appears headed for passage in Sacramento that would require underground construction of any rail line built through residential neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

The measure, introduced to allay homeowner fears about noise from ground-level trains, was approved 10 to 0 by the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday and sent to the state Senate, which is expected to vote on it next Thursday. An earlier bill was overwhelmingly approved by both the state Senate and Assembly last June, but vetoed by then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

The subway-only zone called for in the measure does not include the Ventura Freeway corridor and thus would not affect prospects for construction of an elevated monorail or magnetic-levitation line in the freeway median.

The elevated freeway line is a rival of the plan to extend the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway westward from North Hollywood to Warner Center along Southern Pacific railroad freight right of way that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards and Oxnard Street.

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), the bill’s sponsor, introduced it at the behest of homeowners along the Southern Pacific right of way.

He predicted Wednesday that the measure would win approval in the Legislature by a margin similar to that of last June, when the Senate passed it 39 to 0 and the Assembly 56 to 5.

He also expressed optimism that Gov. Pete Wilson would sign the bill “because he seems to be more open-minded” than Deukmejian, who vetoed the measure on the ground that local issues should not be resolved in Sacramento.

James Lee, Wilson’s deputy press secretary, said Wednesday that Wilson “almost certainly hasn’t heard about the bill yet. It will be some time before we could take a position on it.”

The bill also would relax one provision of a 1984 state law that requires the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to build a Metro Rail station at the intersection of Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

The 1984 law, passed at the urging of Robbins and other San Fernando Valley legislators, was aimed at making certain that the Metro Rail was built all the way to North Hollywood.

In fixing the station at the intersection, legislators assumed that the cross-Valley line would be a light-rail system, and that passengers would change trains in North Hollywood.

Robbins said that his bill will allow the North Hollywood station to be shifted west or south by one block “so the Metro Rail trains can round the corner smoothly.”

The commission has estimated that shifting the station could save up to $40 million.