State OKs Funds for Commuter Rail Station : Transit: Panel allocates $234,088 for the Simi Valley facility. But the county has no money to run trains to L.A.

The California Transportation Commission has approved $234,088 to help build Ventura County’s first commuter rail station in Simi Valley even though the county has no money to run commuter trains to Los Angeles, a service scheduled to begin next year.

The Simi Valley station was one of 14 commuter rail stations approved for state financing Thursday and the only one outside Los Angeles County. At its meeting Thursday, the state commission allocated $3.1 million to the Los Angeles Transportation Commission for construction of the 13 other stations.

The state panel also approved $250,000 to help the city of Ventura build a station on Harbor Boulevard near Figueroa Street so the city can be included as a stop on Amtrak’s recently expanded service from San Diego to Santa Barbara.

The Amtrak line is different from the proposed commuter rail service planned to link east Ventura County with Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. The commuter rail service is designed as an alternate source of transportation for east county residents who commute to Los Angeles. It will offer special fares and frequent trains at peak rush hours.

“We’re very pleased,” Mary Travis, manager of transit programs in Ventura County, said of the money provided to build the Simi Valley station. “It’s just another sign that the rail project is moving right along.”

Travis said county transportation officials are also working on plans to get similar financing next year for a Moorpark commuter rail station.

“We’re working on that,” she said. “We’re 99% sure that something similar will happen in Moorpark next year.”

She said the county will pick up the remaining cost of the estimated $1.5 million needed to build the Simi Valley station with money generated from Proposition 116, a statewide bond measure approved by voters last June.

But county officials said they have no source for the $500,000 needed annually to operate the planned commuter rail service linking Los Angeles, Simi Valley and Moorpark. The proposed start-up date for the commuter line is October, 1992.

In November, Ventura County voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have raised the local sales tax to pay for transportation projects, including the operation of commuter rail service.

As a result, county transportation officials are scrambling to come up with other sources of funding. They are even studying the possibility of putting another sales tax measure on a future ballot.

In the meantime, Travis said, “We’re looking at a whole range of funding options.”

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said city officials are also looking for money to subsidize the commuter rail. “There is still time to put something together,” he said, suggesting that Los Angeles County might even be willing to help.

“We’re looking at funds in that direction,” he said. “I think the Los Angeles Transportation Commission is beginning to understand that this will be a significant benefit to them because it will reduce the number of people on their freeways. I’m optimistic it will all come together.”

Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard, whose district includes Simi Valley and Moorpark, said she had “no doubt” that the east county will be part of the commuter rail service when it begins service in 1992.