Transit Panel Wants to Drop Ventura Blvd. Subway Study : Transportation: Two other routes are still alive--one along a railroad right of way, another along the Ventura Freeway--if review of the line is halted.

A Los Angeles County transit panel recommended Wednesday dropping a study of a proposed subway under Ventura Boulevard, one of three east-west San Fernando Valley rail plans under study.

The 4-1 vote by the county Transportation Commission’s Planning and Mobility Committee appears likely to be upheld by the full commission next Wednesday. Final selection of a route is not expected until the end of the year.

The two other cross-Valley rail plans under review are a subway along the Southern Pacific railroad right of way that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards and an elevated monorail or magnetic-levitation line along the Ventura Freeway.

At issue Wednesday was whether to authorize $114,000 for additional engineering studies of the Ventura Boulevard subway.

Commissioner Nikolas Patsaouras, a Tarzana resident and board president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, cast the lone vote for continuing the study, arguing that “we owe it to the Valley to give them this option.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, in a letter to the commission, also endorsed the idea of prolonging the study. Her district includes a small segment of the boulevard in Woodland Hills.

But four other council members--John Ferraro, Marvin Braude, Michael Woo and Zev Yaroslavsky--said in a letter that a Ventura Boulevard subway would “create significantly more congestion, will be disruptive to construct, generate fewer passengers . . . and require longer access times for most people. . . .”

Each represents a segment of both Ventura Boulevard and the freeway.

Along with most Valley elected officials, the four support extending the downtown Metro Rail subway westward along the Southern Pacific right of way.

All three rail lines would terminate at Warner Center. The freeway and Ventura Boulevard lines would connect to the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway at Universal City and the Chandler-Victory line would connect to it in North Hollywood.

A consultant recently estimated that the 16.2-mile monorail or magnetic-levitation line along the freeway would cost $2.3 billion, that the 14-mile subway extension along the Southern Pacific right of way would cost $2.7 billion, and that a 15.7-mile Ventura Boulevard subway would cost $3.9 billion.

Ridership estimates are 48,000 a day for the freeway line, 57,000 for the Chandler-Victory line and 58,000 for the Ventura Boulevard route.

In other action, the committee urged the commission to authorize a $140,000 study of building rail or electric bus lines north and east from the proposed Metro Rail station at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

Suggested routes are north along Lankershim and San Fernando Road to Sylmar and east along Chandler to the Golden State Freeway in Burbank.

The committee also recommended that the commission amend its plan to invite bids from private firms wishing to build a rail line from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale Airport along the shoulder or median of the San Diego, Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

The recommended amendment is to add Valley east-west rail proposals to the invitation, or request for proposals, which will be legally advertised later this year.