Commission to Solicit Bids by Private Firms for East-West Rail Line

Los Angeles County transportation commissioners voted Wednesday to invite private firms to submit proposals for an east-west rail line in the San Fernando Valley, but not before signaling that they do not want it built along Ventura Boulevard.

Although a Ventura Boulevard rail plan still could be placed on the table as a private-sector proposal, commissioners said they expect bidders to refrain from choosing that option because the commissioners decided to halt their own study of the route.

The controversial boulevard subway proposal also has been rejected in recent years by the Los Angeles City Council, by a 32-member citizens advisory committee and by homeowner groups along the congested thoroughfare.

Nonetheless, the proposal has been kept alive by Commissioner Nikolas Patsaouras, a Tarzana resident who is board president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

He contends that the boulevard subway should be “kept on the table as an option” in the event that technical or financial problems develop in the two other cross-Valley routes under consideration.

But the other commissioners, citing widespread opposition, said they were unwilling to spend an additional $114,000 looking into the boulevard route.

The appropriation was on the commission agenda Wednesday, but Patsaouras did not bring it up for a decision. He said he did not have the votes, “so it’s time to fold.”

Still under consideration are a Metro Rail subway extension 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.

Both would terminate at Warner Center. Also, both would connect to the downtown Metro Rail subway--in North Hollywood for the Chandler-Victory subway and in Universal City for the freeway line.

The commission staff has estimated that the 16.2-mile monorail or magnetic-levitation line along the freeway would cost $2.3 billion, that the 14-mile Chandler-Victory subway would cost $2.7 billion and that a 15.7-mile Ventura Boulevard subway would cost $3.9 billion.

However, commissioners are holding off on choosing a Valley route until proposals for privately financed rail projects are received early next year.

On Wednesday, the commission voted to spend up to $75,000 to entice private firms to bid on an east-west Valley line.

Consultants will be hired to draft legal language adding a cross-Valley rail line to nearly completed documents to be used by private firms in submitting proposals for a rail line from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale Airport.

Commission Executive Director Neil Peterson said that by combining the two corridors, “we hope to get economies of scale and therefore more attractive bids on both routes.”

Six consortiums have filed preliminary papers to bid on the LAX-Palmdale line, to be built in the median or shoulder of the San Diego, Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

In other action, the commission authorized a $140,000 study of building rail and bus lines north and east from the proposed Metro Rail station at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards. Proposed routes are north along Lankershim Boulevard and San Fernando Road to Sylmar and east along Chandler Boulevard to the Golden State Freeway in Burbank.