Commuter Train Service Approved : Transit: The route would run from Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles with a stop in Simi Valley. But questions remain about funding.

A new five-county transit agency on Friday approved plans to operate four commuter trains each weekday from Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles beginning in October, 1992.

The agency, known as the Interim Joint Powers Authority, also approved plans to operate three commuter trains from Santa Clarita to downtown beginning at the same time.

The seven trains, which will share the rails with Amtrak and Southern Pacific freight trains, are expected to carry up to 6,000 passengers each weekday, providing a slight measure of relief to nearby gridlocked freeways.

If the lines are successful, trains could be added to double ridership, according to officials of the transit agency, which was formed by Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties to coordinate the service.

The proposed Moorpark service would include four eastbound trains in the morning and four westbound trains in the evening, transportation officials said. The service will use Union Station in Los Angeles as its terminal.

But questions remain about where the money to operate the Moorpark-Simi Valley leg of the service will come from. It is estimated that it will cost Ventura County $565,000 a year to operate the train service, money that it does not have.

In November, voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have raised the county sales tax to help offset the cost of the train service.

Since then, county transportation officials have been frantically searching for other sources of funding.

Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the county Transportation Commission, has said the county could use a portion of the special state transportation assistance funds it is due to cover start-up costs for the service.

The money is available through a state program that allocates a portion of the state sales tax collected on gasoline to help counties pay for mass transit. Ventura County is expected to receive up to $1 million in the next two years.

But there is no guarantee that it will receive all those funds because of the state’s budget crisis, officials said.

Gherardi and Moorpark and Simi Valley officials remain optimistic that they can come up with alternative sources of funding. They said the county does not need the entire $565,000 by October, 1992.

Commuter rail fares are expected to be 10 cents a mile each way, resulting in a one-way fare of about $4.50 from Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles.

Stations on the line will be in Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Burbank and Glendale. The Santa Clarita trains will stop in San Fernando, Burbank and Glendale.

Commuter trains, which use equipment similar to that employed by Amtrak, have far less capacity than specially built mass-transit systems, such as the Blue Line operating between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Ridership on the Blue Line, which cost about $900 million to build, is about 30,000 a day after one year of operation and is expected to at least double within a few years, officials say.