Transit Agency Approves Trains for Commuters : Rail service: Two routes--one starting in Moorpark and the other in Santa Clarita--are expected to carry up to 6,000 passengers each weekday.

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

The trains--four each weekday from Moorpark and three from Santa Clarita--will share the rails with Amtrak passenger and Southern Pacific freight trains.

They are expected to carry up to 6,000 one-way passengers each weekday, providing a slight measure of relief to clogged nearby freeways.

If the trains, which will travel downtown during the morning rush hours and return during the evening rush, are successful, others capable of doubling ridership could be added, according to officials of the Interim Joint Powers Authority.

The authority was formed earlier this year by Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties to get the new service rolling.

Stations on the Moorpark line will be in Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Burbank and Glendale.

The Santa Clarita trains will stop at San Fernando, Burbank and Glendale.

Authority rail officials say they already have a signed agreement with Southern Pacific for use of its two main San Fernando Valley lines, which branch north and northwest from Burbank.

At the same time the two lines crossing the Valley begin operation, the authority hopes to begin five round trips daily between downtown Los Angeles and San Bernardino, although that plan depends on reaching agreement with the Santa Fe Railroad for track use.

Those negotiations are now stalled.

Commuter trains, which use equipment similar to that employed by Amtrak, carry far fewer passengers than specially built mass-transit systems such as the Blue Line, which operates between downtown 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 at least to double within a few years, officials say.

“Yes, commuter rail is lower capacity,” said Richard Stanger, the authority’s rail development director. “But it’s low investment too, and it can be started up in a small fraction of the time needed for a Metro Rail-type line.”

The authority estimates that it will cost $774 million to buy the equipment and build stations needed for the first three commuter rail lines and four others--serving San Bernardino and Riverside counties--scheduled to begin operation between 1993 and 1995.

The seven trains crossing the Valley will terminate at Union Station, allowing passengers to transfer to and from the Metro Rail subway--to be called the Red Line--when it is completed in late 1993.

At 7th and Flower streets downtown, the subway will connect to the Blue Line.

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 and $2.50 from Santa Clarita to downtown.

The authority has ordered 40 new two-level commuter rail cars and is to decide later this summer whether to buy another 20.

Jacki Bacharach, who heads the authority board, urged Friday that more cars be ordered, noting that Los Angeles County Transportation Commission officials are relieved that they ordered extra cars for the Blue Line “because, as it turned out, demand is great and service is already being expanded.”