Funds OKd for Commuter Rail Line Linking County, L.A. and San Bernardino

The California Transportation Commission has approved a $42.1-million allocation to establish a commuter rail network to link Ventura, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties beginning in October, 1992.

The commission, at a meeting in Los Angeles late Tuesday, approved funding to purchase rail rights of way from Southern Pacific Railroad Co., Caltrans spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said.

Some of the money will be used to upgrade old rail lines, make improvements to existing train stations and build new ones, she said.

The rail money is available through Proposition 108 and 116, two statewide bond measures approved by voters in June, 1990, for transportation improvements.

“We’re delighted,” Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, said of the state’s action. “It’s moving us right along.”

Gherardi said $2.5 million of the funding will go toward construction of a new train station and parking facility in Simi Valley and $3.2 million for improvements at an existing station in Moorpark. She said another $8.6 million will be allocated to purchase rail rights of way in Ventura County and to make track improvements.

The commuter rail lines will be operated by the Southern California Joint Powers Authority, composed of transportation officials representing Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties.

Last month, the joint-powers agency approved plans to operate commuter service each weekday from Moorpark to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles beginning in October, 1992.

The service is to include four eastbound trains in the morning and four westbound trains in the evening. The 47-mile line is to have stops in Simi Valley, Glendale, Burbank, Van Nuys and Chatsworth.

Plans also have been approved to operate commuter trains from Santa Clarita and San Bernardino to Los Angeles at the same time the Moorpark line is scheduled to begin service.

The 35-mile Santa Clarita to Los Angeles line is to have three daily round-trips with stops in Glendale, Burbank and San Fernando. The 60-mile line from San Bernardino to Los Angeles is to include five daily round-trips, with a potential 12 stops between the two cities.

There are plans to extend the commuter rail system to Orange and Riverside counties after 1993.

Ventura County transportation officials said they plan to use special state transportation assistance funds that the county is due to cover the estimated $565,000 that it will cost to operate the commuter service during the first year.

The money is available through a 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 during the next two years.

But because of the state’s budget problems, Gherardi said, the county cannot depend on the special transit funds in the future. Consequently, she said, transportation officials will eventually have to find another source of funding or be forced to dip into the already limited funds that it receives from the state each year for road projects.

Gherardi said transportation officials will have little choice but to go back to the voters and ask for a half-cent sales tax in Ventura County to help pay for road improvements and mass transit.

Los Angeles County voters approved such a measure in November, but Ventura County voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar initiative.