Rail Talks Losing Track of the Taxpayer

Commuters are not the only losers in the stalemated negotiations that have delayed a planned North County commuter rail line. Taxpayers are getting shorted on their investment in higher sales taxes, and the air gets a little dirtier with each day of delay.

Hopes were high that the commuter line, with stops in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach and San Diego, would be running by the end of next year.

But plans to purchase train cars and locomotives have been put on hold because Santa Fe Railway and the Southern California transportation agencies cannot agree on a price for tracks and right of way in a five-county area. The rail agencies insist that $300 million is all they can pay; Santa Fe says its minimum is $800 million.

Where does that leave Southern Californians? In their cars.

And there’s a price tag for each day they stay in their cars.

The San Diego Assn. of Governments estimates that the Oceanside-to-San Diego line will take 2,000 cars off Interstate 5 each morning and evening from Day One, the equivalent of adding a lane to I-5. Within five years, that would climb to 4,000 to 6,000, or the equivalent of two to three lanes.

What does that mean?

Drivers-turned-train riders (and their employers) could save up to $55 a month in parking fees, after paying for transit passes. For those who could reduce the number of cars they own, there could be an additional savings of $200 a month, the American Automobile Assn. estimates.

Each year the commuter line is delayed also costs the taxpayers. The North County Transit District says that lack of a track-purchase agreement has already cost the agency $4 million to $6 million it could have saved by piggybacking on a Los Angeles order for cars and locomotives. In addition, inflation will erode the buying power of the voter-approved bonds, costing taxpayers an estimated $500,000 to $600,000 for each year construction is delayed.

The reductions in air pollution that the rail line would produce are harder to measure. But, by 2000, the number of automobile trips in the county must be trimmed by 500,000 a day to meet state clean air standards. The North County line could absorb up to 12,000 of those trips.

Taxpayers in six Southern California counties have made it clear by approving 10 sales-tax and bond measures that they want commuter rail and other transportation system improvements. The stalemate among Santa Fe Railway and the Southern California transit agencies stands in the way of one of the most important links in that system. It’s time for them to find a way to resolve their differences.