Transit Officials Ask U.S. to Intercede in Santa Fe Impasse

Regional transportation officials Monday asked the Interstate Commerce Commission to force the Santa Fe Railway to let commuter trains run on Santa Fe track between Los Angeles and San Bernardino, a privilege the railroad is withholding while negotiating a fee for that service.

Citing a compelling public interest, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority filed a plea with the commission in Washington asking regulators to use a “terminal access provision” in federal law to break an impasse in negotiations between the regional transportation agency and the railroad.

Santa Fe Vice President Robert L. Edwards dismissed the plea as “groundless,” saying the law being cited cannot be invoked by publicly owned commuter railroads and does not apply to the track sought.

The provision was originally intended to spur competition by forcing companies to share access to rail terminals with other railroads.

The Southern California Regional Rail Authority and Santa Fe have been engaged in bitter negotiations over several hundred miles of track that the commuter rail authority wants to buy or share to run train lines between Los Angeles and San Bernardino; from Riverside to Irvine and between Los Angeles and Oceanside.

The rail authority has offered about $300 million for the property; Santa Fe is asking $800 million.

Santa Fe lawyer George D. Kieffer said the two sides have not met to negotiate since early September.

The impasse threatens to delay one of the first three lines scheduled to go into service a year from now, a San Bernardino-to-Los Angeles service projected to serve 2,000 riders a day. Without the Santa Fe track, the line would be forced to start service only between Los Angeles and Claremont on lower quality, out-of-the-way track once owned by Southern Pacific Railroad.

The other two lines scheduled to start next fall, from the Santa Clarita Valley and Ventura County into Los Angeles Union Station, are unaffected because they would run on track bought last year from Southern Pacific.

“Santa Fe simply asks two things . . . that we are told exactly what it is (rail officials) want to buy and then negotiate in good faith to agree on terms, and they make a meaningful counteroffer” to the $800 million initially sought, Edwards said.

Regional rail authority negotiator Neil Peterson said Santa Fe’s initial offer is too absurd to discuss, equivalent to two-thirds of the price of all of the company’s stock in exchange for 2% of its track.