Official Seeks Local Assembly Plant for Rail Cars and Buses : Transit: Jobs would be created if the vehicles needed for the proposed Green Line were built in this area, county commissioner argues.

While lawmakers debate the award of a coveted rail line contract to a Japanese-owned company, a Los Angeles transit official Tuesday proposed that a new assembly plant be created locally to build the thousands of buses and rail cars that will be needed in the next 30 years.

The plan outlined by Los Angeles County Transportation Commissioner Nick Patsaouras would allow a new economic development corporation to use local transit funds and federal grants to build an assembly plant or refurbish an existing one such as the General Motors plant in Van Nuys. That 100-acre facility, opened in 1947, is scheduled to close in August, displacing about 2,000 workers.

For several weeks, state and local officials have battled over the transportation commission’s decision last month to award a $121.8-million contract to Sumitomo Corp. of America to build an automated rail line from Norwalk to El Segundo. The debate has focused both on the expense of an automated system and the fact that Sumitomo’s bid was higher than one submitted by Idaho-based Morrison-Knudsen. Selection of the American company, the only other firm to compete for the contract, would have created 79 additional local jobs.

Patsaouras said Los Angeles County’s plan calls for a $150-billion rail and bus system and that a new local transit corporation should be in place to compete for the business. In all, he said, about 7,000 buses and 500 to 600 rail cars are expected to be purchased for the system.

“The recent debate on the Green Line contract has really missed a critical point, and the point is that the trains are going to be manufactured, even if Morrison-Knudsen gets in, in Boise, Idaho, not in California, not in Los Angeles County,” said Patsaouras, who is also a board member of the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

“We have the talent. We have the money. We have the need,” for a local assembly plant, Patsaouras said at a press conference outside the downtown office of the state Employment Development Department. “And I believe that after two weeks of debate on the Green Line, we will finally get the political will to make it happen.”

Although the cost of a new assembly plant hinges on its location and facilities, Patsaouras and other transit officials estimated that using the General Motors plant would require as much as $40 million to acquire and $15 million to refurbish. General Motors officials recently turned down requests by local officials to keep the plant open, including a plan to use the facility to manufacture electric cars.

The cost to acquire and refurbish the plant, Patsaouras and other officials said, could be recouped with the manufacture and sale of transit vehicles to local agencies and other bus and rail operators nationwide.

Further, they said, the facility could employ 500 to 1,000 workers and indirectly add three times that number of jobs to the local economy.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, said that although he had not seen details of the proposal, he endorsed the notion of building a local assembly plant to create jobs and retain tax dollars in the county. The proposal will be brought to the county transportation commission at its meeting Jan. 22.