High-Speed Rail Efforts Seen Doomed Without Public Aid

Super-speed trains that can transport passengers at up to 200 m.p.h. and reduce traffic congestion--like the one proposed between Palmdale and Los Angeles International Airport--will never become a reality without substantial government funding, a group of high-speed rail experts asserted Thursday.

The “private money only” philosophy has influenced planning for both the Palmdale magnetic levitation train and the apparently failed attempt to develop a similar high-speed rail link between Anaheim and Las Vegas.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission is moving ahead with plans for a $4-billion, privately financed, high-speed rail system between the Los Angeles airport and Palmdale. The LACTC’s Rail Construction Corp. plans to discuss the project at its meeting today .

“The point is, we don’t know” whether such a system could be built solely with private funds, said Sharon Neely, the commission’s director of transportation policy. “That’s why we want to explore it.”

At a press conference here, Joseph Vranich, a consultant to the High Speed Rail Assn. and author of a new book on high-speed rail systems, said, “Aviation and highways are heavily, heavily subsidized. How could you expect somebody to build a high-speed train line and (then) say, ‘You do it all with private money, and you have to compete against these subsidized systems?’ ”

The National Research Council, the working arm of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a November report that the trains are feasible, but unlikely to attract enough riders to become self-supporting.

The Federal Surface Transportation Act, signed by President Bush last month in hopes of generating new jobs, sets aside $725 million for magnetic levitation research and development. But competition for the money is expected to be stiff and it is unclear whether the LAX-Palmdale line qualifies, transportation officials here have said.

Others at the press conference said Japanese and European firms, with the aid of their governments, have built successful rail systems.

Times staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this story from Los Angeles.