Rail Service Electrification Could Cost $4.6 Billion

Electrifying 806 miles of Southern California’s current and planned commuter and freight rail service to reduce harmful diesel emissions will cost $4.6 billion, may boost consumers’ monthly electric bills and could take 18 years, according to a new study.

The report by a Southern California Regional Rail Authority task force was prepared to respond to reports last year that a new diesel-powered commuter-rail service, Metrolink, may create a larger amount of one key smog component than it will save by getting commuters out of their cars.

Metrolink is scheduled to start service on its first three lines--from San Bernardino, the Santa Clarita Valley and Ventura County into Los Angeles--in October. Metrolink also plans to expand service into Riverside, Orange and northern San Diego counties.

To speed relief for traffic congestion, the report recommends starting service with diesel engines while pursuing the difficult task of electrifying the region’s rail lines. The report also urged, as an alternative to electrification, exploring the feasibility of clean-burning methanol or natural gas in modified diesel locomotives.

Freight railroads also must be brought into the process, the report said, because they are responsible for the bulk of railroad-related air pollution and should bear most of the cost of installing electric wires over Southern California rail lines.

Of the $4.6-billion cost of electrification, $2.75 billion should come from freight haulers, the report said. Electrification would not be cost-effective without participation by the freight companies, the report concluded.

The remaining $1.85 billion, the commuter railroad’s share, could be paid in any number of ways, the report said, including a surcharge on electric bills.

That idea was dismissed as “ridiculous” by Dana W. Reed.

“The thought of billing the utility ratepayer $4 billion to fix . . . little more than 5% of the total (air pollution) problem is totally unacceptable,” ’ said Reed, the Orange County Transportation Authority representative on the Southern California Regional Rail Authority board.

Times staff writer Mark A. Stein contributed to this story.