Back on Board : Transportation: Plans for restoring old train routes through the county are gathering steam.

A century after the golden age of the American train and a generation after the demolition of Ventura’s first depot, a new railroad boomlet may soon be rolling through the county. That’s the idea, anyway.

Amid widespread optimism, local leaders are drawing near to three potential railroad milestones.

* In March, a consultant will propose uses for the Santa Clara River Valley route that carried the first Southern Pacific car into Ventura in 1887. Possibilities range from a crude oil pipeline to a bicycle path, but renewed passenger rail service is a sentimental favorite for many.

* By April, Amtrak officials are expected to add Ventura to their list of regular stops--the first time the city has had its own stop in more than 20 years.

* In October, regional transportation officials plan to open a commuter rail line linking Simi Valley and Moorpark to downtown Los Angeles. The Ventura County project is part of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority’s Metrolink system, which is expected to include 402 miles of track on eight lines from Orange County to Moorpark and San Bernardino by the decade’s end.

The Metrolink is often described as the most ambitious commuter rail project among many recently undertaken nationwide. In Boston, Miami and Chicago, rail systems have recently been expanded, and a new commuter railroad is under construction in northern Virginia.

“The last two years have been really interesting,” said Mary Travis, who has labored on the Metrolink project as transit programs manager for the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

When the Railroad Rolled In

It was 1886, 17 years after the “golden spike” was driven in Utah to connect the Atlantic and Pacific by rail, when Southern Pacific announced plans for a spur line into Ventura County.

Real estate prices soared. Among Ventura’s 5,000 residents, speculation over the path the train would follow ran wild.

The chosen route ran from Saugus through the Santa Clara Valley to Ventura, then veered northwest to Santa Barbara. Paying Chinese laborers 90 cents day, Southern Pacific officials created or boosted new towns as they went: Piru, Bardsdale, and Fillmore, which was named for railroad company superintendant Jerome Fillmore. To fit the city of San Buenaventura on its schedules, Southern Pacific abbreviated its name to Ventura.

Within days of the first passenger train’s arrival in 1887, Venturans were buying round-trip tickets to Los Angeles for $5 each, calling for tighter saloon laws to keep incoming travelers under control and complaining about tardy trains. The population soon doubled. Eleven years later, a 15-mile freight and passenger line started doing business between Ventura and Ojai.

Relations between the railroad and the community were occasionally strained. In 1889, a Southern Pacific train rammed into a team of livestock at a railroad crossing and the company paid $850 in damages. (In the most notable claim against Southern Pacific these days, Ventura County is seeking $717,000 to cover cleanup costs from the July, 1991, derailment of toxic cargo at Seacliff.)

Still, the rail future seemed bright. In 1901, Southern Pacific workers between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo completed the last link of a north-south route running the length of the state.

But as more highways were built and Southern Pacific adjusted its priorities, Ventura lost prominence on the railroad’s schedules. In 1932, the Ojai-Ventura route dropped passenger service to concentrate on freight only. In 1935, local newspapers noted the end of rail passenger service in Piru, along the inland route through the Santa Clara Valley.

By 1969, rail officials had closed the storm-damaged upper nine miles of the Ventura-Ojai route, which was to become the Ojai trail now used by equestrians, bicyclists and joggers. And by the time Amtrak took over passenger service on Southern Pacific’s tracks in 1971, Oxnard had replaced Ventura as the stop at the county’s western end.

In 1973, the idle Fillmore depot narrowly escaped razing when Fillmore resident Edith Jarrett bought it for $1.05 and paid to have it moved onto a city property along Main Street and converted into a historical museum.

The old Ventura depot, a two-story wooden structure near Front and Laurel streets, wasn’t so fortunate. When its future was threatened that same year, someone estimated that it would cost $45,000 to restore and move it to the county fairgrounds. That was more than the city or any rescue effort could raise. A bulldozer leveled the 86-year-old building.

Old Route, New Plans

Late last year, county transportation officials commissioned an $80,000 consultant’s report on the possibilities for the old Saugus-to-Ventura route.

“They went out and literally walked the line to check conditions,” said Chris Stephens, a senior analyst with the county Transportation Commission who is working with the consulting firm Wilbur Smith & Associates.

One possibility under study is the revival of passenger rail service on the old route. In a new incarnation, a passenger line would rely more on tourists than commuters, officials said, possibly offering Ventura County residents a carless route to Magic Mountain and Santa Clarita Valley residents a direct line to the beach.

Sixteen miles of that line, between Piru and Saugus, are now owned by the Newhall Land & Farming Co. and no longer have tracks. Along the remaining mileage from Piru to Ventura, the old tracks remain and Southern Pacific owns the right of way.

Questions abound about financing and who would operate such a service. But among local leaders, Stephens said, transportation officials have found “a lot of interest . . . in maintaining its use as a rail corridor.”

Among other possible uses:

* Freight train service, perhaps in connection with new international shipping traffic expected at Port Hueneme.

* A water pipeline that could connect the state water supply to the Ventura, Casitas and United water districts and their customers. (An environmental impact report on that proposal is due in April and if no barriers arise, a bond issue could go before voters by November.)

* A bike path similar to the Ojai trail.

* A crude oil pipeline.

More than a few people are already looking carefully at the pipeline possibility. It would be part of a 170-mile, $200-million conduit between Santa Barbara’s offshore oil platforms and two refineries in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County.

Officials at Pacific Pipeline, a sister company to Southern Pacific that is proposing the pipeline with financial backing from several oil companies, say they have already filed applications for the necessary state environmental permits. Several environmental groups have declared their doubts about the idea, and a lengthy review process is expected.

Despite the many and varied ideas under review, Stephens said, “the preliminary finding is that all these things can coexist in that corridor.”

A spokeswoman for the Newhall Land & Farming Co. said the firm is “certainly in favor” of a passenger rail revival and opposed to the oil pipeline alignment most recently proposed.

Cat Brown, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that agency would not oppose new uses of the rail route, provided the required environmental reports were made and the right of way was treated “in an environmentally sensitive way.” She did note, however, that the Santa Clara River Valley area includes two endangered species: a bird called the Least Bell’s Vireo and a small fish, the Unarmored Threespined Stickleback.

Officials say the consultant’s report, due in March, may not address all such issues in detail. But it is expected to include cost estimates and a market analysis of potential passengers on a Saugus-Ventura line.

“I get so excited thinking about it,” said Dorothy Haase, executive director of the Fillmore Historical Society Museum.

Anticipating renewed activity along the old rails, Haase and her historical society allies have asked Fillmore officials to move the depot-museum back to its original trackside spot. City officials are studying the request.

The New Platform

On most mornings at the Ventura County Fairgrounds these days, a visitor can hear the sound of rail history doubling back on itself.

Nineteen years after the demolition of the old depot, city officials are spending $400,000 to build a platform along the tracks.

The project, originally scheduled for completion last October or November, was delayed when the city redesigned the 500-foot platform and then faced a delay in getting the necessary materials.

Miriam Mack, redevelopment administrator for the city of Ventura, said she now expects the platform to be done in coming weeks. Amtrak spokesman Bruce Heard said that if the city meets that goal, trains will be stopping in Ventura by March 26.

The tentative schedule calls for southbound stops in Ventura at 8:26 a.m. and 4:01 p.m. and northbound stops at 10:05 a.m. and 9:42 p.m. A round-trip ticket from Ventura to Los Angeles is expected to cost about $20.

“We do expect that it will prompt tourism from the San Diego and Los Angeles areas,” said Carol Lavender, spokeswoman for the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau. “I’m really excited. I can see all sort of things coming from this.”

Up to now, Lavendar said, Ventura-bound train travelers have been forced to get off the train in Oxnard, then finish the journey by bus.

“That’s not the best way to market your city,” Lavender said.

The Commuters

Ventura County’s biggest experiment in rail commuting begins in October, if Southern California Regional Rail Authority officials keep their immense project on schedule.

Plans call for four eastbound trains to stop in Moorpark and Simi Valley every weekday morning--one every 45 minutes from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., offering passenger service to Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Burbank, Glendale and Union Station in Los Angeles. Westbound trains are planned on weekdays every 45 minutes from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

As part of that effort, Simi Valley officials have agreed to buy two vacant properties for a new commuter rail station and parking facility. The 6.4-acre station, which will replace a depot at Los Angeles and Surveyor avenues, will handle both Amtrak service and Metrolink commuter rail traffic.

Officials say the Ventura County portion of the project, expected to carry costs of more than $96 million, will be paid for through a bond issue approved by voters in 1990. To pay for operating costs, Ventura County transportation officials say they will ask voters here to approve another bond issue.

Metrolink officials have projected a beginning ridership of 1,699 trips in each direction daily along the 47-mile Moorpark-to-Union Station route, including 162 boarders in Moorpark and 252 in Simi Valley. Estimated cost is $5 to $6 each way, with monthly passes available at a substantial discount.

Amid all this enthusiasm, however, a few voices of skepticism still are heard. One belongs to David F. Myrick, a Montecito resident, railroad historian and former assistant vice president for Southern Pacific.

The current boomlet in rail-related ideas, Myrick said, is “political opportunism” that ignores the enduring allegiance Californians have to their cars. He recalled Southern Pacific’s unsuccessful attempt at a commuter-style service through Los Angeles, Simi Valley and Oxnard for about six months in 1982 and 1983.

“The trouble with rail transit in Southern California is, you get on a train in Ventura or Oxnard, and you ride to Union Station in L.A. And then what?” asked Myrick.

Most Southern Californians, he said, are too spoiled to board another train or bus to complete their trip.

“We know there are those who feel that way,” acknowledged Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo. “Our battle is to change commuter behavior, and it’s not going to be changed overnight.”

Commuter Rail Link

In October, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority will begin operating commuter rail service linking Moorpark and Simi Valley to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Service on the 47-mile route will include four eastbound trains running from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and four westbound trains running from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.