Metrolink Riders in Van Nuys Will Need Shuttle Bus : Transportation: A lack of parking space near the station will force commuters to catch rides to the platform until adjacent land is purchased.

Commuters riding the Metrolink train to downtown will have to take a shuttle bus to the Van Nuys train stop for at least six months after the service begins Oct. 26 due to lack of parking space there, Los Angeles city transportation officials said Tuesday.

The shuttle bus from a lot half a mile away will operate for up to a year because the city has yet to purchase land for a parking lot next to the stop, they said.

The Van Nuys passenger platform, currently used by Amtrak, has parking for about 80 cars, but the Southern California Rail Authority, which will operate the Metrolink commuter trains, requires each rail stop to have space for at least 300 cars.

City transportation officials are eyeing land owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power next to the train stop for use as a parking lot. But DWP officials have said they will only give up the land, now used to store electrical transformers, if the transportation officials can give them a nearby, equal-sized parcel in exchange.

City transportation planners said they are working quickly on the land swap deal, but it may take six months to a year to iron out the details and prepare the lot.

“This is a rather complex situation,” said Helene Jacobs, a senior transportation planner for the city Department of Transportation. “We are doing what we can.”

Until the lot is built, Jacobs said the only alternative is to have passengers park about half a mile away in a former maintenance yard owned by the Southern California Rapid Transit District near Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way. Passengers will ride a shuttle bus from the parking yard to the train stop, she said.

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., said the idea of having commuters catch a shuttle bus to get to a train station is “stupid” and will add congestion to already busy Van Nuys streets.

“You are creating more of a problem than you are solving,” Schultz said.

Metrolink, a regional rail network, will ultimately have more than 400 miles of routes and about 60 stations, linking downtown Los Angeles with five surrounding counties. The trains will travel downtown during the morning rush hours and return during the evening rush.

Although the service will be operated by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which includes transportation officials from five counties, construction of Metrolink stations is the responsibility of the cities where the stations are located.

A successful debut in October is important to regional transportation officials because voters will be asked in November to approve a second series of state bonds to expand commuter and intercity rail service throughout the state.

James Okazaki, chief of transit programs for the Los Angeles City Department of Transportation, said the land swap with DWP is complicated because it involves several municipalities and agencies, including the California Department of Transportation, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and others.

“It’s not as easy as going to the store and picking something up because you have the money,” he said.

He said the city of Los Angeles has already committed $2.1 million to purchasing land and building the parking lot for the Van Nuys passenger platform. But Okazaki said the purchase of adjacent property to swap with the DWP will require an additional $3 million to $4 million, which he hopes to get from funds raised by Proposition C, a half-cent sales-tax surcharge approved by voters in 1990.

Okazaki said he also dislikes the idea of having commuters catch a shuttle bus to the station, but said it will be only a temporary inconvenience. “It’s not what we want to have ultimately and we are working to make that station have parking right there,” he said.

A spokesman for the DWP could not be reached Tuesday.

A similar problem plagues the proposed Sylmar commuter train stop. The city of Los Angeles recently began condemnation proceedings on a 5.8-acre parcel between Hubbard and Sayre streets because city officials could not reach an agreement on the property’s worth with the property owners, the Friedman Bros. Investment Co. But Okazaki said Tuesday that the two sides are close to reaching an agreement on the property’s price.

He said he hopes to have a parking lot built at the Sylmar stop at the same time that a parking lot is completed at the Van Nuys platform. In the meantime, he said, shuttle buses may also be used at the Sylmar stop.