Train Won’t Stop in Sylmar--Yet : Transportation: Building of the planned Metrolink platform has been stalled by a land dispute. Officials expect service at the facility to begin after Jan. 1.

When Metrolink commuter trains roll into service Oct. 26, they will pass right by a planned stop in Sylmar because construction of a passenger platform and parking facilities there has been delayed, city transportation officials said.

Sylmar service will not begin until at least Jan. 1 because a dispute over purchasing the needed land set back construction by several months.

Without Sylmar and Baldwin Park--where construction has also been delayed--Metrolink trains will serve 12 stops on three lines connecting Moorpark, Santa Clarita and Pomona with downtown Los Angeles.

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

The Sylmar platform and parking facility, along San Fernando Road between Sayre and Hubbard streets, in the city of Los Angeles, are being built jointly by the cities of Los Angeles and San Fernando at a cost of about $1.5 million.

Last week, the San Fernando City Council voted 3-2 against a plan to spend an additional $40,000 to build a temporary platform and parking lot to serve the stop until the permanent facilities are completed after Jan. 1, Councilman Doude Wysbeek said.

Completion of the site had been delayed several months because city officials could not reach an agreement on the property’s worth with the Friedman Bros. Investment Co., which owned it. The city of Los Angeles began condemnation proceedings in August to purchase the 5.8-acre site. Although an agreement has since been reached, no construction has begun.

Wysbeek said the city council members who voted against building the temporary platform and parking lot thought the cost was too high, considering that a temporary facility would not be completed until December and so would be used for only a month.

The temporary facilities, he said, would have been built on land next to the permanent site and then razed after the permanent facility was completed.

Other problems plague the Van Nuys Metrolink platform on Van Nuys Boulevard near the closed General Motors plant.

That platform, now used by Amtrak, has parking for about 90 cars, but the rail authority requires each rail stop to have space for at least 300. City transportation officials had planned to have passengers park half a mile away in a former maintenance yard owned by the Southern California Rapid Transit District near Van Nuys and Sherman Way. Passengers would ride a shuttle bus from the parking yard to the train stop.

However, city officials changed their minds recently, deciding that the station’s parking lot would be big enough to handle the initial passenger traffic because “we don’t expect the service to be at its peak for the first couple of months,” said James Okazaki, chief of transit programs for the Los Angeles City Department of Transportation.

He said that if parking space at the site is insufficient, city transportation officials will consider operating a shuttle bus service to the station from other parking sites, including the RTD yard.

In the meantime, he said, the city is working to acquire property next to the platform to expand the number of parking spaces.

Problems at the Van Nuys station have generated criticism from Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., who accused city officials of bungling the project. Schultz said he was concerned that passengers would avoid using the station because of the lack of parking and because the area is plagued by gang violence.

“People are not going to leave their cars there,” he said. “That is a terrible site.”

But Okazaki defended the city’s efforts, saying, “It’s taking a long time to work out all the details, but we are working right along.”

He said the site will have parking attendants to get as many cars into the lot as possible. Okazaki also said the lot will be lighted at night and patrolled by guards.