Officials Consider Elevated Rail Extension

Officials in Los Angeles and Ventura counties have been discussing extending a proposed 16-mile elevated rail line over the Ventura Freeway an additional 15 miles or so to Thousand Oaks, officials said Monday.

As approved earlier this month by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, the line would run from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to Universal City, where it would connect with the Metro Rail Red Line subway.

But a spokesman for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a long-time monorail project supporter, said the supervisor has discussed with Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn the possibility of extending the line into Ventura County.

Antonovich aide Habib Balian said Antonovich and Flynn have discussed the extension idea for years but have only recently had their staffs involved in the talks. Balian stressed, however, that the discussions are preliminary and no studies have yet been done to see if the extension is feasible.

“It’s in the very, very early stages,” he said. “We are going to look at the data we have to see if it warrants further study.”

The project may be unfeasible if estimates indicate that ridership on the extension will not be high enough to justify the additional cost, said David L. Mieger, the transportation commission’s project manager.