New Mayor Could Sway Choice of Rail Line : Transit: Woo supports Burbank-Chandler subway. Riordan backs ‘monorail.’ Cost may determine which is built.

When Los Angeles voters go to the polls June 8 to choose a new mayor, they will also pick a man who may greatly influence what kind of mass transit rail line will be built in the San Fernando Valley.

The next mayor will sit on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board and make three appointments to the 13-member panel that will decide later this year between two rival rail lines proposed for the Valley.

The two projects--a mostly subway line paralleling Burbank and Chandler boulevards and an elevated line over the Ventura Freeway--have been the focus of heated debate for more than five years and have split Valley homeowners into warring factions.

Councilman Michael Woo has long endorsed the Burbank-Chandler line, while his rival for the mayoral seat, businessman Richard Riordan, said last week that he backs the less expensive elevated freeway line.

Several transportation officials said the next mayor can sway the panel’s vote by appointing like-minded members and by using his position to influence new members on the panel.

But others disagree, saying the determining factor will be, as it has been in the past, cost: An independent consultant has estimated it would cost $2.24 billion to build the freeway line as opposed to $2.79 billion for the Burbank-Chandler line.

The freeway line would also cost $13 million less annually to operate and would generate about 16% more in passenger revenues, the consultant said.

The final vote on the issues is expected later this year after several engineering studies are completed for both projects.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, an 11-member panel that has since been replaced by the Transportation Authority, voted twice in the past six months to tentatively back the cheaper elevated line.

(The elevated freeway line is often referred to as the monorail. However, no technology has been selected for the project.)

In a Dec. 16 meeting, the commission voted 6 to 3, with two abstentions, to support the elevated rail line. In a follow-up meeting Jan. 27, the commission voted 7 to 4 to let the previous decision stand.

But at the January meeting the commission also indicated that it would leave the final say on the matter to the Transportation Authority.

The elevated line would stretch 16 miles along the median of the freeway from Woodland Hills to Universal City, where it would connect with the Metro Rail Red Line to downtown Los Angeles. It could be completed from the Red Line to the San Diego Freeway by 2001 and then extended to Woodland Hills by 2018.

The rival, mostly subway line would connect with the Red Line in North Hollywood and extend 14 miles, paralleling Burbank and Chandler boulevards to its terminus in Woodland Hills.

Nick Patsaouras, an alternate member on the Transportation Authority, said the next mayor “will make a definite difference” because the mayor effectively controls four votes and can influence four other new members who have been added to the Transportation Authority.

“So, it’s a whole new ballgame,” he said.

Councilman Marvin Braude, a member of the Transportation Authority, agreed. “The mayor has the equivalent of four votes on the board,” he said. “There is no question about it: That is an enormous amount of power.”

But others disagree.

An aide to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a member of the Transportation Authority who has strongly backed the elevated freeway line, said she believes that the panel will continue to support the elevated freeway line regardless of the mayoral election’s outcome.

“It’s possible to keep the monorail alive regardless of who is elected,” said Rosa Kortizija, Antonovich’s transportation aide.

Don Schultz, president of Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. and an opponent of the Burbank-Chandler line, said he doesn’t think the next mayor will have a great influence on the matter. Mayor Tom Bradley has supported the Burbank-Chandler line, he noted, but has been unable to get a majority of the commissioners to vote with him.

In the December vote on the Valley line, one of Bradley’s appointees, James L. Tolbert, abstained from voting, while the other, City Councilman Richard Alatorre, voted for the freeway line. (The mayor was allowed only two appointees to the old panel.)

Woo has said he supports the Burbank-Chandler line because a rider would be able to take the line from Woodland Hills to downtown Los Angeles without having to transfer from one transit system to another. Riders on a monorail would have to transfer to the Red Line in North Hollywood or Universal City.

Meanwhile, Riordan said cost is a deciding factor in his support for the elevated rail line.

“I am in favor of the monorail because studies indicate it will save between $700 million and $1 billion,” he said. “Unless other studies contradict this, the monorail makes the most fiscal sense.”

Both candidates said they have yet to consider who they will appoint to the panel.