SAN FERNANDO : City Awarded $1 Million for Bike Pathway

San Fernando has received a grant of nearly $1 million to build a bicycle pathway along the Metrolink right of way, one that planners hope one day will be part of a systemwide bike-train network.

The city hopes to construct a mile-long paved path between Wolfskill and Hubbard streets that would link passengers from the proposed San Fernando-Sylmar Metrolink station with its downtown mall, civic center and city hall, said Jerry Wedding, San Fernando’s city engineer.

“Some day you could ride the rail corridors in any area, and take your bike on the train,” Wedding said.

The path also would serve bicyclists and pedestrians who are not train passengers, and provide an important link to the city’s redeveloped downtown area, planners say.

The city applied for Proposition C funding, which sets aside sales tax revenue for bicycle paths and other transportation-related projects, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority approved the $990,000 project this summer, according to MTA project manager Peter De Haan.

The San Fernando City Council on Monday will vote on a memorandum of agreement with the MTA to start the project, which could be completed by early 1995.

“It’s really a shot in the arm for bicyclists,” Wedding said.

MTA has funded a similar bicycle path in Santa Clarita along another right of way that is not part of its rail system, said De Haan. San Fernando’s project would be the first along an active Metrolink rail corridor.

“We also believe this will improve the safety of the right of way,” said De Haan. Pedestrians could use it as a shortcut between major streets, instead of walking along the tracks, which is both unsafe and illegal, he said. “Of course, we can’t fence off the crossings. This will give pedestrians a safer alternative than walking beside the tracks.”

San Fernando already has constructed a wrought-iron fence along the corridor to protect pedestrians and spruce up the view from passing trains. The 12-foot-wide paved bike pathway would run along the far side of that fence and include landscaping and lighting, according to Wedding.

“We hope to make it really nice--more than asphalt and fence,” he said. “We should be able to get some nice landscaping.”

In the future, planners are looking at linking the bikeway with other street-side paths and future trails along flood-control channels, Wedding said.