PANORAMA CITY : End to Dangerous Crossing Sought

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon has stepped up his efforts to eliminate a potentially dangerous Metrolink railroad crossing in Panorama City by taking his message to Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials.

Addressing a workshop involving the MTA board, which oversees the Metrolink route, and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, Alarcon urged transportation officials to come together to solve the problem.

“I want them to know that I’m willing to do the work if they are willing to do the work,” Alarcon said at Wednesday’s meeting.

Alarcon and residents are concerned that there is no established crossing over the tracks south of Blythe Street to Valerio School and Fulton Junior High School. Each day, about 400 students cross the tracks, while the parents of others in the low-income neighborhood pay as much as $15 per week for rides to avoid the long and potentially unsafe walk.

At the workshop, Alarcon presented a letter that accused Metrolink, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the city’s Department of Transportation of “finger-pointing” in solving the problem.

He met with all three agencies in September to address the problem, receiving promises of cooperation from each. Metrolink had already built a 600-foot chain-link fence that has been cut open, but Alarcon wants MTA to build an overpass or contribute toward a DOT shuttle to bus students.

Richard Spanger, executive director of Metrolink, said the issue requires “a multi-pronged solution that takes more time than it should.”

Metrolink officials said they are developing plans for a shuttle service for the children and investigating a possible tunnel access for a railroad crossing.

Alarcon, who also criticized the school district for its failure to work quickly toward a solution, said he was optimistic about the response from the MTA board, which promised that it would place a high priority on solving the situation.

“(Los Angeles) City Councilman Richard Alatorre was very supportive,” Alarcon said of the MTA board’s chairman. But, he added, “there could be much better coordination on these issues.”