CAMARILLO : Pena Visits Metrolink Construction Site

U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena paid a quick visit Friday morning to the Metrolink station under construction in Camarillo, praising transit officials for their speedy work in building the emergency station.

Arriving by helicopter, Pena used the station’s dusty lot as a makeshift landing pad and donned a hard hat before walking the length of the construction site at Lewis Road and Ventura Boulevard.

“Congratulations,” Pena told a crowd of officials from Camarillo, Ventura County, Metrolink and the Army Corps of Engineers. “With this station you’re going to get more people to try Metrolink, and, with any luck, continue to use it.”

Shouting to be heard above roaring tractors, Col. Robert VanAntwerp, Army Corps of Engineers project supervisor, assured Pena that when the first Metrolink train rolls into Camarillo at 5:44 a.m. Monday, the parking lot will be paved and a 700-foot concrete platform will be in place.

“It doesn’t look like much now,” VanAntwerp said. “But it will do the job.”

The emergency station is scheduled to open Monday and operate for one year to help ease freeway congestion caused by the Jan. 17 earthquake. County officials have applied for disaster funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for the station, which is expected to cost $1.9 million.

Since the quake, Metrolink has opened three stations in the Antelope Valley. Another station is scheduled to open Monday in Northridge.

Metrolink Executive Director Richard Stanger took advantage of Pena’s visit to seek the secretary’s support in persuading Amtrak to stop at the Camarillo station.

Amtrak’s San Diegan line, which runs from Santa Barbara to San Diego, stops in Ventura, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Moorpark.

“Getting Amtrak to stop here would be the next step,” Stanger said.

“It would give commuters more flexibility,” he said.