Panel OKs Metrolink Extension to Oxnard : Transit: Plans call for the emergency commuter rail service to begin March 28. Two daily weekday round-trips are planned to L.A.

Ventura County transportation officials voted unanimously Friday to extend emergency Metrolink service to Oxnard, ending weeks of logistical setbacks and financial hurdles.

The county Transportation Commission approved the commuter rail service after Executive Director Ginger Gherardi said operating costs could be paid out of the $1.9 million set aside to run the emergency Camarillo station that opened Feb. 14.

“The Camarillo station isn’t going to cost as much as we expected,” Gherardi told the commission. “So we have enough to go to Oxnard.”

The commission, which is applying for federal emergency money for most of the cost of operating the two stations, agreed to spend an additional $215,000, that will not be reimbursed, to build a temporary storage terminal for the trains that run to Oxnard.

The county hopes to begin service to Oxnard March 28, said Mary Travis, director of transit services for the commission.

The Oxnard service will be the seventh and final emergency Metrolink stop approved in Southern California since the Jan. 17 earthquake. The special service is intended to help ease traffic congestion caused by damaged freeways.

Daily ridership on the 250-mile commuter line has doubled to 18,500 since the quake. About 150 passengers board the train in Camarillo each day, Travis said.

Service to the emergency Metrolink stations is scheduled to continue until Oct. 1, when repairs to the Simi Valley Freeway are expected to be completed.

For the Oxnard line, Metrolink is planning to run two round-trip trains a day Mondays through Fridays to the city’s transit terminal at 200 E. 4th St. Trains will originate in Oxnard, with stops in Camarillo, Moorpark and Simi Valley before continuing on to the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles.

Ticket prices have not been set, but Travis said the expected cost would be $14 for a round-trip ticket and $208 for a monthly pass.

Trains will be stored in a temporary layover facility to be built behind a citrus packing plant in Montalvo, about 1 1/2 miles from the Oxnard transit center. The trains are now kept at the Moorpark station.

Friday’s decision marks the end of a struggle by local officials to get emergency Metrolink service extended to Oxnard.

The Transportation Commission had applied for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to reimburse the county for 92% of the cost of operating the Camarillo station, and had hoped to continue Metrolink service to Oxnard.

Those plans were stalled when county officials were told it would not be possible to get federal reimbursement for the extension.

The outlook changed several weeks ago when FEMA officials reversed their position and told the county that extending the train to Oxnard would qualify as emergency relief.

Transit officials went to work to come up with funding for the project, and found that the Camarillo station was much cheaper to operate than the original $1.9-million estimate. Gherardi now estimates the cost of running both the Camarillo and Oxnard stations will be about $1.2 million.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who also serves on the Transportation Commission, has worked since the earthquake to get Metrolink extended to Oxnard.

“This is a giant step forward for transportation for Ventura County,” Flynn said. “I’m going to call my wife and ask her to get the champagne ready.”

Other commissioners praised the project, but said they were concerned about the cost of continuing service after the federal subsidy runs out.

“We are in essence approving a train that is purely a trial run,” Commissioner David Smith said. “It is important that the long-term financing issue be worked out.”

Bob McKinney, chairman of the board for South Coast Area Transit, said he was worried that Metrolink would end up competing with city bus services for county transit dollars. SCAT runs the bus service in Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme and Ojai.

“This is all warm and fuzzy,” McKinney said. “But with this money being spent on trains, how is this going to affect the bus service?”

Supervisor Vicky Howard, who chairs the commission, defended the plan. “It seems like we have an opportunity out of the earthquake to provide very cheaply for six or seven months a service,” Howard said. “In that time we can get a sense of the costs and we can figure out the next step.”