Oxnard to Lobby Against County Rail Plan

The Oxnard City Council wants face-to-face meetings with county transit board members to argue them out of forcing the city to divert money it now uses for buses and road maintenance to a commuter-train service few people ride.

The city, with no direct representation on the Ventura County Transportation Commission, is opposed to a funding plan approved by that panel earlier this month that classifies Metrolink as an “unmet transit need” rather than an “emergency transit need,” as it was identified after January’s Northridge earthquake.

That reclassification means that starting in July, 1995, Oxnard would have to spend up to $540,000 in state funds annually for Metrolink instead of using the money for bus and road services, as it has for years.

City officials hope the personal meetings--as yet unscheduled--will persuade commission members to come up with alternative ways to pay for the twice-a-day commuter trains.

“Obviously the concern is that we fought to get Metrolink, and we feel it’s appropriate to have it,” said Councilman Thomas E. Holden. “But in our minds we weren’t going to fund it with our current transportation funding.”

City Traffic Manager Samia Maximous had asked the council to approve sending a letter immediately to the commission opposing its decision.

But Holden and council members Andres Herrera and Bedford Pinkard said meetings would have more impact than written correspondence. Mayor Manuel M. Lopez and Councilman Michael A. Plisky were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

A tentative spending plan approved earlier this month by the Ventura County Transportation Commission, which disburses state and federal transit funds, calls for borrowing $1.6 million from a reserve fund to pay for next year’s Metrolink service.

But by mid-1995--the beginning of the 1995-96 fiscal year--Oxnard would have to spend up to $540,000 a year for its Metrolink station under the commission’s plan.

The commission also agreed May 6 to hire a consultant to survey Ventura County’s transit needs and draw up a half-cent sales-tax measure to pay for transportation projects.

Both items passed on a 4-3 vote of commission members after hours of debate.

Voters in November must approve the half-cent sales tax, or future funding for Metrolink may be in jeopardy. Ventura County is the only area served by Metrolink without such a sales tax.

Oxnard officials fear that, beginning in July, 1995, they will be forced to cut back South Coast Area Transit bus service and other Oxnard transit programs to pay for a commuter train that few people ride.

“The numbers of riders per cost may not make much sense when you look at the other services we’ll have to give up,” Holden said.

For April, an average of 59 round-trip riders commuted to the Los Angeles area daily from Oxnard, according to Metrolink. Those numbers, the most recent Metrolink could come up with, are enough to warrant spending the money, the transportation commission believed.

But Oxnard transit planners conducted their own survey on May 11 and 12. On those days, 51 and 66 people, respectively, rode the trains, according to the city survey.

Furthermore, the Oxnard study said, Metrolink ridership from other stops is dwindling.

Specifically, average daily ridership from Moorpark dipped from 267 in March to 212 in April, and Simi Valley ridership sank from 428 passengers each day in March to 349 daily in April, Maximous said.

Mary Travis of the Ventura County Transportation Commission told council members Tuesday that commissioners would welcome the dialogue with Oxnard officials.

The commission, however, is under no obligation to alter its decision.

Under the state Transportation Development Act, passed by the Legislature in the early 1970s, cities and counties receive money for a variety of transit projects.

But the law stipulates that the funding must first be spent on mass transit--not street and road improvements, as Oxnard has traditionally done.

Once an agency’s transit needs are deemed met--a decision made by the countywide panel--the city or county is free to use the balance of the funds for street paving and other projects.

The Transportation Commission next meets June 3, when more detailed funding discussions are scheduled.