Plan to Halt Train Upsets Commuters

Allan Prevette shook his head in dismay Wednesday as he walked to the vacant railway platform in Oxnard, where at precisely 5:31 a.m., a sleek periwinkle-and-white Metrolink train would carry him off to work.

The 54-year-old Oxnard resident, who manages a Woodland Hills aerospace firm, couldn’t understand why the Oxnard City Council would oppose extending the commuter train service, which has eased his 50-minute commute.

“I think it’s foolish to give it up now,” Prevette said. “I’m a little dismayed that that’s their position.”

But if the City Council is successful in its opposition to the Ventura County Transportation Commission’s decision to extend Metrolink service to Oxnard, Prevette’s comfortable train commute could come to an end.

Earlier this month, the commission approved a tentative funding plan that calls for borrowing $1.6 million from a reserve fund to pay for Metrolink service next year.

But Oxnard city officials fear that after July, 1995, part of the cost to extend the train service will shift to the city, costing Oxnard about $540,000 a year and depleting state funds that the city has traditionally used for bus service and road maintenance.

City officials hope to meet next week with commission members to discuss alternative funding.

“I have ridden Metrolink; it’s very smooth, a class act,” said Rita Johnson, Oxnard’s senior transportation planner. “But the problem is we have limited transit funding. . . . I just don’t see how we can afford this.”

Oxnard-area commuters who have adapted to using the twice-a-day trains say it would be a mistake to eliminate the Metrolink stop.

“I think it’s an important service to continue,” said Bob Kurtzweil, who has been taking the 6:21 a.m. train from Oxnard to Chatsworth since April 4. “It provides a lot of relaxation and it’s also faster.”

Prevette, who has used Metrolink since it became available as a transportation alternative after the Jan. 17 earthquake, said train service to the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles will benefit Ventura County in the long run.

“Things are growing out this way,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time.”

But critics of the extension contend that there aren’t enough people using Metrolink to warrant its continued service to the western part of county.

According to Metrolink, an average of 59 round-trip riders commuted to the Los Angeles area from Oxnard in April, a number that the commission determined was sufficient to warrant the extension.

But standing in the pre-dawn drizzle Wednesday morning at the empty Oxnard railway platform, first-time Metrolink rider Patricia Gamoning gazed at the deserted parking lot and wondered where the other commuters were.

“I thought that people would start coming within 10 minutes of the train, then five minutes of the train, and then I realized they weren’t coming,” the Port Hueneme resident said.

And when the commuter train pulled into the station at 5:31 a.m., Gamoning was one of less than 10 riders to board. About three dozen people boarded the 6:21 a.m. train Wednesday.

Woodland Hills resident Ray Gross, who is living in Oxnard while his earthquake-damaged home is being rebuilt, said the numbers are low because not enough people know about the trains.

“I don’t think they’re getting their full share of riders,” he said.

Of the few dozen riders who do take the train, some said they would be willing to pay more to continue Metrolink service to Oxnard.

Riders traveling from Oxnard to Chatsworth now pay $5.50 for a one-way trip and $45 for a book of 10 one-way trips. The fares are expected to increase in July, a Metrolink spokeswoman said.

But Johnson said subsidizing fares would not be a cost-effective solution.

“Their hearts are in the right place,” she said of the riders. “(But) we have to put the money where everyone can best be served.”

Times photographer Alan Hagman contributed to this story.