New Year May Echo the Thunder of the Old : TRANSPORTATION

It took 20 years of political horse-trading, bickering and wheeling and dealing for planners and officials to decide where to run a mass transit line through the San Fernando Valley. Last October, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority finally settled on a mostly subway system from North Hollywood to Warner Center.

Now comes the hard part.

Getting the system built may prove an even bigger challenge. As a thriftier Congress takes power, the cash-starved MTA will continue its struggle to pare down an expensive, ambitious 30-year plan into a more practical 20-year blueprint.

Negotiations to scale back the $183-billion long-term plan by nearly two-thirds have already begun; MTA officials hope to finish reprioritizing transit projects throughout the county by next month.

Once high on the list, the east-west Valley rail line suffered from the protracted controversy over its form and placement, and it is now a second-priority project. But advocates take heart from a resolution by the MTA board last summer that ranked the Valley railway in first place after its list of so-called “base line” or top-priority projects.

Although construction will not begin until 2002 at the earliest, the scramble is already on to secure scarce federal funds for the $2.3-billion Valley extension of the Metro Red Line. MTA planners have started work on two major studies to argue the railway’s case before the federal government, even though President Clinton has recommended slashing the Department of Transportation’s budget by $6.7 billion over the next five years.

“The next big test for us is to get our whole congressional delegation in the Valley united behind this so we can go back to Washington and present a united front,” said David L. Mieger, the MTA’s project manager for the Valley. “The more consensus and unified support we can get, the better chance we have to compete for funding.”

Work is already progressing on the Red Line segment that will join the Valley to Hollywood. Tunneling between North Hollywood and Universal City is about 40% complete, and the MTA expects to break ground for the Universal City station in February or March.

Transportation officials also hope to alleviate gridlock in the short term by adding new car-pool lanes on Valley freeways. By April, Caltrans expects to complete the lanes on the Hollywood Freeway between the Golden State and Ventura freeways. Car-pool lanes are also being built on the San Diego and Simi Valley freeways.

And for bus riders, the MTA this year will embark on the most sweeping overhaul of bus service in the Valley in two decades. By June, the MTA is expected to revamp two dozen bus lines serving about 5,200 passengers.

By the end of the year, the agency hopes to establish six transit bases around the Valley where passengers can switch lines or transfer to train service more easily.