MTA Board Gives Final OK to Pasadena Rail Line Design

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board gave final approval Wednesday to a streamlined design for the Blue Line, casting in concrete plans for the 13.7-mile light-rail line from Los Angeles to eastern Pasadena expected to open in 2001.

Jubilant Pasadena and South Pasadena officials, who had fought for the project and backed cost-cutting measures when some wanted the line delayed or shelved last year, declared that the train has left the station on the proposed route from Union Station to Sierra Madre Boulevard in Pasadena.

“This means real construction can begin. In the near future they will be laying track,” said Pasadena Councilman Paul Little, “The MTA budgeted the money, now they have approved the scope of work.”

South Pasadena Transportation Commission Chairwoman Beatrice Siev added: “The bottom line is they are going to build it and they are going to pay for it.”

In February, county transportation commissioners approved a slimmed, $804-million budget for the light-rail line, agreeing to cut $194 million from the original $1-billion price tag.

Since then, MTA staffers, city officials and community leaders have come up with specific plans for trimming the cost, including scaling down stations. Shrinking the size of the platforms can save millions, officials said.

“With the exception of the Chinatown station, all the design issues were resolved. Whether a station has ramps or elevators or whatever is signed and sealed,” said Cynthia Kurtz, Pasadena’s assistant city manager.

The line would run from Union Station to Chinatown, then to South Pasadena, through Old Pasadena below grade and down the center of the Foothill Freeway to eastern Pasadena.

Kurtz said construction has already begun on the Lake Avenue overpass, which is being widened and strengthened for a station. Construction will begin in Old Pasadena in November and will take more than two years.

The project was originally slated to be inaugurated in 1997 at a cost of $841 million, but last year the MTA’s long-range plan pushed the opening back to 2002 and increased the cost estimate to nearly $1 billion--$73 million a mile, twice that of comparable systems in Santa Clara, Denver and St. Louis. That resulted in the MTA bringing in a panel of experts to trim costs.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez, who supported the 13-station line, told the MTA board Wednesday that proponents had sacrificed an additional station in Highland Park to keep the project going. “I urge you to move this item forward to the next phase: the construction phase,” he said.

Supporters of the Busriders’ Union complained that the line was stealing money from the bus system.