Firm Plans Valley Transit Line at No Taxpayer Cost

A private engineering firm said Wednesday it has received tentative approval from state and county officials to study the feasibility of building a 60-mph trolley in the median of the Ventura Freeway from Burbank to Woodland Hills at no cost to taxpayers.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the MTA regards the offer by the New York-based engineering firm, Frederic R. Harris Inc., as a serious proposal, because it might greatly reduce the cost of a mass transit system across the San Fernando Valley.

Sources at the California Department of Transportation, which is responsible for the freeway, said agency officials had met with Harris consultants, but could provide no details of the meeting.

A Harris spokesman said that the company will conduct a thorough study over the next four months of the Valley’s traffic patterns. If its expectations for potential revenue and ridership are confirmed, the company could begin work on a 19-mile light-rail line from Buena Vista Street to Valley Circle Boulevard in 1998 and conclude by 2003 at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, he said.

That would be as much as 20 years sooner and $2 billion less expensive than current plans by the MTA to build a subway or light-rail system from North Hollywood to Warner Center along Burbank Boulevard.

It is a twist on an idea that Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has pushed for years as a member of the MTA board of directors: Bring the $300-million-per-mile Red Line subway out of the ground when it reaches Studio City from Hollywood, and run commuters down the median of the freeway at a fraction of the cost of new tunnels.

“We’re pretty excited. We feel it’s the right project at the right time,” said Joseph P. Lobuono, a Harris vice president. “It’s time for the private sector to come in and pick up the slack at helping to build public works.”

Lobuono said a construction consortium organized by his firm will spend $2 million on the feasibility study. Even if the group decides to go forward, however, he said it could not proceed unless state lawmakers pass a bill currently moving through the Legislature that would allow the California Department of Transportation to enter into a money-making partnership with a private company.

County transit officials appear to be intrigued by the proposal, which would require the Ventura Freeway to be widened by 15 feet on each side and would be financed either by venture capital or corporate bonds.

State law requires the project to be handed over to Caltrans after 25 to 30 years once the consortium earned back its investment and a profit by collecting fares, Lobuono said.

Caltrans officials were unavailable to discuss the proposal Wednesday, but the Harris executive said that the agency’s top officials approved of the concept in a meeting in Sacramento three weeks ago.

At the MTA, planning executive Jim de la Loza said board members are currently committed to obtaining federal approval to fund and build an east-west Valley line, either above or below ground, along the old Southern Pacific Railway right of way along Burbank Boulevard.

But he confirmed that MTA chief executive Joseph E. Drew had met with Harris officials and did not dissuade them from their independent study.

“We take any proposal like this seriously, especially if there are potential savings,” De la Loza said.

While the MTA has projected that 50,000 people will board its mid-Valley line each day for a ride to Hollywood, Wilshire or downtown, Lobuono said initial estimates indicate that the Ventura Freeway trolley between the Media Center and Woodland Hills would carry more than 100,000 people per day. He said the firm would build a large park-and-ride center at its western edge to attract Ventura County commuters.

In a second phase of construction, Lobuono said the consortium has explored the notion of creating elaborate pedestrian and commercial walkways between its estimated 11 stops and Ventura Boulevard to smooth the way to the Valley’s main street for shoppers and commuters.

Antonovich, who said he has helped guide Harris executives to county and state officials, emphasized in an interview Wednesday that the initial study would not impede the MTA from making progress in studying the Burbank route.

“My goal is to bring effective public transit to the San Fernando Valley and work toward creating a regional system that will reduce congestion, improve the quality of life, improve air quality and economically move the city into the 21st century,” he said.