Private Rail Project
A privately built and financed San Fernando Valley rail project in the median of the Ventura Freeway (“Trolley Enterprise Makes Sense,” July 21) responds to the Valley voters who rejected by 90% the subway in Los Angeles County’s 1990 referendum. But despite the voters’ wishes, the $300-million-a-mile subway is still being pursued by the special interests, even though the system would not reach Warner Center for decades under the most optimistic assumptions of its supporters.
A private-public partnership with Caltrans will build a 19-mile cost-effective rail system along the existing freeway right-of-way connecting the dynamic Burbank Media District to the Valley’s Warner Center by 2003 without the disruption to our neighborhoods and the multibillion-dollar construction cost, overruns and perpetual operating costs of the subway.
This proposal will enhance the quality of life, revitalize the Valley and lead to a regional transit system with neighboring Ventura County.
MICHAEL ANTONOVICH
Antonovich is chairman of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
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