Riordan Raises Doubts on Subway Line for Mid-City

Mayor Richard Riordan on Wednesday joined a growing chorus of transit officials questioning the future of the Los Angeles subway, even as an MTA panel voted to shift $300 million from other transit projects to help keep tunneling on schedule.

For the first time publicly, Riordan raised doubts about whether the MTA should proceed with a 2.3-mile extension of the subway from its present terminus at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue to Mid-City.

“Certainly, right now, we don’t have the money to build a subway there,” Riordan said in an interview, pointing out that the planned extension to Pico and San Vicente boulevards is now projected to cost $160 million more than the original $490-million estimate.

Riordan’s position is important because he serves on the 13-member MTA board and appoints three other members.

The mayor’s comments come at a time when a growing number of Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members are questioning whether Los Angeles can afford to keep building a subway in the face of federal funding cuts. Subway supporters, however, contend that federal funds earmarked for subway construction would be jeopardized if other forms of rapid transit, such as above-ground rail lines, are adopted.

“That is probably why I never talked about it publicly,” Riordan said about proceeding with the Mid-City subway route. “You want to be able to get the federal government to agree to come up with more money, which doesn’t look likely, or allow us to go some alternative route.”

The MTA is being forced to reassess its mission of relieving freeway congestion in Los Angeles County because of a $1-billion shortfall in its long-range plan, continuing political infighting and construction problems.

Top agency officials have been called to Washington to meet with Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena on Monday to discuss the $5.9-billion subway project. “The administration wants to make sure that the MTA is committed to the agreement” that Los Angeles will complete the subway to Mid-City and the Eastside, said Linda Bohlinger, the MTA’s deputy chief executive.

Riordan also addressed his concerns during an interview on radio station KCRW’s “Which Way L.A.” show. “We have to try to work with Washington to say that we need flexibility to have a great transportation system without any strings attached,” Riordan said in the interview.

In a committee meeting Wednesday, four of the 13 MTA board members voted to recommend that $300 million be taken from programs to build freeway carpool lanes to make up for the federal shortfall in subway construction funds.

MTA planners said the money would be used to help start tunneling on the Eastside and finish station construction in North Hollywood. They asserted that the agency had more money designated in its budget for freeway carpool lanes than could be spent in the next five years because of a construction backlog at Caltrans, and that the fund transfer would not endanger other programs.

“I would have voted against it if I thought it cut out other programs--and I better not find out that it does,” said John Fasana, a Duarte city councilman and MTA board member.

A California Department of Transportation spokeswoman said MTA officials have assured Caltrans that the proposal, which still must be approved by the full MTA board, would not delay any of the nearly 100 miles in new carpool lanes scheduled to be added to freeways over the next five years.

Bohlinger said during the committee meeting that the vote “absolutely would not” shift money away from buses or other transit programs favored by smaller cities around the county.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky, however, despaired at the $300-million fund shift. “There is a keep-the-rail-program-going-at-any-cost mentality here,” he said.

Of immediate concern to the board is what to do with long-standing proposals to extend the tunnel to the Eastside and Mid-City.

In recent interviews with The Times, six board members, not including Riordan, said they want to study whether aboveground rail lines can be built faster and cheaper than the subway to bring rapid transit to more neighborhoods.

While calling for further study of plans for Mid-City, Riordan said he has not reached a final decision about what to do. But he made it clear that he still supports extending the subway to the Eastside. “Because of the topography there, there may be no other answer,” he said.

Riordan has maintained that buses are the backbone of the county’s transportation system and was among those who persuaded the agency to study whether an aboveground rail line should be built instead of a subway across the San Fernando Valley.

MTA officials are considered more likely to pull back from subway plans for Mid-City than for the Eastside, where tunneling is scheduled to begin next year. The Mid-City proposal has been plagued by geological, economic and political problems.

The Eastside subway extension has a strong advocate, MTA board member Richard Alatorre, Riordan’s leading ally on the City Council. The Mid-City project, which was to begin in 1994, has foundered as critics have objected that the proposed route would bypass busy Wilshire and instead go under Wilton Place and Arlington Avenue to Pico and San Vicente boulevards. In addition, the costs of the Mid-City line have soared. Originally projected at $490 million, it is now expected to cost $627 million to $733 million. No new construction date has been set.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who has pushed for a Mid-City subway, said she opposes any change in plans “because I don’t see a reasonable alternative.” She said that any aboveground rail line through the densely populated Mid-City neighborhoods would be pricey because of the high cost of land, and would meet stiff opposition because of noise, unsightliness and other environmental impacts.

Even as the agency was searching for more money for the subway, a board committee recommended Wednesday that $10.4 million be loaned to Foothill Transit, which provides bus service in the San Gabriel Valley.

Yaroslavsky blasted the unsecured, 5% loan to help build maintenance facilities in Pomona and El Monte as an “outrage, a sleaze-bucket deal--just a gift of public funds.”

MTA finance chief Terry Matsumoto said the agency had never made such a loan before, but asserted that it was more economical than a grant. Under the agreement, Foothill promises to pay back the loan over three years with federal money it expects to receive.

Three board members on the committee, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Glendale City Councilman Larry Zarian and Fasana--voted for the loan, which must be approved by the full board. Board members Vivien Bonzo and Carol Schatz were opposed. Fasana called the loan vital for improvements to the region’s bus infrastructure.

Snapped Yaroslavsky: “They seem to have $10 million to just give away. We’ll never get that money back.”