U.S. Transit Official Assails Subway Plan

The Clinton administration’s top transit official declared Wednesday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plan to get the troubled $5.9-billion subway project back on track is riddled with “serious deficiencies and questionable assumptions.”

Federal Transit Administrator Gordon J. Linton issued a scathing six-page letter that sharply criticizes the county transit agency as being unrealistic in its “recovery plan” for the Metro Rail project.

And in one of Washington’s toughest critiques of the Los Angeles subway, Linton expressed the federal government’s frustration at the serious financial and engineering difficulties afflicting the Red Line project.

Finding that the MTA has been transferring money back and forth between rail and other transit projects, Linton served notice that, in the future, Washington will divide the Red Line project into three distinct components, each with a separate budget. This approach will allow the federal government to better track where the money is going in extending the rail line to North Hollywood, the Eastside and the Mid-City area.

Linton also warned the MTA board members to stop thinking about future expansion of the subway system and to get to work finishing what they have already started.

“We are incredulous that despite the engineering and financial difficulties on the construction already underway, the board is contemplating even more requests to the Congress for various costly extensions to your rail system,” he wrote.

And in yet another indication of the extent of difficulty facing the MTA, Linton said the agency has not shown how it intends to comply with a landmark federal court consent degree requiring massive improvements in the nation’s most overcrowded bus system.

Taking note of legislation in Sacramento to restructure the MTA, Linton said in an interview that the agency is suffering from very real problems with its governing structure.

“We recognize the way it currently exists is not functional and that is our concern,” Linton said. “The structural issues and management issues have to be dealt with.”

Faced with such criticism, both MTA Board Chairman Larry Zarian and Acting Chief Executive Officer Linda Bohlinger acknowledged that the agency must work to restore its credibility in Washington and Sacramento.

Zarian promised a full response to all the concerns raised in Linton’s letter. “I don’t take this letter lightly,” he said. “I take this very seriously.”

Linton’s pointed letter scorched the recovery plan that the MTA sent to Washington in January under pressure from then-U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena.

At a December meeting with MTA officials, Pena called for an end to the political infighting on the MTA governing board and a plan to come to grips with cost overruns, schedule delays, safety problems and construction mishaps on the subway project.

The recovery plan calls for completing the Red Line to North Hollywood by May 2000, but delays the first link to the Eastside to December 2004 and the Mid-City area for seven years to July 2009.

Linton said the federal government remains open to working cooperatively with the MTA to complete the second and third segments of the subway.

“To do so, however, we must establish separate budgets, scopes of work, and schedules for each extension,” he said.

But Linton warned that any cost overruns above and beyond new funding agreements for the North Hollywood, Eastside and Mid-City lines would have to be borne solely by local taxpayers.

Zarian pledged to work with federal transit officials to bridge the differences that exist between the MTA and Washington, which has been the major financial backer of subway construction.

Bohlinger said she was disappointed in the administration’s response to the recovery plan. But she found a silver lining in that federal officials asked the MTA to respond to their concerns by producing another recovery plan.

A spokesman for Mayor Richard Riordan said Linton’s letter sends a strong message to the MTA that it must strengthen its relations with the U.S. government.

Linton raised “very salient issues” and the MTA staff should provide analysis and recommendations on how to address the concerns, Deputy Mayor Steve Sugarman said.