City Transit Panel Seeks Above-Ground Options

Fearing that transit officials will never have enough money to build a subway in the San Fernando Valley, a Los Angeles City Council committee called for a study of less expensive alternatives, such as ground-level commuter trains and electric trolleys.

The council’s Transportation Committee unanimously supported the motion by northwest Valley Councilman Hal Bernson to instruct the city transportation staff to investigate several alternatives for the North Hollywood-to-Woodland Hills route.

The report is due in 60 days.

But other Valley lawmakers were leery of Bernson’s motion, saying they would oppose any alternative that creates noise and traffic problems for neighborhoods along the route.

“I think a big, diesel-burning train lumbering down that corridor is the wrong idea,” said Councilman Mike Feuer, who represents parts of the route in Van Nuys and North Hollywood.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority currently plans to build an estimated $650-million rail line that would run mostly underground from North Hollywood to the San Diego Freeway, parallel to Burbank and Chandler boulevards.

Federal transit officials are currently considering a multiyear MTA funding package that includes the Valley subway project.

But Bernson said cheaper alternatives should be investigated because he believes the MTA funding won’t be available when construction of the Valley subway is scheduled to begin in 2007.

“A subway is never going to be built in the Valley, let’s be honest,” said Bernson.

Bernson argued that a rail project, such as a commuter train operated by Metrolink, could be built for about half the cost of the subway project.

“It’s affordable and doable,” he said.

But Bernson’s proposal may run into trouble with several neighborhoods along the route that have long opposed any surface, or at-grade, rail line.

In 1991, state lawmakers adopted a law by then-state Sen. Alan Robbins to require that any rail between North Hollywood and Hazeltine Street in Van Nuys be a deep-bore subway.

The law was offered at the request of residents along that route.

One of the key aims of the legislation was to prevent splitting an Orthodox Jewish community along Chandler Boulevard with an aboveground rail line because congregants are required by religious rules to walk to their synagogues.

Although MTA officials have studied various rail alternatives for the Burbank-Chandler route, they have never considered a Metrolink commuter train because the line was meant to provide regular, short-distance service at all hours, not long-distance service solely for commuters.

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If an at-grade commuter line is built in the Valley, a loud train whistle would have to be blown at street crossings, said James Okazaki, head of the city’s transit program. In addition, an at-grade line would also temporarily block traffic moving north and south across the line, he said.

But one way to avoid such problems, Okazaki said, is to bury the line beneath the major intersections. The line could then run at grade the rest of the way, he said.

Acting MTA chief Linda Bohlinger said the MTA has already studied an electric trolley system for throughout the county but rejected the idea because of the high infrastructure costs, such as installing overhead electrical wires.