County, Railroad Reach Tentative Agreement on Metrolink

Ventura County transportation officials and Union Pacific Railroad representatives reached a tentative agreement in Sacramento on Tuesday that may save Metrolink service to several county communities.

A handful of representatives from the county’s Transportation Commission and from the railroad met for several hours at the office of Dean Dunphy, secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, to discuss an impasse that threatened to sever commuter rail service to Oxnard and Camarillo by Saturday.

“Even though I know we had the public’s support in this, I talked to a lot of people whose lives would have [been] hurt if we hadn’t reached this agreement,” said Mary Travis, the commission’s manager of rail operations. “It’s a relief.”

Although specifics of the deal were not made available Tuesday, it will extend Metrolink service until March 10 to give the commission’s board time to review and approve the agreement.

For the past several months, the commission and Union Pacific have been negotiating a contract to continue Metrolink service on a 20-mile stretch of rail that connects Oxnard and Camarillo to points south.

Union Pacific officials also expressed relief that the contentious impasse had been breached, at least until the board’s vote next month.

“We’re certainly hopeful that we can resolve this issue to everyone’s satisfaction, particularly the commuters’,” said Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney.

The impasse, which led to a heated standoff between the two and prompted the commission to file a tersely worded claim with the federal government earlier this month, revolved solely around money.

The railroad was asking $430,000 a year to lease the track and a $6.10-per-mile maintenance fee to be paid each time a train passed over the 20 miles of track.

The county commission balked at the expense, saying the railroad was asking for an exorbitant amount for use of its track and, instead, offered $58,000 a year plus the mile-by-mile maintenance fee.

The commission has since increased that to $100,000 a year for use of the track.

Commissioners also argued that they have provided more than $11 million to make improvements to tracks shared by Metrolink commuter trains and Union Pacific freight trains.

Without the agreement, Metrolink officials estimated that as many as 500 daily commuters would have been affected.

Metrolink serves an average of 3,500 people a day along the 66-mile Ventura County line.