MTA to Suspend Work on Three Key Rail Lines

The directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority--their resolve stiffened by the eleventh-hour intervention of the federal transit administrator--voted Wednesday to suspend for at least six months all work on its Eastside, Mid-City and Pasadena rail lines.

The vote represented a decisive setback, perhaps even the end, of the agency’s $300-million-per-mile subway construction project. At the very least, it represented a dramatic change of direction by an agency that historically has committed itself to keeping its expensive rail projects going at virtually any cost, even including the further deterioration of a bus system so antiquated and overcrowded that a federal judge has ordered the MTA to improve it.

The board approved interim chief executive officer Julian Burke’s so-called “demobilization” plan for the projects, despite warnings by Los Angeles congressional members in attendance that stopping work on the lines could cost the MTA millions of dollars in federal funds promised for the projects.

Burke, however, responded that “there are simply not sufficient funds . . . to complete any of these projects as now contemplated.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor and MTA board member Yvonne Brathwaite Burke also reminded her colleagues of the demands by federal transportation officials that the MTA put its finances in order or risk losing federal funds for all existing and future projects.

“If we don’t do something, we’re not going to have anything,” she said. “It’s bad news. But it’s reality.”

County Supervisor Gloria Molina, an MTA board member who represents the Eastside, originally sought to delay the vote. But an aide said she changed her mind after Federal Transit Administrator Gordon Linton told her that if the MTA board did not vote Wednesday, it would kill chances of getting federal funding for the projects flowing again.

She joined the 10-3 majority in supporting the suspension after the board issued an explicit statement that it did not intend to kill the projects by suspending them. The three dissenters wanted the board to permanently renounce any further subway construction once the line reaches North Hollywood.

These critics of the subway contended that the board was delaying the inevitable.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Mike Antonovich said the board meeting was like a seance “where you’re trying to keep in touch with the dead. The subway is dead. . . . It’s time to face reality.”

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who joined Antonovich and MTA board member Larry Zarian in seeking to end subway construction altogether, said the board action was not enough. Yaroslavsky is considering sponsoring a ballot initiative to cut off sales tax funding for subway construction.

Burke, the corporate turnaround specialist brought in to cleanse the MTA of fiscal irresponsibility, called the suspension critical to the agency’s ability to rebuild its credibility in Sacramento and Washington “while we get our house in order.”

A spokesman for the Federal Transit Administration said Wednesday that with Congress preparing to decide on transportation funding for the next several years, the “clock was ticking” for the MTA to come up with a “financially responsible” plan for funding its projects.

“We must stop, take a breather and get hold of this operation,” Burke said.

The timeout will give the agency the opportunity to reassess how soon the rail lines realistically can be built--or whether they should be built at all. MTA officials said they will study ways to shave the costs of the projects and whether money can be found--perhaps from the private sector--to make up for budget shortfalls.

The board voted to spend $207 million in newly allocated state funds to keep subway construction on track to North Hollywood. But while the vote was designed to satisfy federal demands for the agency to keep that project moving, the MTA may find itself in trouble with the state. Some state officials have objected to the MTA using the money for subway construction rather than for street and highway improvements.

While work proceeds on the subway to North Hollywood, construction of the partially built downtown Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Blue Line will be stopped, and plans for already delayed subway extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City will be shelved. So far, the MTA has spent more than $300 million on the suspended projects. Nor can the projects be shut down overnight. Officials said it will take a few months to wind down work, and it could cost another $5 million in penalties to cancel contracts for materials already ordered.

“We want to wind these programs down and come back to the board with an option to start them up again on a significantly different basis than presently exists,” said Allan Lipsky, MTA’s deputy chief executive officer.

Such assurances did not impress members of the congressional delegation attending the meeting--particularly representatives of the heavily Latino Eastside, where many people rely on public transit. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) joined Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) in warning that the suspension could cause Los Angeles to lose federal transportation funds to other cities with ready-to-go projects.

“For us to go to Congress and say we have suspended our rail projects . . . and expect that in three or four years we can go back and seek funding for new projects or even the existing projects would be extremely speculative,” Becerra said.

The board’s chairman and Julian Burke’s chief patron, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, responded: “Right now, it’s clear that with the most optimistic views of funding from Washington, we can’t really build the subway extensions for a number of years. To continue to spend a lot of money on it now is virtually wasted money. . . . We’re going to look at this on a month-to-month basis . . . and say here’s a way to do it realistically.”

Yaroslavsky said his colleagues were looking for any “financial hocus-pocus” to keep the subway alive.

“This was not a victory for Julian Burke,” Yaroslavsky said, adding that the CEO wanted an indefinite suspension.

“This is the disease here. In the terminology of a street addict, it is, ‘I need just one more hit. I need just one more drink.’ ”

Burke, however, said after the meeting that he considered the action a vote of confidence. Some board members said they feared that an indefinite suspension would send a message to Congress that the MTA is not committed to completing the lines. He was instructed to report to the board in six months or less on the options to resume the projects.

Molina said the MTA staff will look for other ways to put the rail projects back on track, “but it doesn’t mean that after six months, we start construction again. . . . It might still be for a year or a year and a half,” she said.

Officials and residents along the routes of the planned lines expressed fear that the suspension would lead to the projects’ termination.

Pasadena City Manager Phil Hawkey, noting that his city has begun relocating a sewer project for the Pasadena line, told the board: “If you stop the project, do we have a big hole in the street for months or years?”

Separately, board members--looking every which way for a way out of their money troubles--voted to study breaking up the MTA’s massive bus system into smaller bus zones. Supporters say the divestiture into subregionally governed bus zones similar to Foothill Transit in the San Gabriel Valley could provide more efficient and economical bus operations.

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The Stop Order

Three rail projects have been put on hold despite warnings by local members of Congress that the action could cost the MTA millions of dollars in federal funds.