MTA Rejects $162-Million Request for Rail Plan Extension

Despite intense lobbying by San Gabriel Valley officials and their supporters, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Thursday refused to directly commit $162 million to extend the Alameda Corridor rail project east from downtown.

On a razor-thin 7-6 vote, however, the MTA directors agreed to strongly support the $950-million project to speed freight trains through the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys after they leave rail yards in Los Angeles.

They also voted to provide 17% of the project’s funding, but only if the Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority is able to secure state and federal financing to pay for the rest of the work.

County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Gloria Molina argued against making a firm commitment upfront, warning that the same kind of open-ended promise had gotten the MTA into deep financial trouble.

Yaroslavsky and Molina said committing $162 million to the Alameda East project also would send the wrong message when the MTA is arguing in federal court that it cannot find the funds to purchase hundreds of additional buses. “How can we go to Judge [Terry] Hatter and make a case saying we don’t have money, we can’t buy all these buses . . . and then turn around and make commitments to dollars we don’t have?” Molina asked.

But Supervisor Mike Antonovich and San Gabriel Valley officials pleaded for the funds.

Antonovich said 100 freight trains a day moving through the eastern part of the county could clog auto and truck traffic at railroad crossings and delay emergency vehicles, creating havoc in the movement of people and goods.

The Alameda Corridor East project would involve modifying 55 intersections in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys to allow rail, auto and truck traffic to flow smoothly. The project is separate from the $2.4-billion Alameda Corridor being built between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and transcontinental rail yards near downtown Los Angeles.

“This idea that we would have created an Alameda Corridor without looking at the entire county was irresponsible and reckless,” Antonovich said.

Supervisor Don Knabe joined with Antonovich, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre and others in pressing for a firm financial commitment to the project.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, chairman of the MTA board, said the transit agency needs to strongly support the rail project. “We have to have an attitude of making this happen,” he said.

At the same time, Riordan said the MTA has to guard against taking actions that are “fiscally stupid.”

Supervisor Burke said promising the $162 million in advance would continue “a very dangerous pattern” of the MTA promising more than it can deliver.

Of course, any commitment of MTA funds to the rail project would have meant that other transportation projects would be delayed. And a narrow majority of the board was unwilling to do that.

Indeed, on the same agenda, the board approved spending $7 million to continue planning rail or busway projects to the Eastside and Mid-City, and east to west across the San Fernando Valley. The studies were promised after the board last year halted work on subway extensions because of financial problems.

After years of consideration, the board also agreed to have a company, Omni Outdoor/STI, install and operate 10 automatic public toilets at MTA rail or bus stations. There are no public restrooms on the Metro Rail system because of security concerns. In exchange for operating and maintaining the toilets, Omni won the right to place 54 advertising structures, including billboards and kiosks, on MTA property.