State Panel OKs Funds for Pasadena Light-Rail Line

A divided California Transportation Commission voted Thursday to approve $83.2 million for construction of a light-rail line between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena despite the inability of MTA chief executive Julian Burke to offer assurances sought by the panel.

Specifically, Burke could not guarantee that the troubled transit agency will have money to run the trains once the long-delayed rail project is built.

The commitment of state transportation funds to the project came on a 5-2 vote after extensive questions about whether the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will have the financial wherewithal to operate the modern streetcars beginning in the summer of 2003.

Commission Chairman Edward Sylvester joined Commissioner Robert Wolf in voting against state spending on the $683-million rail project. “The dilemma is . . . that I certainly don’t want to put a hole in the ground and not be able to operate it,” Sylvester said.

Although Burke did his best to assure the commission that the MTA will find the money to run the trains, he stopped short of guaranteeing it. “I believe we reasonably will be able to operate it, but I can’t be certain about it,” Burke said. “Maybe I’m being too honest . . . or careful. But my judgment, for what’s that worth, is that’s the best I can do.”

The MTA chief reminded the commission that the MTA is now under a federal court order to buy more buses and improve service on the nation’s second-largest bus system.

“We are burdened with a consent decree,” Burke said, referring to the agreement the agency voluntarily signed three years ago to avoid a trial on a federal civil rights lawsuit. “I can’t assume that we won’t have more and more increasing burdens,” he said. “I can’t be sure what the courts will do.”

The case filed by the Bus Riders Union alleged that the MTA discriminated against its predominantly poor and minority bus riders by letting the Los Angeles bus system deteriorate while it poured billions of dollars into construction of the Metro Rail subway and two light-rail lines.

Bus Riders Union organizer Martin Hernandez opposed the use of state funds for the Pasadena project. “We do not feel the Pasadena line is worthwhile or necessary,” he said at the meeting in the state Capitol.

Chief U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. in September ordered the MTA to buy 248 new buses to relieve overcrowding on its buses. The MTA board has appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for relief from the order.

Burke told the commission that the MTA faces an operating deficit of $120 million to $200 million over the next four years. He said it will cost the transit agency $33.6 million in the first year to operate the 13.7-mile line between Union Station and Pasadena. Only $4.7 million of that expense will be covered by passenger fares, leaving the MTA to pay the rest from federal congestion management and air quality funds and the local transit sales tax.

The operating plan was required under a state law that stripped the MTA of responsibility for building the rail line, but left the agency with the obligation to operate the trains.

Wolf said he needed sufficient guarantees from the MTA that “they will find the funds to fulfill their obligation” to operate the rail line. “I’m increasingly concerned about funding major capital projects with no assurance they can be operated,” Wolf said.

Commissioner Dana Reed made the motion to approve the first installment of state funding for the Pasadena line. Reed said he believes the trains can be run more economically than buses along the route.

But Reed urged a change in the name of the line to eliminate confusion. The Pasadena Blue Line will not connect with the existing Los Angeles to Long Beach Blue Line in downtown Los Angeles.

Ellis reported from Sacramento and Rabin from Los Angeles.