Without a Vision or a Mule

Once upon a time there was a dream.

Visionaries as far back as the last century foresaw a day when rail would unite the divergent communities of the vast and sprawling megalopolis known as Los Angeles.

In 1873, the City Council authorized a businessman to “lay down and maintain two iron railroad tracks thereon, propelled by horses or mules, and to carry passengers thereon.”

That plan didn’t work out, but a year later another one did, serving the downtown area, using animal power.

Then in 1897, the rail system graduated from horses and mules to electricity. At the turn of the century, spurred by population growth, the Red Line was established, connecting the county with 1,100 miles of track.

The system was smooth and efficient and lasted through the early 1960s. It should have lasted forever.

But sometime between the Era of the Mule and today we discovered buses and cars and freeways. Rail transit was abandoned for the spontaneous combustion engine.

But the dream continued, revitalized about a century after it originated. Visionaries once more foresaw an integrated rail system uniting the county. It began with a plan for 400 miles of track, was reduced to 150 miles and died with 59.4 miles.

And that’s where we are today, without a vision or a mule.

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The system of rails was pretty much declared dead in January 1998. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors, at best a confused body of mini-thinkers, decided to finish a subway to North Hollywood but to “suspend” everything else. No one really believes that suspension will be lifted in our lifetime.

Last year, county voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to outlaw the use of transit sales-tax money for construction of new underground rail systems. Then last June, the state authorized completion of a light-rail line to Pasadena but wisely took it out of the hands of the MTA.

You could almost hear the bagpipes as we laid the future to rest.

What we’re going to get instead of rail are about 300 more creepy-crawly buses to clog our freeways and surface streets, contributing not to a dream but to a nightmare of congestion that’s going to bring the whole damned town to a stop.

One very small recent effort to take a few buses off the streets when the North Hollywood line opens next summer is already getting loud protests. Will we never learn?

There are already 6.1 million vehicles in Los Angeles County, and that’s going to grow astronomically with the projected addition of 3 million more people within the next 20 years.

You think a mattress in lane three of the Santa Monica is bad now? Wait until the day when there’s an earthquake, a storm, an overturned tanker truck, chemical spills, food spills and a dog crossing the San Diego all at the same time.

We’ll be wishing we had mules on the streets again.

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I was thinking about this one day recently as I rode the rails: the Blue Line to Long Beach, the Red Line to Hollywood and the Green Line from Norwalk to Redondo Beach.

They were as good as any system I’ve been on, better than some. That includes subways and light-rail routes as close as Oakland and as far away as Vienna. London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, New York, Chicago, Boston and places I can’t even remember.

That the MTA has had problems putting together 59.4 miles of rail no one denies. Streets have collapsed, a clash of special interests prevented a tie-in with LAX and cost overruns have been staggering.

I keep hearing critics point out that subway construction was costing $300 million a mile. And I couldn’t help wondering as we whizzed along below the city’s streets what it would have cost 20 years ago and what it’ll cost 20 years hence?

The $6 billion we’ve spent on rail lines so far might translate into $18 billion if we try it again in 2020.

Those who successfully fought subways live in small worlds and think small thoughts. They see more freeways and buses and fail to measure their impact. They answer with bus lanes and ride-sharing as solutions to future gridlocks.

Ride sharing? In a town that would rather abandon a wife than a car? Not likely. Not on buses anyhow.

It’s difficult to imagine that this world city, this giant on the rim of the Pacific, this metropolis of tomorrow, is still thinking in terms of yesterday.

But here we are, folks, waving our fists and moon-walking backward. Welcome once more to the Era of the Mule.

Al Martinez’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached online at al.martinez@latimes.com.