MTA Considers Building Busway Across Valley

With the long-awaited North Hollywood Metro Red Line station set to open in June, the MTA is considering building a busway along the abandoned Burbank-Chandler railroad corridor to link commuters to the subway.

The proposal is one of several options that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is studying in the San Fernando Valley, along with light-rail and subway extension projects. A rapid bus system, however, is by far the cheapest alternative.

“One of our challenges in the Valley is how we are going to feed the Red Line . . . with buses and cars,” said David Mieger, MTA project manager for rail and busway transit corridor development.

Mieger, who spoke Monday at a board meeting of the San Fernando Valley Economic Alliance, said that a fixed busway could be built for about 20% to 25% of the cost of a light-rail line, an option that has long faced opposition in North Hollywood.

Extending the subway past North Hollywood is even less likely, given a 1998 law that banned the use of transit sales taxes to build more subways.

As a result, Mieger said, the MTA is “aggressively pursuing” the rapid bus option.

The plan--the latest in a decade-long series of transit schemes for the old railroad corridor--faces an uncertain future. The 14-mile route between North Hollywood and Warner Center could take five to 10 years and cost between $210 and $350 million to build, Mieger said, adding that there currently is no funding available for the project.

The proposed busway, following the Southern Pacific railroad right-of-way that the MTA purchased in 1990, would snake across the Valley floor with stations about a mile apart, including stops at Valley College, the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, Pierce College and several major intersections.

If the MTA could not fund the entire project at once, the busway could be built in two stages, beginning with a congested 4.5-mile stretch between Woodman Avenue and Balboa Boulevard, Mieger said.