Valley Busway to Subway Is Being Studied

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 the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is studying in the San Fernando Valley, including light rail and subway extension projects. A rapid bus system, however, is by far the cheapest alternative, transit officials say.

“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 a fixed busway could be built for 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 bars 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 from North Hollywood to Warner Center could take five to 10 years to build and cost between $210 million and $350 million, Mieger said, adding that there is no funding available for the project.

Transit planners are scheduled to present the proposal to the MTA board on Feb. 24. If it is approved, the next step would be an environmental impact study, which could take at least a year.

David Fleming, chairman of the Economic Alliance, said that “rubber-tire solutions” such as high-speed buses are the only workable option for people who cannot afford cars. With rush-hour gridlock tightening its chokehold on the Ventura Freeway and the Valley’s population climbing, buses whizzing along on dedicated lanes could also help unclog the freeway.

The Economic Alliance has sponsored three conferences of transit planners and Valley politicians since 1997. At the last Valley Transit Summit, in March, the consensus was to try projects that increase roadway capacity, such as widening freeways and building rapid busways, Fleming said.

“Clearly, we decided that the love affair between the Angeleno and his or her automobile was an ongoing love affair that was not about to end,” he said.

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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, Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, Pierce College, and several major intersections.

If the MTA cannot 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.

At the same time, the MTA is studying similar transit options for East Los Angeles and Mid-City. Funding is more readily accessible for those regions, Mieger said, because about $649 million in federal transportation funds has been earmarked for subway lines there that were never built.

The Valley, by contrast, got its North Hollywood subway segment, a $1.3-billion project linking the area to downtown Los Angeles. To encourage riders to use the new trains, the MTA has proposed cutting several Valley bus lines that run downtown.

Last year, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky suggested a rapid busway similar to the one now being proposed for the Burbank-Chandler corridor. He said Monday that high-speed buses are the only affordable, timely answer to mass transit needs in the Valley and other regions.

“This is not rocket science. This is not building a tunnel under the Santa Monica Mountains,” said Yaroslavsky, an MTA board member who wrote the law that essentially ended new subway construction in Los Angeles.

“All we have to do is rip out the [railroad] tracks and pave it for buses and create some stations and park-and-ride facilities,” he said. “It’s the only option that any of us are going to live long enough to see.”

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Transit Proposal

The MTA is considering development of the San Fernando Valley East-West Tranist Corridor to improve the transit system. The 14-mile rapid bus route, along the old Burbank-Chandler right-of-way, would connect to the North Hollywood Metro Red Line, which is scheduled to open in June.