MTA Revives Subway Proposal

Sixteen years after Congress stopped a similar plan, a proposal to extend Los Angeles’ subway down Wilshire Boulevard to the Fairfax district and the county art museum was resurrected Thursday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

MTA planners have long wanted to lengthen the current Red Line Wilshire subway spur, which stops abruptly at Western Avenue, about three miles from Fairfax Avenue.

The Wilshire corridor is one of the densest in the nation, making it perhaps the best location in all of Los Angeles for a longer subway, proponents of the rail say.

But in 1986, at the urging of Rep. Henry Waxman, who represents the Westside, Congress prohibited the use of all-important federal funds for tunneling in the Fairfax district. Waxman was concerned about safety after a 1985 methane gas explosion and a fire at Ross Dress for Less in Fairfax raised doubts about constructing a rail line through underground oil fields.

The congressional move forced the MTA to reroute the Wilshire train up Vermont Avenue, through Hollywood and into the San Fernando Valley. Another alternative, to take the railway into the Mid-City area, also was dropped because of safety concerns.

MTA board member and county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke sponsored Thursday’s motion, which the board adopted by a 7-4 vote.

Burke’s motion has two facets. First, it instructs the agency to seek the removal of the Waxman prohibition, an extremely difficult proposition given his staunch opposition in the past. Second, it puts a Wilshire extension to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on a list of projects the MTA will ask Congress to fund next year, when it considers a multiyear transit funding package for the nation.

The extension would not be among the MTA’s short list of high-priority projects, but would be lumped in a group that includes completion of the final portion of a planned light railway connecting downtown with Santa Monica, now slated to stop near Culver City.

Burke, echoing what supporters of extending the Wilshire line have said for years, argued that new technology would make building and operating the line safe now.

“The technology to take care of gas problems has changed, and we believe that we can address the concerns that have been posed in the past about going down Wilshire,” she said.

Burke acknowledged, however, that the proposal would need significant support from Waxman.

Waxman said through a spokesman Thursday that he was surprised by the MTA’s move.

“It’s difficult to believe that this is a serious effort, given that nobody has ever mentioned anything to us about it,” said Phil Schiliro, the congressman’s spokesman.

Schiliro did say that Waxman would be willing to reconsider the issue if new technology could minimize the risk.

Another important part of the political equation is MTA board member and county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. The Wilshire extension would end in his district.

Concerned about subway and rail construction costs that ran as high as $300 million per mile, Yaroslavsky in 1998 sponsored legislation preventing local sales tax revenue from being used on subway projects.

Yaroslavsky backed Burke’s motion Thursday, saying continuing a Wilshire line is among the most important traffic-busting projects the MTA could undertake. But he said he has no intention of trying to repeal his legislation.

“You are not going to get local money to do it,” he said.

Without local money, the MTA would be forced to ask Sacramento to split costs with the federal government on what probably would be one of the agency’s most expensive projects.

Strongly opposing the motion was MTA board member and county Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who called the plan a waste of money.

“This opens up a Pandora’s box to the subway construction lobby,” said Antonovich, who wants the MTA to concentrate on construction of cheaper light rail lines. “The board wants to build a gold-plated system at the expense of taxpayers.”