Metrolink Makes Tracks for Perris

At least three times a week, Mary Sims rides Metrolink from Riverside to Los Angeles in a nearly two-hour journey to her sister’s place in Compton or Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.

First, the 57-year-old Perris resident drives 20 minutes to the downtown Riverside station to catch the train because Metrolink doesn’t go to Perris.

That may soon change.

Recognizing the increased congestion along Interstate 215 and Highway 60, and the many residents who leave Riverside County for work or other activities, county transportation officials plan to expand a Metrolink line by 19 miles through Moreno Valley and Perris.

“I don’t drive the freeways,” Sims said recently as she waited for a train to Los Angeles at the downtown Riverside station. “I like to commute because I like to sit back and not deal with the traffic.”

Last month, the Riverside County Transportation Commission approved the $101.8-million proposal to connect Los Angeles and Riverside to Moreno Valley and Perris by extending an existing Metrolink route that stops in Riverside. The project would be completed by 2008.

“What it does is it provides more direct access for Riverside County residents and improves their travel choices in that area,” said Stephanie Wiggins, the commission’s rail department manager.

The commission plans to submit a preliminary engineering application to the Federal Transit Administration by the end of summer, Wiggins said.

Funds from Measure A, a voter-approved half-cent sales tax, would pay for about 20% of the cost, and the commission would seek the remainder from federal sources.

Traffic on Riverside County freeways and thoroughfares has long been a problem. To ease gridlock and keep up with the Inland Empire’s growth -- the region is expected to expand by about 2.5 million people by 2020 -- the Riverside County Transportation Commission has approved other projects, including a 40-mile thoroughfare between Corona and Hemet.

The population boom underscores the need for transportation alternatives such as Metrolink, said Moreno Valley Councilman Frank West.

Moreno Valley planners believe the city’s population could nearly double to 300,000 in the next 20 years as development continues, said West, who served on a committee examining the Metrolink extension.

“The anticipated growth is so great that the train will be absolutely necessary,” he said. “There will be gridlock if we don’t have an alternative mode of transportation.”

The four lines serving the Inland Empire accounted for about 56% of Metrolink’s average weekday passenger trips in June, according to figures compiled by the rail service, which operates seven lines.

But recent commuting surveys show that Riverside and Moreno Valley residents commute mostly within the county or to San Bernardino County, said Max Neiman, director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences Research at UC Riverside, which helped conduct the surveys.

“It’s not clear they’re going to benefit that much with the [Metrolink] extension,” Neiman said. “It’s certainly something that could be a benefit in the future. It might accelerate growth. Someone in Los Angeles might say, ‘Hey, it’s possible to live out there, and get a ride into Los Angeles on the Metrolink.’ ”

For Perris, a railroad town settled in 1886 along the transcontinental route of the Santa Fe, the Metrolink extension would represent the return of passenger rail service discontinued more than 100 years ago. The route through Perris to San Diego was abandoned in 1892 after heavy storms frequently wiped out tracks in the Temecula Gorge.

“Perris has always had the flavor of a railroad town,” said David Stuart, vice president of fundraising and community relations at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris. “It will feel comfortable having trains running through it. Mind you, [freight] trains run through it now, but people think of passenger trains.”

Since Metrolink began in Riverside County a decade ago, there have been discussions about a Perris line, said John Standiford, a transportation commission spokesman.

The current project would connect Los Angeles and Riverside to Moreno Valley and Perris through the extension of the 91 Line that includes stops in West Corona, Fullerton and at Union Station in Los Angeles.

The 19-mile rail extension is owned by the Transportation Commission, which bought 38 miles of track from Highgrove to San Jacinto in 1993. Metrolink would operate the line extension.

There are five proposed stations: one on Spruce Street in Riverside; UC Riverside; Alessandro Boulevard in Moreno Valley; Interstate 215 and Ramona Expressway; and in Perris.

The project calls for three trains to Riverside and Los Angeles in the morning, three to Perris in the evening, and one in each direction midday, Wiggins said.

Riverside County transportation officials expect 1,670 passengers to board the line daily between Perris and Riverside by 2010; and 2,480 daily passengers by 2025, according to a study by the commission.