Automated Century Trolley Gets Green Light

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted Wednesday to build the nation’s first fully automated, driverless trolley system in the middle of the new Century Freeway, saying that it will significantly improve service for riders.

“Automated is a technology whose time has come,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who chairs the commission.

The unanimous vote came despite doubts expressed by a number of commissioners, including Schabarum, only last month and during Wednesday’s debate. Those concerns centered on higher projected costs and the incompatibility of the automated rail cars with either the downtown Metro Rail subway or the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach trolley, both of which are under construction.

Before Wednesday’s vote, commission officials had mounted a lengthy and vigorous defense of the automation plan, which reverses an earlier decision to use manually operated cars that pick up power from overhead wires--the same as those to be used on the Long Beach line.

Cars Already Ordered

More than $20 million worth of the manually operated cars have already been ordered for the 20-mile Norwalk-to-El Segundo line. Commission officials now say they hope to recover some of those costs by leasing spare cars to other cities until they are needed here.

In particular, commission officials denied charges by critics that they are developing a disjointed mass transit system that could discourage riders by forcing them to make too many transfers from one train to another.

Paul Taylor, the commission’s acting executive director, said that because an automated system can run shorter, more frequent trains than a manually controlled system, the overall waiting time for commuters will be less. “We’ve determined it’s much more in the interests of the rider to have the option to move from train to train,” Taylor said, adding that transferring from one train to another is a “way of life” in some other cities.

Commissioner Marcia Mednick, an appointee of Mayor Tom Bradley, was among those who had been concerned about the transfer question. But she said, “I think some of those questions are resolved. . . . This is the best way to move people from different parts of a far-flung county.”

But Robert Geoghegan, a commissioner representing county Supervisor Ed Edelman, who also expressed concerns, said, “I think most people would agree, all things being equal, that (fewer tranfers) are desireable.”

Although the cars on the first three lines in the county’s multibillion-dollar mass transit system will not be interchangeable, Taylor also said the increase in maintenance costs would be “negligible.” He said each line will have its own maintenance yard and many of the cars components will be interchangeable.

However, the chief of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which will actually operate and maintain the entire mass transit system, is not convinced. He said his staff has not been given the chance to evaluate in detail the long-term operational impacts of the commission’s action. “I certainly think we have strong concerns about multiple operating technologies,” said Alan Pegg, the RTD’s acting general manager. “That will spawn the need to maintain and repair multiple (systems). . . . That certainly does add to our costs.”

The switch to an automated system will increase construction costs, but reduce long-term operating costs. However, the net effect over 30 years will be to add approximately $17 million to the cost of the Century line and its planned western extensions to Marina del Rey and the South Bay, according to the latest commission estimate.

Commission officials said the operating savings is probably understated, but critics said the projected reductions in labor costs on the driverless trains may not materialize.

Schabarum said he has overcome his earlier reservations, but nonetheless instructed the commission staff to prepare a chart identifying those responsible for the various cost and savings projections. “We can hang somebody” if the projections are “way out of line,” Schabarum said.

On another matter, Schabarum appears to have the necessary support for a unilateral action by the commission to initiate creation of its own nonprofit corporation that could take over construction of the entire mass transit system, including the RTD’s Metro Rail subway. The proposal, which in effect would position the commission to seize control of design and construction of the entire rail system, represents a significant escalation of the recent transit reorganization warfare between the RTD and the commission.