Subway to Valley Possible by 2000

The Metro Rail subway would be built from downtown to Van Nuys by 2000 and could extend to Warner Center a decade later, under a proposed rail-construction schedule released Wednesday.

The 30-year plan is the second version proposed recently by Los Angeles County Transportation Commission staff. It would postpone completion dates for several of the county’s 24 rail projects.

But priorities assigned to the Valley’s four lines remain unchanged from the schedule released in December.

Commissioners had the plans drafted to determine uses of money from a 0.5% sales tax increase county voters approved Nov. 6.

The tax and an equal levy approved in 1980 should yield $800 million a year for transportation. The commission also expects a large share of the $18 billion in transportation money state voters approved in June.

Both proposed schedules set aside money for two commuter rail lines in the Valley in 1992.

They are a downtown-to-Moorpark line with stops in Burbank, Van Nuys, Northridge, Chatsworth and Simi Valley, and a downtown-to-Santa Clarita line with stops in Glendale, Burbank and San Fernando.

Also included is a magnetic-levitation train system from Los Angeles International Airport to Palmdale Airport, to be built by 1998 by private firms.

The Valley subway would be built in the Southern Pacific right of way roughly parallel to Chandler and Victory boulevards.

The first leg would temporarily end at the San Diego Freeway, with express buses continuing to and from West Valley destinations.

The final leg to Warner Center could be built by 2009 if California voters in 2000 authorize another sale of rail bonds.

Without those bonds or other funds, the final leg would be completed in 2019.