Riding the Rails : Year-Old Moorpark-L. A. Metrolink Line Serves 1,700 Passengers a Day

Stars twinkled, roosters crowed, and streams of Metrolink commuters lined up on the Simi Valley and Moorpark train platforms at 6 a.m. Tuesday, ready to begin their daily southward trek.

Clutching free coffee and doughnuts provided by Metrolink to celebrate the railway’s one-year anniversary, sleepy passengers bound for the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles boarded the train.

One year after they chugged onto the California commuting scene, the white-and-periwinkle Metrolink trains are whisking four times as many passengers to work every day, almost always arriving on schedule and cutting travel times by one-fourth.

As ridership has increased to more than 8,100 a day systemwide, the number of daily trains has doubled to 48 and miles of track stretched to 196 in Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. And in December, a line connecting downtown to Orange County will open nine new stations, bringing the total to 30.

The 47-mile line from Moorpark to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles serves about 1,700 passengers a day.

“The last year has been one where we have accomplished everything we wanted to do,” Metrolink Executive Director Richard Stanger said. “Overall, the system is continuing to improve.”

Despite limited schedules, no service to the western side of Ventura County and complaints from Moorpark residents about train maintenance noise, local transportation officials Tuesday declared the Ventura County line a success.

“I think we’re doing a real yeoman’s job with what we have,” said Bill Davis, Simi Valley councilman and county representative to the Regional Rail Authority.

“I’m delighted about this whole Metrolink operation,” said Frank Schillo, Thousand Oaks councilman and chairman of the Ventura County Transportation Commission. “Our county has been behind in developing rail transit and this is a positive step in catching up.”

Riders, too, praised the service, which they said gives them time to read, relax and socialize in air-conditioned cars equipped with fold-out tables, restrooms and padded, high-backed chairs.

“It relieves the stress of driving,” George Sickman, an attorney from Moorpark, said as he pored over a stack of papers and chatted with fellow traveler Phil Crain.

The two struck up a friendship while riding the train to their jobs in Glendale. “I was driving alone and spending a lot of time in traffic,” said Crain, a corporate executive. “This is obviously a much more relaxing way to go.”

If Crain has one complaint, it’s the limited schedule.

The last evening train from Glendale heading for Moorpark leaves at 6:45 p.m. “I’ve missed it twice,” Crain said. “If you miss the last train, you’re out of luck.”

There are four morning trains on the Ventura County line, the last leaving Moorpark at 7:25 a.m. Commuters returning to Ventura County can catch a 1:05 p.m. train or one of four evening trains, the last leaving Union Station at 6:20 p.m.

Along the way from Moorpark to Union Station, the hourlong ride includes stops in Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Burbank and Glendale.

Efforts to increase the number of trains have been slow, and plans to extend the Metrolink route into western Ventura County are at a standstill.

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Starting Monday, another afternoon train from Union Station will be added to the Ventura County line. But the train will go only as far as Chatsworth.

“We’re slowly phasing things in,” Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. “This is part of the phasing-in process.”

Whether the Metrolink line is extended into western Ventura County depends on whether the county can finance such a venture.

Special Metrolink rail service to the Ventura County Fair in August turned a profit of more than $8,000, but transit leaders said the train’s success on that limited basis does not justify permanent extension of the service.

Metrolink’s estimated operating costs for the present fiscal year are $43 million. Of that, only about 18% comes from passenger fares, which average about $7.20 per trip. The rest--about $12 per passenger trip--is subsidized.

Metrolink officials hope that rising ridership will increase the percentage paid by passengers over the next two years to 40%.

They conceded that the service is costly, but pointed out that it is a long-term investment to alleviate traffic congestion regionwide.

“Keep in mind we’ve only been around 12 months,” Stanger said. “By this time next year, we should be at 12,000 to 14,000 riders a day.”

Despite that projection, Anthony Downs, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said he doubts whether the system will ever have any noticeable effect on rush-hour traffic. He said that as more and more jobs are dispersed throughout the suburbs, concentrating transit improvements downtown makes less and less sense.

Indeed, Steve Leung, chief of the state Department of Transportation’s traffic management branch, said Metrolink has had no noticeable effect on the Southern California freeway system.

“Nonetheless, we definitely encourage people to use Metrolink,” he said. “We are all for it.”

Metrolink officials say they are working to woo the public by improving track and switching operations to make lines run more smoothly, and by upgrading some cars.

But critics say there are deeper problems, citing the system’s safety record and low ridership figures despite large public subsidies. Ultimately, they question whether the trains--and the half-billion dollars in public investment they represent--will make any difference over the long haul.

“It’s very difficult to make these kinds of investments and expect to get a very good return on them,” said Genevieve Giuliano, a professor of urban and regional planning at USC. “It’s hard to compete with a private car, even in congested traffic.

“If we were to look at it from a policy perspective, we’d have to say that we are getting some people out of their cars. But it’s costing us a huge amount of taxpayer money.”

Ventura County voters in 1990 defeated a ballot initiative calling for a half-cent sales tax to pay for transportation projects. Other counties with Metrolink pay for the railway largely with the transportation tax.

For the time being, west county residents will have to drive to the two east county stations if they want to take the train to Los Angeles, said Mary Travis, manager of transit programs for the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

“At least a third of the people using the Moorpark station are coming from Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, even Oxnard,” Travis said. “They say it’s worth it to avoid the L. A. traffic.”

Metrolink commuters on Tuesday morning’s train said dodging traffic was only part of the railway’s allure.

Each morning, Simi Valley resident Eligio Miglia puts his 8-year-old son on the train, which takes the boy to a school for hearing-impaired children in Chatsworth.

Before the rail service began, he and his wife had to juggle their schedules to get the boy to school. “It was impossible,” he said. “The train is wonderful, a godsend.”

Miglia’s son, Giovanni, agreed. “I like going under the tunnels because I like to hear the whistle blow.”

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Simi Valley resident Roman Trampush, who works at Disney Studios in Burbank, takes his bicycle on the train and uses it throughout the day to get to Disney buildings scattered around the city.

Trampush said he decided to start taking the train when Disney began offering a $60 monthly subsidy. The regular fare from Simi Valley is $10 round trip or $144 for a monthly pass. “With my discount from work, it’s a great deal,” Trampush said. “I save a lot of money.”

As she applied face powder Tuesday, Kathy Wu, a Moorpark resident who works as an accountant in downtown Los Angeles, paused to ponder the advantages of riding the train. “The best part is that I don’t have to pay for parking.”

Metrolink Schedule

Starting Monday, the departure and arrival times for trains on the Ventura County line will change. The trains run Mondays through Fridays. Here is the new schedule:

DEPARTURES Moorpark 5:15 a.m. 5:55 a.m. 6:46 a.m. 7:25 a.m. 2:50 p.m. Simi Valley 5:28 a.m. 6:08 a.m. 6:59 a.m. 7:38 a.m. 3:03 p.m. ARRIVALS L.A. Union Station 6:23 a.m. 7:03 a.m. 7:54 a.m. 8:33 a.m. 4:00 p.m. DEPARTURES L.A. Union Station 1:05 p.m. 4:25 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 5:40 p.m. 6:20 p.m. ARRIVALS Simi Valley 1:58 p.m. 5:18 p.m. 5:53 p.m. 6:33 p.m. 7:13 p.m. Moorpark 2:17 p.m. 5:36 p.m. 6:11 p.m. 6:51 p.m. 7:31 p.m.