Mayor’s Vote Could Doom MTA Tunnel

A vote by a key MTA board committee recommending the abandonment of plans to build a subway across the San Fernando Valley was interpreted Friday by agency officials as a watershed event that could be the beginning of the end of underground construction in Los Angeles County.

Although the vote by a panel headed by Mayor Richard Riordan does not necessarily endanger plans to extend the subway a couple of miles into the Eastside where much engineering work is complete, the officials said, it does signal an intent among board members to seriously look at alternatives elsewhere, such as in Mid-City.

The mayor has talked for several months about bringing the subway out of the ground in the Valley and Mid-City, but his vote Thursday was the first definitive action--putting teeth into his long-standing complaints that underground construction is too expensive.

The action by the Executive Management Committee of the MTA came unexpectedly on the somewhat narrow issue of whether the agency should ask the federal government for $58 million to design the east-west Valley subway line.

The mayor asked whether the agency should seek the money if it is not yet sure if a subway will be built in the Valley, and Duarte Councilman John Fasana, a longtime opponent of the underground line, took advantage of the moment to move that the money be deleted.

Voting with the mayor were Fasana, Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alatorre, Glendale Councilman Larry Zarian and businessman Nick Patsaouras. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke voted in opposition.

In addition, the panel voted to have the Metropolitan Transportation Authority sponsor legislation to repeal a state law requiring that a deep-bore subway be built along a two-mile stretch of any future cross-Valley rail route

Officials on Friday saw a victory for subway opponents that was made easier by a new sense of realism at the agency over its lack of funds. The MTA has long ignored growing holes in its treasury that recently culminated in an acknowledgment that its long-range budget is $1 billion short.

Riordan is the key to any move to abandon underground construction on the subway, and until Thursday, fellow MTA directors say, they did not really know where he stood.

“Board members wanted to see if the mayor was serious,” said one member.

Zarian, who is chairman of the board, said the vote was the first opportunity for the board to “express its feelings on the direction that the MTA needs to take.”

“This is the first time that there’s been a vote to look at alternate ways of building rail besides the subway,” he said. “We’re trying to put everything on the table. It just doesn’t make sense to talk about a $350-million-per-mile subway when you haven’t got the money and Washington says they’re not going to send it anymore.”

But there is opposition to the way the vote was handled. A Burke representative said that although the supervisor favors saving money by possibly moving to aboveground construction, she feared that the vote was premature.

The agency is planning to release environmental review documents in April, as required by federal law, that will spell out a variety of options for rail construction and routes in the Valley.

“To delete the subway before the environmental review is complete and hearings are held is probably illegal,” said one board member.