THE REGION — The decision to scuttle an ambitious countywide electric trolley bus system--including a line connecting Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena--has received reluctant support from San Gabriel Valley officials who say completion of the Blue Line to Pasadena is a greater priority.

Empathizing with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, which faces a $126-million deficit, Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole said: "These are tough economic times and they require some hard choices. The electric trolley's principal advantage is for clean air, but it does not add capacity to the (transit) system. So I'm not surprised it got pushed further down the priority list."

By an 8 to 4 vote Dec. 15, the MTA board unexpectedly dumped the $1.2-billion project, including planned trolley bus lines in Los Angeles and the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. The San Gabriel Valley line would have replaced two bus lines between Burbank and Pasadena, paralleling the Ventura Freeway (134).

Sharon Clark, a member of the Pasadena Transportation Commission, said the trolley bus "is a good idea, but this project was badly conceived and designed."

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Clark is a former president of the Tri-City Transportation Coalition, made up of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena representatives seeking to improve transportation along the east-west corridor of the Ventura Freeway.

In the voting, the San Gabriel Valley's MTA board member, Duarte Councilman John R. Fasana, abstained due to a potential conflict of interest. Fasana is an employee of Southern California Edison Co., which had developed proposals for the trolley system.

Acting as an alternate in Fasana's place, Diamond Bar Councilwoman Phyllis Papen was one of those voting to kill the trolley. The trolley system, she said, does offer great efficiency in combatting air pollution.

The trolleys are virtually smog-free, especially when contrasted with diesel-burning buses. But "zero-polluting" trolleys don't come cheaply.

"For every three electric trolley buses you could buy 4 1/2 methanol buses," Papen said, explaining her vote.

But Jeff Johnson, the MTA's director for the trolley project, pointed out that electric buses have much longer life spans--18 to 21 years--compared to buses that run on diesel, methanol or natural gas and may last 12 to 13 years.