Green Line

The Metro Green Line keeps running yellow lights--lights that warn it could devour funds needed for other rail systems to keep L.A. County moving into the next century. The Green Line is on transit planners' maps as a 23-mile commuter line between Norwalk and El Segundo. It is to be built as part of a $150-billion program to expand regional rail and bus service over 30 years. This is one of the most important and extraordinary projects in the history of this region.

There has been considerable discussion surrounding decisions by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to support automated technology for the Metro Green Line and then to award the contract to build the Green Line vehicles to Sumitomo Corp. of America, whose parent company is in Japan.

Catherine O'Neill is marching back and forth across the terrace, delivering bowls of luncheon salad to the table with a thud, quick-stepping back to the kitchen to grab the telephone. Unsuspecting callers receive the imperative blast: "I'm Cathy O'Neill! Who's speaking?" Even the miracle of a perfect California day merits but a terse accolade: "Heaven!"

Delays in building technically advanced driverless cars, finding a suitable route and dealing with toxic and explosive gas-laden soils may balloon the cost of the Metro Green Line by another $276 million, engineers said Wednesday.

Yielding to an outburst of public discontent, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission on Wednesday canceled its controversial contract with Sumitomo Corp. of America and indefinitely delayed the use of driverless cars on the Metro Green Line. The unanimous vote, ending a month of controversy that improbably mixed local transit needs with global economic policies, drew cheers and applause from the scores of union members who had crowded the commission meeting.

Under fire for authorizing a rail transportation system that would rely on an array of conflicting technologies, county transportation officials Tuesday proposed developing a "standardized" hybrid car that could be purchased in bulk and used on any of the system's proposed lines. The idea is to save money and make it easier to launch a transportation industry in Southern California to manufacture the 6,000 buses and 600 rail cars that county agencies plan to buy over the next 30 years.

Since 1973, I have led the effort to build a rapid transit system in Los Angeles. I want our people to ride the most modern, cost-effective rail systems in the world. And I want these systems to be built by American workers and American businesses. I support awarding our rail contracts to American companies. I voted to award the Green Line car contract to the Morrison-Knudsen Corp. of Boise, Ida. I did this despite a staff report that insisted on the other final bidder, Sumitomo Corp.

The Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories took three more lives Thursday, including that of the first Arab citizen of Israel killed since the uprising began last December. The shooting death of a youth from the northern village of Arara, 15 miles from the Mediterranean coast, raised immediate concern here that the violence might spread in a serious way across the so-called Green Line to the 700,000 Arabs who live as citizens inside Israel's pre-1967 borders.

The executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission last week quietly signed a $128-million contract authorizing a Japanese firm to build a driverless train, despite mounting pressure from local politicians to block the contract, it was disclosed Wednesday. Calling the action "sneaky and outrageous," Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said LACTC Executive Director Neil Peterson signed the contract with Sumitomo Corp. on Jan.

Like many commuters, Aileen Chaj takes the Green Line out of necessity rather than convenience. Her trip on the light-rail line -- which runs down the middle of the Century Freeway -- takes only about 20 minutes each way. But that is only one leg of a grinding 1 1/2-hour commute each way that involves catching a bus near her home in South Los Angeles that takes her to the Green Line station.