Railroads Southern California

It's no trick to spot the one-day southbound passengers milling around in the cavernous Union Station terminal on Saturday mornings. They're the ones with coolers instead of luggage, dazzlingly bright in summer shorts, sandals and sunglasses, maybe already a little chatty after their morning mimosas, waiting for the 10:50 San Diegan to take them away from smoggy Alameda Street to the sea-breezy land of the big exacta.

Larry Stark's sliver of imaginary Los Angeles, where it's forever 1937, is a Depression-bitten place of scrap yards and tumbledown wooden shacks, weedy yards and soot-smudged tenements. Hobos still roam with their knapsacks, and the great steam locomotives -- the kind that left him gasping as a kid -- still dominate the rails. "It's sort of like my little empire," said Stark, 63, who has spent the last six years building the 12-by-17-foot model railroad in the guest house behind his Burbank home.

Metrolink officials, who operate the region's 416-mile commuter rail system, often caution people not to confuse them with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Maintaining that distinction seemed to be on the minds of Metrolink officials Friday as they began deliberating an average 13% increase in ticket prices over the next four years on the fast-growing network.

In an effort to open up the Central Coast to more rail traffic, newer and faster trains are being added to the most popular rail line in California. The ocean has always been the visual highlight of riding the San Diegans route between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, so the train will be renamed the Pacific Surfliner in April with the arrival of double-decker trains. "The new name is really a nod to the entire coast," said Dominick Albano, an Amtrak spokesman.

The region's top rail policy-making body was forced to postpone action Wednesday on a plan to eliminate street-level train crossings between Los Angeles and San Diego for lack of a quorum. It was the Orange County delegation that failed to show--at a meeting held at the Santa Ana train station.

A draft report on the planned Southern California commuter rail system predicts that 27 round-trip trains will carry 23,329 one-way passengers a day by the time all but one of the lines are operating in 1995.

County Supervisor Don R. Roth is expected today to be elected chairman of a commission that is guiding the creation of a super-speed train linking Anaheim with Las Vegas. Roth currently is vice chairman of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, which has approved an international consortium's plans to privately build and operate a 265-m.p.h. magnetic levitation train. The rail service, which could begin in 1997, will link Anaheim with Las Vegas in a 75-minute, one-way trip.

Orange County officials outlined for the first time Thursday their vision of a futuristic, $9.4-billion regional transportation system--complete with monorail, people mover and super-speed train--and asked for federal help in making the dream come true. Money, however, was not the first item on the wish list for the complex road and rail network, which would be financed largely with private funds. Initial plans call for only $600 million in federal contributions.

Union Pacific Railroad said Tuesday that its massive congestion problems in Southern California are over and that nationwide it's continuing to recover from a breakdown in service that sparked a shipping crisis last spring. "UP is no longer suffering from congestion in California," the railroad said in its biweekly filing with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. Nationwide, "UP achieved its highest level of performance in more than a year."

Metrolink officials, who operate the region's 416-mile commuter rail system, often caution people not to confuse them with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Maintaining that distinction seemed to be on the minds of Metrolink officials Friday as they began deliberating an average 13% increase in ticket prices over the next four years on the fast-growing network.

When Frank Norris wrote about the Octopus at the dawn of the century, he was referring to the Southern Pacific Railroad. These days, of course, we don't think of railroads as devouring beasts anymore. They seem to have slipped away in our brains to the same place reserved for steamship travel and wristwatches that tick.

Start-up costs for Metrolink, the regional commuter rail service, are running under budget, and service on the first three lines should begin on schedule in October despite disagreements with Santa Fe Railway Co. over the use of key track segments, regional officials said Tuesday.

Electrifying 806 miles of Southern California's current and planned commuter and freight rail service to reduce harmful diesel emissions will cost $4.6 billion, may boost consumers' monthly electric bills and could take 18 years, according to a new study.

The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, once on a fast track toward building an Anaheim-to-Las Vegas maglev route, is on the verge of power failure. Today in Anaheim, the panel will hold its last legally authorized meeting, at least for the eight California members, because Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill two months ago that would have extended the commission's authority for another year. But members of the panel have not given up. Despite a recent decision by Bechtel Corp.

Commuters' dreams of a fast, efficient network of passenger trains linking many Southern California communities moved a bit closer to reality on Monday as officials tentatively agreed to join a new five-county rail agency. After a lightly attended public hearing at the County Hall of Administration in Santa Ana, the Orange County Transportation Commission voted unanimously to approve a draft plan for county membership in the new Southern California Commuter Rail Coordinating Council.

The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, once on a fast track toward building an Anaheim-to-Las Vegas maglev route, is on the verge of power failure. Today in Anaheim, the panel will hold its last legally authorized meeting, at least for the eight California members, because Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a bill two months ago that would have extended the commission's authority for another year. But members of the panel have not given up. Despite a recent decision by Bechtel Corp.

Gov. Pete Wilson's veto Thursday of a bill that would extend the life of the Anaheim-Las Vegas high-speed train project hit Orange County officials like a runaway locomotive. The veto could kill the $5-billion project at least until the Legislature reconvenes early next year, or until the issue is addressed during a special session that may be called to deal with the deadlock on reapportionment, officials said.

The environmental debate over the planned use of pollution-spewing diesel locomotives on Southland commuter trains continued Thursday, with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison Co. offering to help pay the enormous cost of electrifying the entire rail system. Orange County officials repeated warnings that electrification, although desirable, could delay the county's scheduled 1993 expansion of commuter rail service.