Southern California Transportation

Ending three years of bare-knuckle back-room negotiation, regional transportation officials agreed Thursday to buy 336 miles of track from the Santa Fe Railway needed for several vital trolley and commuter lines. The $500-million deal will, within three years, create the nation's sixth-largest commuter railroad and bring rail transit to large portions of Southern California that otherwise would probably never see such service.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer renewed her commitment Monday to securing federal assistance for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to accelerate 12 of the region's transit projects, completing them in one decade instead of three. Facing unrelenting attacks on her effectiveness as a lawmaker by her campaign rival, Republican Carly Fiorina, Boxer tried to highlight her policymaking skills by joining Villaraigosa, as well as environmental, business and labor leaders for a "working group" discussion that unfolded in front of a dozen reporters and a line of television cameras at City Hall.

For 48 years they have come--troops heading to the Korean War, hippies and housewives, Caribbean tourists in dreadlocks, even the occasional Hollywood star. And for 48 years, Gertrude Miles has sold them tickets, helping them "Go Greyhound" to places as near as Santa Barbara and as far as Bar Harbor, Me. This week, however, that half-century of service came to an end. Friday, at 5:15 p.m., the Santa Monica Greyhound station dispatched its last bus--San Francisco-bound No.

Smuggling charges against a Los Angeles bus company this week cast a spotlight on the growing industry of carriers that legally ferry thousands of riders from the Mexican border to immigrant enclaves around the West. Many of these regional operations, whose buses have become familiar sights on local freeways, sprang from humble, mom-and-pop origins.

The first "Beach Train" rolled into San Clemente on Saturday morning, providing more than 500 Inland Empire residents a new way to beat the heat and avoid traffic hassles. The trains, operated by Metrolink, will run on the third Saturday of each month through summer, traveling from Rialto to San Clemente with stops in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Inaugural commuters, some of whom had never been to the beach, praised the service's convenience.

Two dramatically differing versions of Southern California's transportation future intersected Thursday, one as bleak as rush hour traffic, the other a dream in progress to link Northern and Southern California with high-speed rail. The sweeping plans envision projects as disparate as carving a new freeway through the shrinking Orange County wilderness and high-speed trains whisking commuters from San Francisco to San Diego as fast as 200 mph.

The freeways are down. The traffic is terrible. The debate should be over. If we really want to improve the post-earthquake commutes, let's not fix those fallen freeways quite so fast. It's no longer enough to merely "encourage" telecommuting. Southern California needs explicit policies and programs that promote mandatory telecommuting, and it needs them now.

Southern California's Metrolink trains debuted with plenty of balloons and pretty talk. Boosters of the billion-dollar choo-choo spoke glowingly of a new era dawning, of the demise of smog and the single-occupant vehicle. "A good day for commuters in Los Angeles," rhapsodized the politicians. "A good day for people who breathe the air." Well, two weeks have passed since that first good day, and it now appears that the Metrolink promoters should have ratcheted down the rhetoric a bit.

Two dramatically differing versions of Southern California's transportation future intersected Thursday, one as bleak as rush-hour traffic, the other a dream in progress to link Northern and Southern California with high-speed rail. The sweeping plans envision projects as disparate as carving a new freeway through the shrinking Orange County wilderness and high-speed trains whisking commuters from San Francisco to San Diego as fast as 200 mph.

It doesn't take a genius to know that traffic is getting worse in Southern California. Whether it's the Ventura Freeway--now the region's most heavily traveled--or the Harbor, the Santa Monica or the Santa Ana, rush hours are starting earlier and ending later. Routinely congested stretches on the freeways are getting longer, and drivers' tempers are getting shorter. And yet the region's population and economy continue to grow.

Call it zany. Call it logical. Either way, Palmdale officials and a high desert transportation coalition are exploring the concept of building one of the world's longest auto tunnels through the San Gabriel Mountains. The segmented 15.5-mile tunnel would stretch through the mountain range on a shortcut from Palmdale to La Canada Flintridge. It would provide the fastest, most direct commute between Los Angeles and the high desert, as well as Las Vegas and Mammoth Lakes.

Brigid Stapleton has a 20-mile commute from her Winnetka home to her job as an office manager in Brentwood. That should take her about 30 minutes, driving east along the Ventura Freeway and south on the San Diego Freeway over the Mulholland Pass. Right? Yeah, right. The interchange of the Ventura and San Diego freeways is the second-busiest in the state, with 551,000 vehicles squeezing through daily. For that reason, Stapleton avoids both freeways.

Six California urban centers rank among the nation's 20 most traffic-choked regions, with the Los Angeles-Orange County area once again topping the list, according to a new study from the Texas Transportation Institute. The survey showed that San Francisco-Oakland jumped over the Seattle-Everett area of Washington to claim the dubious distinction of having the second-worst traffic delays in the nation in 1999, the last year studied.

Southern California's long-range transportation plan may violate clean-air laws, a problem that jeopardizes billions in public funds for highway and other projects. The Federal Highway Administration, Caltrans, California Air Resources Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have put regional planners on notice that there are serious flaws in the recently adopted plan. One problem cited repeatedly in formal letters to the Southern California Assn.

Southern California's long-range transportation plan may violate clean air laws, a problem that jeopardizes billions in public funds for highway and other projects. The Federal Highway Administration, Caltrans, California Air Resources Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have put regional planners on notice that there are serious flaws in the recently adopted plan. One problem cited repeatedly in formal letters to the Southern California Assn.

Regional planners are forecasting huge increases in passenger traffic at Burbank and Palmdale airports over the next two decades, but others say the projections may be unrealistic. A forecast by the Southern California Assn. of Governments says Burbank traffic could double, from 4.7 million passengers last year to 9.4 million in 2025. But that presumes construction of a new terminal--a project that has been stalled since the early 1980s. Palmdale would serve 1.

In a move already engendering criticism from local governments, two state senators proposed legislation Monday that would empower a new regional agency to develop and enforce a transportation plan for a six-county area encompassing the Los Angeles Basin. Sens.

In a move already engendering criticism from local governments, two state senators proposed legislation Monday that would empower a new regional agency to develop and enforce a transportation plan for a six-county area encompassing Orange County and the Los Angeles Basin. Orange County officials immediately branded the plan as an attempt to scuttle local efforts to establish a countywide council of governments that would coordinate transportation and land-use decisions.

Hoping to capitalize on dissatisfaction with the congestion that plagues California's highways and airports, Amtrak will unveil a $10.1-billion high-speed rail plan today that would allow travelers to get from Los Angeles to San Diego in less than two hours. The statewide plan also envisions a rail corridor that would link downtown Los Angeles with downtown San Francisco by trains capable of reaching speeds of 125 mph.