Second Opinion / COMMENTARY FROM OTHER MEDIA : SCRA NEWSLETTER : Valley “Monorail” Unlikely to Be Built

Three years of working to convince the L.A. County Transportation Committee (LACTC) to select the Burbank-Chandler Metro Rail corridor for mass transit as opposed to the Ventura Freeway alignment ended in failure. In the end, money was the deciding factor, according to those who made the decision, with politics certainly playing a big part.

Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Harold Croyts, Supervisor Deane Dana, Supervisor Mike Antonovich (the prime backer of the freeway option), Supervisor Gloria Molina (and) Councilman Richard Alatorre, none of whom represent the San Fernando Valley, voted in favor of the freeway alignment. Their stated reason was they had been told that a monorail would cost between $500 million and $1 billion less than the subway.

The crazy part of this logic is that the freeway option is unlikely to ever be a monorail--and we have great difficulty in understanding why the press keeps saying this will be a monorail (which immediately conjures up a vision of Disneyland). A monorail would be incapable of carrying the passenger load required at acceptable speeds to make the construction cost-effective. More likely is that the Ventura Freeway alternative will be some kind of a train, will look like a train, will sound like a train, and will be as obtrusive as a train, running 45 feet above our homes.

We have computer models which show that over the long haul, on the basis of the costs, the subway will be much cheaper to build and maintain than any train. But, if we go to Metro Rail, Antonovich’s contributors will not get the construction contracts. That’s the politics in this mess--appalling as it may be.