Local News in Brief : Panel Again Supports Commuter Rail Service

The California Transportation Commission on Friday reaffirmed its support for a San Fernando Valley commuter rail service, setting an Aug. 15 deadline for its staff to work out details.

The Amtrak-operated service would make two round-trips daily between Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and either Simi Valley or Oxnard.

As proposed by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), the 450-passenger trains would operate on Southern Pacific railroad tracks with stops in Glendale, Burbank, Van Nuys and Chatsworth.

Amtrak already is scheduled to institute a service between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara in the next month or two. There will be one train each way daily between the two cities.

Robbins first proposed the Amtrak service as a means of lessening congestion when the widening of the Ventura Freeway begins later this year or early in 1989.

But he said this week that the service “looks like it could catch on, and I see no reason that it couldn’t be made permanent.”

The service would be paid for by fares, state rail-subsidy funds and subsidies from cities along the route, which have indicated a willingness to contribute.

Robbins also has proposed subsidizing the service with interest from money to be set aside beginning this year for the Valley leg of the North Hollywood-to-downtown Metro Rail subway.

Amtrak has estimated it would charge the state $2.6 million a year to operate two round-trips daily between Los Angeles and Oxnard.

Southern Pacific has not yet given a cost estimate.