Private Rail Project
A privately built and financed San Fernando Valley rail project in the median of the Ventura Freeway (“Trolley Enterprise Makes Sense,†July 21) responds to the Valley voters who rejected by 90% the subway in Los Angeles County’s 1990 referendum. But despite the voters’ wishes, the $300-million-a-mile subway is still being pursued by the special interests, even though the system would not reach Warner Center for decades under the most optimistic assumptions of its supporters.
A private-public partnership with Caltrans will build a 19-mile cost-effective rail system along the existing freeway right-of-way connecting the dynamic Burbank Media District to the Valley’s Warner Center by 2003 without the disruption to our neighborhoods and the multibillion-dollar construction cost, overruns and perpetual operating costs of the subway.
This proposal will enhance the quality of life, revitalize the Valley and lead to a regional transit system with neighboring Ventura County.
MICHAEL ANTONOVICH
Antonovich is chairman of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
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