BACKERS HOPE RAIL EXTENSION GOOD AS GOLD FOOTHILL LINE AIMS FOR 2013.

Byline: Mary Schubert Staff Writer

To cities along the Foothill Freeway corridor, the Gold Line light rail is a distant, yet palpable, idea that government leaders and residents are planning for, fighting for, maybe even bracing for.

They hope it brings all the benefits but none of the pains that dogged planning and construction of the initial Los Angeles-to-Pasadena phase.

``It's many years and lots of money off,'' said Camille Diaz, assistant city manager of Irwindale, one of 10 cities the proposed 22.5-mile Gold Line will traverse.

Preliminary estimates are that the eastern extension would cost just over $1 billion to build, said Nate Baguio, a spokesman for the Blue Line Construction Authority.

Proponents hope the nearly finished Pasadena Gold Line will be the perfect calling card when they solicit funding for the eastern extension.

The 13.7-mile Pasadena route, scheduled to open in July, uses the same Santa Fe right-of-way that the Gold Line's extension will follow to its planned terminus in Claremont, on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.

Planners have long said that ``Phase Two'' - as the Gold Line extension is often called by those in transit circles - would begin service in 2008. But last week, that target date was abruptly pushed back to 2013, Baguio said.

At this point, the passenger rail system is largely unfunded.

U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, and David Dreier, R-Covina, represent cities that each leg of the Gold Line passes through. Both said they'll appeal to Congress for the light-rail extension to be included in the federal government's massive list of transportation projects for the 2004 to 2008 fiscal years.

Congress is scheduled to reauthorize the funding package, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, next year. Those hearings will begin in early 2003, and both representatives want the Gold Line extension to get a sizable chunk of that revenue.

``We'll be seeking a couple hundred million dollars,'' Schiff said. That's a change from the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena segment, paid for largely with state and county money.

``I intend to be very aggressively involved in that,'' he said.

The stakes will be high, as the Gold Line vies for funding against transportation projects from all the other states.

``We'll show that this is a (viable) project that can be delivered on time,'' Schiff said. ``The (federal budget) appropriators don't want to allocate funding to something that's never going to get built.''

Besides highlighting the can-do attitude that the Blue Line Construction Authority demonstrated with the first segment, Schiff plans to argue the need for extending the light-rail system through the San Gabriel Valley.

``Along this corridor ... we have one of the most mass transit-dependent populations,'' he said. ``A lot of my constituents will be riding that line, for those who commute eastward.''

Along with the need for those who don't have cars, the Gold Line could be an attractive option for those who would just as soon leave their autos at home.

``The Gold Line has been a very high priority for me - just look at the congestion that exists on the Foothill Freeway ,'' said Dreier, whose district encompasses most of the Phase Two cities.

``In working with the leadership of the cities ... there's been a strong level of enthusiasm about this,'' he said.