EDITORIAL SUBWAY SCAM IMMEDIATE TRANSIT FIXES ARE NEEDED -- RATHER THAN CHAMPAGNE LINES FOR THE WESTSIDE.

WHEN Congress banned subways from L.A.'s Westside 20 years ago, experts cited safety concerns. The area was just too unstable, riddled as it was with pockets of methane gas waiting to ignite.

While the volatility of the ground wasn't in dispute -- the legislation was precipitated by an explosion and fire -- it was a scientific fiction invented to deal with a political problem. The real issue was Westsiders didn't want a subway shuttling hordes of working-class people into their neighborhoods. Rep. Henry Waxman answered their call, and Congress went along blindly.

Flash-forward two decades later. Suddenly Congress, at the behest of Waxman once again, is considering ``unbanning'' subways from the Westside to complete the extension of the Metro Red Line.

What happened in those intervening decades? Did the pockets of natural gas dissipate? Not at all. The difference is that 20 years of growth has made traffic on the Westside a nightmare. And now there is the political support that a subway to the sea needs.

This subway plan was a scam then, and it's a scam now.

That's why county voters decided to ban spending local transportation tax dollars on subway construction. It's too expensive, and there are too many other needs.

It would take about 15 years to build, and it would tie up nearly $5 billion in transportation funds for this champagne line, while the rest of the region gets scraps. If Westsiders truly want traffic relief, they would agree to a busway along Wilshire Boulevard that could be built in two years at a fraction of the cost.

But this isn't about real traffic relief. It's about preferential politics.

While this $5 billion project commands attention, truly transportation- poor areas in South Los Angeles, where the Blue Line is already at capacity, and the Valley's northern neighborhoods, which need connections to the Orange Line, will all be second in line. This will be so although these communities' solutions might be cheaper and quicker -- and would help more people.