HAYDEN SAYS MTA SHOULD SHIFT TRACKS.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

Tom Hayden says he would bring very different priorities to the MTA if he were mayor, including reconsidering a light-rail line along the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley.

``I think more generally we have to have a new vision of the MTA that starts with a flexible approach to the future, instead of a linear approach,'' Hayden said.

The state senator from Brentwood said he wants to see an independent evaluation of a dedicated busway or a light rail line using cut-and-cover building techniques on the MTA right of way along Burbank and Chandler boulevards.

Mayor Richard Riordan supported an elevated rail line along the Ventura Freeway when he ran four years ago, then engineered an MTA vote supporting a Burbank-Chandler subway after he was elected.

Now he says a subway is too expensive and wants some other form of fixed rail along the route.

Hayden has built his mayoral campaign in part on his long-running criticism of Riordan's decisions at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where the mayor serves on the board and appoints three of the 12 other members.

Hayden has repeatedly called for an end to further subway work, including bringing the Metro Red Line to the surface in Hollywood and running it over the Cahuenga Pass to North Hollywood, rather than digging under Runyon Canyon Park and numerous pricey Hollywood Hills homes.

He wants the agency to concentrate on improving its bus system, which carries more than 90 percent of its riders.

An Information Age economy will soon make an expensive anachronism out of a subway system feeding people into a central downtown, Hayden said.

``Instead of spending $300 million per mile of subway, the MTA should use that money as incentives to employers to alter work hours to reduce traffic,'' Hayden said.

Hayden said he might support ``limited'' light-rail systems that can be built cheaply along existing rights of way such as Burbank-Chandler or Exposition Boulevard near downtown.

Riordan wants a nine-member MTA body with the county, city of Los Angeles and League of Cities appointing three members each.

Hayden's bill, co-sponsored with Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Quentin Kopp, would essentially restore the situation of four years ago, when the Southern California Rapid Transit District ran the bus system and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission allocated money for transit projects.