HIGH-SPEED RAIL COULD SERVE LAX, PALMDALE.

Byline: Eric Moses Daily News Staff Writer

Rather than sitting in San Diego Freeway traffic en route to Los Angeles International Airport, travelers could relax on air-conditioned trains speeding at 200 mph toward a new international airport in Palmdale.

Aboard one of these bullet trains, they could eat in the dining car, use their laptop computers or just gaze out the window during the 32-minute trip from downtown Los Angeles to the High Desert airport.

But all of that is just a dream - for now.

The state Intercity High-Speed Rail Authority is developing the project as part of a transportation master plan for Southern California. Members concede that bullet trains here are at least a decade away and would come at a huge cost. But they say this high-speed rail is vital for the economic prosperity of Los Angeles and the state.

And with expected population growth in the Central Valley, Antelope Valley and Inland Empire, the bullet train would be crucial for remaking Palmdale airport from a landing strip in a pistachio field into a state-of-the-art international airport.

``As long as you have planes flying out of Palmdale, people will go there,'' said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, a leading supporter of the bullet train and a full-fledged airport in Palmdale.

Preparing for growth

The route is designed to serve 90 percent of the state's population, which is expected to jump by 50 percent in the next 10 to 15 years.

State officials hope businesses in Silicon Valley use bullet trains to connect with their entertainment industry partners in Hollywood or the emerging high-tech industry in the San Fernando Valley.

For Los Angeles residents, Rail Authority members and its supporters say the bullet trains would ease congestion along the San Diego Freeway - as well as at LAX.

``By having more riders, there's less congestion at airports and less congestions on roads,'' said Dan Leavitt, the rail authority's interim executive director. ``Those people are no longer flying or driving and that increases your public benefit.''

Atop the list of potential links to be built after the 676-mile initial line is complete is a spur from Union Station to LAX, Leavitt said.

The train would whisk commuters from San Diego to Union Station, Burbank, Santa Clarita, Palmdale and then to the Bay Area and even to the state capital.

A one-way ticket from Palmdale to downtown Los Angeles could cost an estimated $20 to $40. Lower commuter rates would be possible depending on the demand.

Palmdale International?

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford believes that the potential of the High Desert is restricted by transportation, an obstacle that the high-speed rail would help eliminate.

``We feel that the high-speed rail would complement the airport growth in the Antelope Valley,'' he said.

By bullet train, planners say it would cut by nearly two-thirds the 90-minute drive from downtown Los Angeles to Palmdale.

Whether Palmdale would be just a stop along the way or a destination as an international airport depends on the bullet train, said John J. Driscoll, executive director of the Airports Department.

``In order to make Palmdale viable you need a surface transportation system that will get people there and back, and I think that's high-speed rail.''

The Intercity High-Speed Rail Authority concedes this ambitious plan is still a dream, mostly because the rail line still needs financing. And even if the money is found, the rail wouldn't be completed for 10 to 15 years, so the development of a Palmdale International Airport is decades down the road.

Deadline approaches

The Authority has until 2000 to secure financing, or the project will be scrapped, Leavitt said. ``The biggest hurdle we believe we face to build high-speed rail is financing,'' he said.

One possible source is a sales- or gas-tax initiative that authority members hope to qualify for a statewide ballot in November 2000. Each proposed tax would run for 30 years and raise about $700 million annually, Leavitt said. Some funding also could come from the federal government.

``We did not want to have the project depend on federal funds because we saw that as something that would kill the project,'' he said.

Tentatively, the 676-mile line would extend from San Diego to Stockton, where it would split into separate links - one to Sacramento and another to San Francisco and San Jose.

Trains would travel at top speeds of 220 mph to 310 mph, depending on whether the agency decides to build a traditional rail line, like those in use in Europe and Japan, or newer and faster trains on magnetic levitation lines.

With the cost of building freeways reaching more than $100 million a mile, Michael Tennenbaum, a rail authority member and Malibu resident, said it's time Californians look to another mode of transportation.

``I believe that it is likely that in 10 years or 15 years that a high-speed rail system will be needed in the California that exists then,'' Tennenbaum said.

Bullet train service between downtown and San Francisco would be a swift two hours and 49 minutes.

Compare that to Amtrak, which has no direct service between the two cities. Such a trip would require taking a bus from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, catching the train to just outside San Francisco and getting on another bus into the city. That journey takes about nine hours, Amtrak spokeswoman Eileen McNally.

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Map: (Color) HIGH SPEED RAIL

Whisking commuters as fast as 220 mph, the proposed bullet train could travel from San Diego to downtown Los Angeles in just an hour and 12 minutes and then to San Francisco in two hours and 49 minutes. A key stop would be Palmdale, where the airport could be expanded to accept international flights. A spur to Los Angeles International Airport also is under consideration.

Gregg Miller/Daily News