MTA DRAWS UP STATE BOND WISH LIST; LANKERSHIM, 101-405 FIXES BACKED; FARE HIKE PROPOSED.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Daily News Staff Writer

The MTA board agreed Thursday to pay for repairing a stretch of Lankershim Boulevard damaged by subway construction and approved a wish list of projects - including upgrading the 101-405 interchange in the San Fernando Valley.

Funds for the wish-list projects would depend on state voters' approval of a series of up to $16 billion in highway bond measures, which Democratic lawmakers including state Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, propose to put on the ballot beginning next year.

Also on Thursday, the MTA board received a report from the agency's chief executive officer, Julian Burke, recommending a 10-cent increase in bus and rail fares as part of next year's $2.5 billion budget.

Some people in the audience at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting moaned when Burke mentioned the proposed hike, which would raise fares to $1.45 as part of his balanced budget.

``We're not going to stand for it,'' said Martin Hernandez, an organizer with the Bus Riders Union, which is engaged in a legal dispute with the MTA over bus service.

Burke said the increase is justified, with bus service having improved and the agency planning to add 437 new buses in 1999-2000, representing an additional 237,000 hours of bus service. Bus riders are more than 90 percent of the MTA's passengers.

It would be only the second fare hike in 11 years, with the last being an increase in February 1995 from $1.10 to $1.35, said MTA spokesman Marc Littman.

On another issue, the MTA board voted unanimously to provide up to $1.3 million to rebuild a two-mile section of Lankershim Boulevard damaged by subway construction and related activities in North Hollywood.

Some board members, including Supervisor Don Knabe and Long Beach City Councilwoman Jenny Oropeza, said neighborhoods affected by the light-rail Blue Line's construction never received such consideration by the MTA. But they voted for the Lankershim Boulevard payment anyway.

Los Angeles Councilman Hal Bernson, another MTA board member, urged his colleagues to put up the money ``to show the MTA does have a heart.''

In approving a list of projects for possible funding in case voters approve state transportation bonds, the MTA board put priority on an $800 million overhaul of the 101-405 interchange to reduce gridlock, a $186 million busway along the Chandler Boulevard railway right-of-way, and several million dollars for freeway sound walls.

The number of projects proposed throughout the state probably will be several times greater than the bond revenues, so some MTA projects would not be funded even if voters approve the bond issues, said Tony Harris, Caltrans' acting chief deputy director and a nonvoting member of the MTA board.

Also on Thursday, the MTA board approved new guidelines for the creation of transit zones, such as one being proposed to take over operation of 27 MTA bus lines in the San Fernando Valley area. Such zones are intended to increase local control while reducing costs.