RED LINE ON FEDERAL BUDGET LIST CONGRESS VOTES $50 MILLION FOR SUBWAY, LESS FOR BUSES.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - In a key House vote, the Metropolitan Transit Authority on Tuesday got the money it requested to put the finishing touches on the Red Line subway to North Hollywood, but came up far short in a bid to buy hundreds of new buses.

The House Appropriations Committee passed a $16.67 billion transportation bill for fiscal year 2000-01 that includes $50 million for the Red Line, which will open service between downtown Los Angeles and North Hollywood on June 24.

The MTA would also receive $4 million for environmental studies on a proposed Eastside light rail line and bus lane, and other improvements along Wilshire Boulevard and in the Exposition Park area.

The House panel approved $9 million for new buses, far less than the $50 million sought by the MTA and the Clinton administration. MTA is seeking to add 147 natural gas-powered vehicles (at $340,000 each) to meet the terms of a consent decree won by the Bus Riders Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which had complained of poor bus service.

The House plan would allow for the purchase of only 26 buses.

MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said the agency has access to other funding sources, including federal gas tax revenues, to buy needed buses. He also noted that the $9 million bus outlay was triple the $3 million authorized by Congress last year.

Juilan Burke, the MTA's chief executive officer, said, ``We are grateful that the House continues to recognize and support Los Angeles' transit needs. This also reflects Congress' renewed confidence in MTA's progress.''

The transportation plan, which is expected to emerge from full House and Senate votes more or less intact, features a grab bag of Southland projects. They range from $4.1 million for new Foothill Transit buses to $5.4 million to preserve a transit antique in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Other outlays include $3 million for a bus maintenance facility and $1 million for new vehicles for Santa Clarita Valley Transit. Funds allocated for bus purchases include $1 million for Calabasas; $2 million for Commerce; $500,000 for Compton; $580,000 for Monrovia; $800,000 for Redlands; and $4 million for the Municipal Transit Operators Coalition, which serves Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs and 34 other cities.

The plan also calls for intermodal centers linking Omnitrans buses and rail lines in San Bernardino ($3.2 million) and Rialto ($1.1 million), as well as $2 million to build new sidings and ease rail congestion on the Metrolink line linking San Bernardino and downtown Los Angeles.

Perhaps the most unusual Southland transportation outlay approved by the House was $5.4 million to restore the Kelso Depot in the center of the Mojave National Preserve.

The project, championed by desert residents and Rep. Jerry Lewis, R- Redlands, would turn the depot, built in 1923 and abandoned in 1985, into a visitors center for the preserve.

Overall, the House plan allocates $494 million for California transportation projects, up $31 million from 1999-2000 levels.