TRACKING NEXT BIG RAIL PROJECT LINE WOULD GO FROM DOWNTOWN TO WESTSIDE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Los Angeles County is poised to start building its next major train line - a $640 million light rail along Exposition Boulevard from downtown to the Westside.

The 9.6-mile line - through the University of Southern California and Crenshaw area to Culver City - would be the first half of the proposed Expo Line, which planners hope will one day extend to Santa Monica.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board is scheduled to approve the environmental report this week for the railway. Groundbreaking is scheduled for spring, with a projected opening in 2010.

``We're thrilled it's moving forward,'' said Darrell Clarke, co-chairman of Friends 4 Expo Transit, who's been advocating the project for more than 15 years.

The train had once been envisioned as a busway, like San Fernando Valley's recently launched Orange Line.

But planners, expecting daily ridership of nearly 43,000 by 2025 or more than twice the 16,360 the Orange Line carries today, said buses would have to run every few minutes to move as many people as one train could.

The train is expected to take 26 minutes between downtown and Culver City.

Still, a key challenge remains USC's opposition to the train running down the middle of Exposition Boulevard, between the university and Exposition Park, home to numerous museums and the Coliseum.

University officials want a tunnel built in that area but have not come up with the additional $100 million that transit authorities say a tunnel would cost.

The two sides have been discussing a compromise in which USC would pay about half the additional cost.

``It's a very big amount for the university to try to fund itself,'' said Curt Williams, USC's vice president for campus development.

Plans already call for a half-mile trench where the train leaves downtown Los Angeles and passes over the Harbor Freeway. The route then surfaces along Exposition Boulevard.

But USC officials say that would break up the campus green space and impede the main pedestrian crossing for 40,000 fans heading from the campus to the Coliseum, where the Trojans play their home games. They want the tunnel extended to Vermont Avenue.

A possible compromise would be to extend the trench farther, but short of Vermont, for up to $40 million.

That would push up the cost of a station city officials eventually hope to built at Exposition Park for $5 million to $7 million. The price tag would soar to $50 million for a station to stay underground.

``They're really hopeful they can reach an agreement before the board meeting,'' said David Mieger, MTA's director of planning for the Westside.

Residents continue to be concerned about safety of the rail crossings - most of them at the same level as the streets carrying motor vehicles - and about noise.

While some observers question going forward with the Expo Line at all while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is trying to extend the subway to the Westside, others say both projects are needed to handle traffic. Supporters also note the subway would cost five times as much and is many years away.

The Expo Line, which failed to win federal grant funding, would be paid for primarily with local sales-tax revenue and federal clean-air funds.

It would be built by the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority, separate from the MTA - similar to the way the Metro Gold Line was built.

So far, the proposed Expo Line lacks a color-based name like other lines have. Suggestions so far are the Cardinal Line for USC's colors, the Tan Line since it may one day go to the beach, the Aqua Line or the Silver Line.

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

no caption (train)

Map:

Metro Rail Mid-City/Exposition Light Rail Transit Project

SOURCE: Metro