17 Oct 2007 HEADLINE

Put So. Cal. Light Rail on Fast Track

WE don't need a poll to tell us that a light rail train ending at Ontario Airport rather than Montclair makes way more sense.

Southern Californians are mobile within our region - and they like to travel outside it as well.

If passengers could get to a regional airport without battling the always-jammed freeways or the always-annoying LAX they'd do it in a flash.

But, no, we in the San Gabriel Valley don't need a Los Angeles mayor to tell us the same thing.

In the power-mongering world of California's mass-transit agencies, decisions often get made based on politicians' clout and ego more than from a commuting need or a business necessity.

In Southern California we boast a light-rail line (the Green Line from Norwalk to Redondo Beach) that stops short of LAX because politicians didn't want to burn the taxi union. Amazingly, it was designed that way. Just like LAX was designed with only one entrance and one exit.

But let's check, just for the heck of it. OK, it's as we expected. Almost 98 percent of our readers said "yes" to extending the L.A.-to-Pasadena Gold Line Foothill Extension out to Ontario and its increasingly popular regional airport.

And L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa? He's now on board with the idea of building the Gold Line Foothill Extension as long as it goes clear out to Ontario Airport. See, Ontario is an airport run by the Los Angeles Department of Airports, the same folks who run LAX. And Villaraigosa must make good on promises made to neighbors around LAX not to expand traffic and noise. Since Ontario is ready and willing for expansion, he's betting on Ontario expanding and taking more flights, not LAX.
Bravo, mayor! It's something we have been advocating for 10 years. We mean the Gold Line extension through the foothill cities and the regionalizing of air travel throughout Southern California. Yup, the Gold Line was always meant to go to San Bernardino County. The L.A.-to-Pasadena line was just the first phase.

To Villaraigosa's credit, he's one of the first mayors of the City of Angels to recognize the need for more airports. With 16 million people and counting, Southern California will need Palmdale to grow as well.

Now Villaraigosa is pushing a study to see if the extension of the Gold Line to Ontario Airport is feasible. We can answer that one. Yes. Just ask the 2 million people who live in the San Gabriel Valley, or the millions who live in the high desert and the entire Inland Empire if they would rather use Ontario Airport than LAX, flights and fares being equal? The answer is yes, poll or no poll.

Of course, getting people to fly out of Ontario has been a tough sell when the bigger cousin, LAX, has more flights and more bargain fares. That must change if Ontario is to grow.

Still, even without Ontario as a stop, the Gold Line Foothill Extension is a no-brainer. It has to happen. It's been approved. It's route is cleared to Montclair. Has the L.A. mayor driven the Foothill (210) Freeway lately? The westbound lanes get jammed from Glendora to Pasadena around 6 a.m., and gridlocked eastbound around 2:30 p.m. every weekday. Nowadays Saturdays and Sundays are far worse than they used to be because of river, desert and mountain vacationers plus commuters, now that the 210 reaches the I-15.

The longer the Gold Line goes, the more appealing it gets to commuters, students, business travelers and vacationers. But what the California mass transit planners fail to recognize is this auto alternative must be convenient. The light-rail line must go fast and it must not be overly expensive. If it goes slower than a car trip and costs more than the gasoline saved, it will be under-used.

Still, starting with some convenient mass transit at an airport terminal would be a big lure. It's time Southern California's politicians, especially those from L.A. on the MTA board, start realizing that. All they have to do is fly to San Francisco and ride the new BART train extension beneath SFO airport to Union Station or the Embarcadero.

If they can do it, why can't we?