Sky-high gas prices drive LA to the rails, But many in S. California expect ridership to fall if fuel costs drop

LOS ANGELES - Transit experts now know that two numbers will drive car lovers here to the rails: 6.7 on the Richter scale and $1.99 at the premium pump. <br><br>Skyrocketing gas prices appear to be fueling

Monday, April 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES - Transit experts now know that two numbers will drive car lovers here to the rails: 6.7 on the Richter scale and $1.99 at the premium pump.

Skyrocketing gas prices appear to be fueling an increase in that most un-Los Angeles mode of travel - the commuter train. The spike in track ridership is the biggest since the 1994 Northridge earthquake left four freeways in ruins.

"I don't earn enough to drive here every day," said Sean DeCosta, 29, a social services clerk who was climbing aboard a Metrolink train at downtown's Union Station. He was making the 25-mile trip to his San Fernando Valley home. "I grew up at a time when everybody drove a car. But not with these gas prices."

Metrolink logged a 13 percent jump in passengers during the first three weeks of March. Its operator, the five-county Southern California Regional Rail Authority, cites the spiraling cost of filling up as the likely reason.

The Los Angeles sprawl of freeway-dependent communities has more autos on the road - 8 million - than any other urban area in the nation. It is also one of the places where gas prices have soared the highest, topping $2 a gallon in some neighborhoods.

"We were surprised by the surge in ridership," Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. "But then gas prices are at a 30-year high."

Rail patronage is actually up in major cities across the country, although officials for many agencies hesitate to credit the gas-station inflation. Line expansions and the booming economy - more people going to work - could be weightier factors, they say.

"It's too early to tell if this increase is a result of sustained high gas prices," said Morgan Lyons, spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which has seen a 10 percent boost in ticket sales this year.

In Los Angeles, the continued growth in freeway traffic clouds the picture. Metrolink's improved fortunes have barely shaken Angelenos' obsession with getting behind the wheel. The daily Metrolink ridership is a comparatively tiny 31,000.

Los Angeles' subway and light-rail network, which feeds Metrolink's blue and white trains, also posts modest figures. It carries fewer than 140,000 people a day, and it has yet to record a gas-price-related bump in boardings. The subway's final leg will open in June.

Altogether, just 3 percent of Los Angeles commuters use mass transit, with buses accounting for the largest share.

"People are so hooked on their cars," said Ed Scannell, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway and light-rail lines. "We'd like to see half the people take public transit."

Satisfied riders

They might if they heard the testimonials of Metrolink's new customers.

"It's much more efficient," said Kirby Windland, 32, a downtown temporary worker who began riding the rails last week. She was hopping onto a double-decker coach for Van Nuys, 20 miles from Union Station. "Gas and parking cost me over $200 a month. The train costs $116 a month."

Stanley Roberts, 30, is a Metrolink marathoner. The New York transplant endures a 2 1/2-hour one-way journey from his Moreno Valley home to an investment management job in west Los Angeles.

"I have an SUV," he said while waiting for his 5:40 p.m. train at Union Station. "The train tickets cost me $216 a month. Driving would cost me $300 a month. . . . And it could be a three-hour drive."

Ronnie McCoy, 51, takes Metrolink to Lancaster in the Antelope Valley, 70 miles from Union Station. The Lancaster line was the busiest after the Northridge quake crumpled parts of the Antelope Valley Freeway. Its daily ridership leaped from 3,000 to 40,000 overnight, then quickly withered after the freeway was rebuilt.

"The way gas is now, it beats driving," Mr. McCoy, a hospital financial worker, said of Metrolink. "It saves a little time, too."

Drive times remain the No. 1 incentive for taking the train, Metrolink officials say. Average freeway speeds in Los Angeles drop by the year. Today, they routinely fall below 30 mph during rush hours. And a fender-bender or slight rain can turn an eight-laner into a parking lot.

"We're only getting more congested," said Jim Drago, spokesman for the California Transportation Department.

Rail once ruled

From World War I through the 1950s, Los Angeles boasted the farthest-ranging rail system in America. The Pacific Electric Red Car connected the inland mountains to the beaches. But it was plowed under as the auto captured the city's soul.

In the 1980s, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority started to dig the subway and retrace much of the old Red Car routes with two light-rail lines. Metrolink was launched in 1992, and has steadily grown in miles and ridership. It now covers 416 miles from Ventura County to San Diego County.

Mr. Hidalgo said Metrolink, in a repeat of the quake experience, will probably lose most of its gas-minded converts once prices stabilize. Nationwide, prices recently dipped an average of 2 cents a gallon after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced that it would expand oil production. More relief at the pump is expected by the summer, including in Los Angeles.

"People will go back to their drive-alone habit," Mr. Hidalgo added.

But many of the Union Station commuters say they're sold on the rails for the long haul.

"It's the best," said Laurel Davis, 38, a downtown administrative assistant who was catching a train for Santa Clarita, 40 minutes away. "I'm probably spending as much on the train as I'm saving on gas, but traveling on the L.A. freeways is the worst."

Staff writer Tony Hartzel in Dallas contributed to this report.