By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

February 28 -- Changing how tens of thousands of Westsiders will live their daily lives, regional transit officials Tuesday welcomed aboard those that want to weigh in on the specifics of a light rail line scheduled to roll into Santa Monica by 2015.

The first stop on the long road of gathering public input began with an update at Tuesday’s City Council meeting on the planning of the Exposition Light Rail project that would eventually connect Downtown Los Angeles with the Sea.

The project “is going to be here for hundreds of years," said Rick Thorpe, chief capital management officer for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and CEO of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority Board. "We need to work closely together to make sure when completed it fits in the fabric of the community."

Beginning next Tuesday, Santa Monica will host the second of four presentations on the Westside to help decide everything from where the line will specifically run to how many local stations there will be and where those will be located.

Construction crews will soon beginning digging in front of the University of Southern California (USC) as part of the $640 million fully-funded phase I of the line that will connect Downtown LA and Culver City, Thorpe said.

Scheduled to begin running in 2010, the first leg will feature a ten-station system that would eventually service 42,000 passengers a day, he said.

Ridership should climb when the second phase, from Culver City to Santa Monica, is completed five years later.

Still unfunded, Phase II is expected to cost some $805 million paid through a mix of Federal, State and local monies, Thorpe said. Construction should begin when the first set of tracks is completed in 2010.

Noting that the project would usher in the biggest social and physical change in Santa Monica since the 10 Freeway ripped through the Pico Neighborhood in the 1950s, some council members said they want to avoid displacing communities and, ironically, compounding traffic.

"I've been looking back at what the impacts of the 10 freeway have been," said Council member Kevin McKeown. "There is with good reason lively debate in Santa Monica on where the stations and how many stations there should be."

Council member Ken Genser worried that such stations -- which could supply hundreds of parking spaces for area commuters -- may in fact prove to be magnets for traffic and congestion.

"My concern is where we do have stations, those points are going to be points of extreme congestion," said Genser, suggesting that the rail line could loop twice around the City and once around Downtown to disperse traffic.

MTA officials cautioned that whatever route the rail line eventually takes, it would impact Santa Monica and the entire Westside and pose some tough questions.

"Do we need to look at three stations or do we need to look at five stations” in Santa Monica? Thorpe asked hypothetically. "There are tradeoffs."

Where the stations are placed will not only affect neighborhoods, but will likely determine how long it will take commuters to hop on board the new system, Thorpe said.

"The more stations, the more ridership, the more stations, the longer it’s going to take, that's all part of the tradeoffs," he said. "We don't want one every other block… so there's a balancing act."

Generally, it is best to space the stations at least a mile and half apart if not further, Thorpe said.

Specific streets and proposed locations were not named at the meeting.

Another vital task will be determining the route the line will take into Santa Monica, with two options being discussed.

Express trains, making fewer stops for the working crowd, are also an option the MTA will explore, Thorpe said.

Although MTA officials will make the final call, the public input gathered at the upcoming meetings and information passed along by the City Council to transit officials will be invaluable in shaping the project, officials said.

While she remained largely silent Tuesday night, Council member Pam O'Connor, the first-vice chair of the MTA board, is expected to have substantial influence when the project comes before the board, as some council members noted.

"We have no power, but O'Connor has a lot?" Council member Bobby Shriver jokingly asked Thorpe, who responded in the affirmative.

The first of four public meetings will be held at Hamilton High School in Culver City Tuesday, February 28.