Straight, narrow and almost always empty, the rail line between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has always been the route not taken by commuters.

Tantalizingly close as it parallels the often-congested Highway 101, the rail line now might go from the route less-traveled to an active commuter line within two years.

Advocates for commuter rail and dozens of government officials from both counties are working on a plan to tweak Amtrak train schedules and coax Union Pacific Railroad officials into changing the times they send massive freight trains down the line and building "sidings" to allow the freight cars to pull over and make way for commuter trains.

"I'm an optimistic person, so I believe we will work out all the problems and make it happen," said Mary Travis, manager for the intercity rail and Metrolink program for the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

But Travis is still crossing her fingers because the many seemingly small obstacles have stalled past efforts. For instance, the rail line is owned and operated by Union Pacific. Its bread-and-butter is freight business. Many of the long trains running down the line are not on regular schedules, so it's difficult for the Omaha-based company to make room for a regular commuter route on a single-track line. Building sidings, however, could help.

'A lane and a train'

As for Amtrak, because of issues related mostly to its East Coast operation, the company isn't supposed to run "commuter train" service. Its current trains between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are now scheduled at inconvenient times. The first northbound train does not leave Ventura until 9:20 a.m. and is often late. If a freight train is using the line, Amtrak must hold back its train. Also, the fare between Ventura and Santa Barbara is $16 one-way, far more than taking a bus.

But the potential led the Ventura County Transportation Commission to sign off on a plan with Santa Barbara last fall to get some sort of commuter rail system up and running within a few years.

Currently, about 4,000 people in Ventura ride Metrolink to points south, and Travis estimates as many as 2,000 might be willing to take the train north, given the right schedule and price.

The push for commuter train service couldn't come too soon, said Roger Horton, a Santa Barbara councilman and member of Transit/Rail Action for Commuters.

The group has been pushing "a lane and a train," the addition of a lane to Highway 101 and a rail line for the estimated 20,000 commuters traveling between the two counties.

Starting this year and continuing over the next 15 years, a series of big construction projects along the 101 corridor between Ventura and Santa Barbara promises to compound traffic congestion, said Horton.

"Traffic is going to get worse before it gets better, I believe," he said.

'Just seems obvious'

Horton and two fellow Santa Barbara City Council members gave a presentation on the commuter train plan to the Ventura City Council this week and plan on making similar presentations in Camarillo and Oxnard in the coming months, he said.

The looming highway projects include a $57 million job to add a lane on a two-mile stretch in Santa Barbara between Milpas Street and Hot Springs Road, and improvements to the interchange at Linden Road in Carpinteria.

The biggest project currently planned is a $116 million job to widen the freeway from Mussel Shoals through La Conchita and to the county line. That work isn't expected to begin until 2011, and some officials hope it will dovetail with more widening of the freeway through Carpinteria all the way into Santa Barbara. But that widening — particularly through Montecito — is controversial.

For many commuters, creating a rail service, widening the freeway and encouraging other driving alteratives seem like good solutions to increasing congestion.

"Some sort of light rail just seems obvious," said Mike Wyatt, an engineer who lives in Ventura and drives to Goleta every day.