GETTING THERE FROM HERE - It’s nice to have good news to report for a change, so despite the understandable hullabaloo about California High Speed Rail, closer to home there is some undeniable progress being made for consensus-supported transportation projects deserving of merit and mention.
To begin with, the mammoth freeway projects of the I-405 (both south of the 101/405 interchange and south of the 605/405 interchange) are moving forward in earnest. Freeway commuters driving the 60, 210 and I-5 freeways are also feeling the heat with ongoing construction hassles, but these Measure R projects will ultimately increase corridor capacity, and enjoy ongoing voter and political support.
LA is also going through a rail renaissance, of which we’ve yet to come anywhere near the final results, but for which unmistakable progress is evident:
1) The Expo Line—Two years and hundreds of millions of dollars more than originally projected, this line is still popular among transit and transportation advocates, and this appears to be aggressively moving along thanks to the tireless and ceaseless efforts of the Expo Authority Board and Staff.
Tentatively, Phase 1 from Staples Center/Metro Center Downtown to La Cienega will open in April of this year (something different and hopefully more pleasant to think about than tax deadlines), and to Venice/Robertson in Culver City in August of this year. Next year, Westsiders and other residents throughout the county will be able to access Staples Center, the Coliseum, the LA museum district and USC via different and (hopefully) easier options.
Businesses and old rail tracks on Phase 2 of the line (from Culver City to Santa Monica) are disappearing every week, and arguably one of the two biggest challenges will be to ensure that the grassroots advocates for bicycle and station design amenities have greater access to the Authority and its contractors.
The other biggest challenge is that developers are again exploiting the Expo Line and licking their chops to build megaprojects no one wants for the Westside.
Now that Westside City Councilmembers Bill Rosendahl and Paul Koretz (who also chair and vice-chair the LA City Transportation Committee) will be Expo Authority Boardmembers, they are better positioned to ensure that bicycle, station and other amenities are supported by the grassroots and political advocates who fought years for this line, and who haven’t always been given enough of a voice for a light rail line that should be a prototype for 21st Century LA County.
2) The Crenshaw/LAX Line—The EIR is approved, there’s been some political and grassroots theatrics on grade separation and station location, but the bidding process is now in earnest for the next several months. Federal and local money have been procured for this light rail line, which will connect the Expo and Green Lines with a north-south line that includes an indirect link to LAX at Century/Aviation station.
After the Expo Line this was Metro’s #1 priority, and establishes the beginning of a true Westside/Mid-City rail network. This $1.7 billion project resolves the expensive and legally-problematic rail trench east of LAX, as well as addresses rail access that will affect South Bay, Westside, Mid-City and Downtown residents and is slated to open approximately 2018, roughly 2-3 years after the Expo Line is scheduled to open to Santa Monica.
3) The Downtown Light Rail Connector—If the Expo and Crenshaw Lines are planned to create a network to primarily benefit the Westside and Mid-City, this project is planned to create a network to benefit virtually the entire County of Los Angeles. This is the county’s “second subway”, and will connect the Expo/Blue Lines in the west to the Gold Lines in the east.
This project will also have a few stations of its own to increase the accessibility of Downtown destinations from residents living from the Westside to the Eastside, and from Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley to Long Beach. The EIR for this project is likely to be voted on (and, hopefully, passed) within the next 1-2 months, with bidding for this project to start later this year.
4) The Foothill Gold Line—I’m aware that many Angelenos don’t give a rip about a rail project in the San Gabriel Valley, but they should about this one. The Gold Line Construction Authority and Excalibur Property Holdings, LLC finally got over their legal and financial squabbles to allow the Authority to purchase the remaining privately-held property needed for the critical Gold Line maintenance facility planned for Monrovia.
This maintenance facility is vital to eventually serving the entire Gold Line and the Eastside, and will have profound implications to countywide Metro rail maintenance operations. Moving past this legal hurdle represents a monumental step forward for this rail project (slated to extend the Pasadena Gold Line well into the San Gabriel Valley, and towards an ultimately-planned terminus at Ontario Airport).
5) Metrolink—One need not be a transportation or transit advocate to remember the horrendous Chatsworth Metrolink crash that killed 25 people and injured over 130 others. Of note is that Metrolink is making aggressive and substantial progress towards developing a $201 million positive train control system to monitor and (if necessary) take control of trains to prevent collisions and derailments. (Link)
Of note is that while Metrolink is surging forward as a model laboratory of this new technology, the money isn’t always there for commuter train services nationwide, and the issues of system viability and affordability are pushing the conservative-leaning House towards delay of a required implementation of positive train control systems until 2020.
The political implications are fraught with peril for both sides, in that while commuter rail is harshly underfunded already, and concerns about funding and working out kinks in this safety technology are very real, any delay in implementing train safety systems could wreak havoc if any potentially-avoidable train crash occurs in the meantime. (Link)
So, while the California High Speed Rail Project is fraught with lack of widespread support, MetroRail and Metrolink are still popular with taxpaying voters and commuters. Those projects appear to be run by individuals who are aggressively pursuing their construction and safety measure implementation, and they deserve our continued support.
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Vice-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) -cw
Tags: Ken Alpern, transportation, LA transportation, Expo Line, Crenshaw/LAX Line, Metrolink, Staples Center, Westside
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 13
Pub: Feb 14, 2012