LOS ANGELES | Transportation News & Discussion

[Easy]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

The light rail mode allows transit agencies to pick up "easy wins". They can build 5X as much surface light rail as heavy rail subway but rarely are able to create a transformative project. The United States is now peppered with dozens of somewhat-useful light rail lines but has few TOD's to show for it.

LA has certainly had some easy wins with light rail but the K wasn't one of them. Three underground stations plus a massive $900 million infill station push the final cost to about $375 million per mile.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by Easy

LA has certainly had some easy wins with light rail but the K wasn't one of them. Three underground stations plus a massive $900 million infill station push the final cost to about $375 million per mile.

The K line and the Eastside E, both current East LA and the future phases into Whittier and Hollywood are way too grade separated to utilize the benefits of Light Rail... The Blue Line, Expo, and Gold line were pretty much easy targets for LRT as they had an abandoned railroad right of way to work with. The green line could have been any technology as LRT is a moot point on a completely freeway grade separated line with a fully elevated west end.

So happy for the new option the Sepulveda pass could bring us with an elevated rail technology, so LA can finally choose if we want at grade localized (LRT), below grade rapid (HRT) or elevated high frequency (SKYtrain) on future brand new lines.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by TowerDude

So when will the Purple Line extend to Lincoln in Santa Monica?

Who knows, but I know Metro, or maybe the Westside Coalition just earmarked 20 million to further study the route. I'm sure momentum for the extension will pick up when the current Purple Line construction wraps up.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Easy

LA has certainly had some easy wins with light rail but the K wasn't one of them. Three underground stations plus a massive $900 million infill station push the final cost to about $375 million per mile.

The Crenshaw line partly used an abandoned railroad right-of-way. That's how they ended up with mediocre-at-best station locations like this:


A "downtown" station of any kind needs to be solidly in the downtown, not on the edge of it.

[Swede]

And am I seeing this right:
The station has no exist to the NW side of the station? Only to the 5 lane road to the SE?

Some seriously bad planning if you want people to actually use the station.

[Busy Bee]

^I suspect the thinking is the immediate area around the station will eventually be totally rebuilt into TOD.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

^I suspect the thinking is the immediate area around the station will eventually be totally rebuilt into TOD.

I think you're right. Once that station is directly connected to LAX, adjacent land values will likely rise enough to justify the redevelopment of parcels such as the directly adjacent Don Lee Farms food processing plant.

[craigs]

Double post