Quote:
Originally Posted by WrightCONCEPT
1) Costs and;
2) The alternatives have already progressed to where they are near selecting a Locally Preferred Alternative. Adding HRT into the mix means they have to restart the Alternatives Analysis and delay 2-3 years worth of work in the SFV in which Elected officals there would be crying foul to Metro. As stupid as this is, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
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This will forever blow my mind. I don’t care WHAT the excuses are.
The state budget is what, $183B? How much would it cost to turn the Van Nuys line from LRT to HRT? $3B maybe? The state couldn’t throw in $1B or $2B for the next couple of years for a project that will transform the states flagship city? And that’s just the state, then the county and Metro itself could throw in money. Who knows what they could get in grants. And then what about private partnerships?
LRT from Sylmar to Ventura and then HRT from Ventura to LAX reeks of the kind of disorganized public transit planning that has made LA mass transit a joke. That’s a couple of lines that will be used but woefully under its potential, leading to billions in changes 10-20 years down the road.
Meanwhile a Heavy Rail line from Sylmar to UCLA, Expo, LAX and ending at Inglewood Stadium would be probably one of the most heavily used Subway lines in the world outside of Asia. It would be Efficient. It would be incredible. It would be world class.
(Hell, honestly if costs are so prohibitive - I sincerely think the valley would be better off with a HRT line that extends half of the original plan:
Say maybe as far as the MetroLink station? and connects to the Sepulveda line to be one continuous line ... that’s a far better option that a LRT line that goes all the way to Sylmar but forces a transfer to a HRT line at Sepulveda
Get it together Los Angeles. The stubbornness, the narrow mindedness and pure idiocy of Metro is gonna rob LA of what could be a truly world class system.