LOS ANGELES | Transportation News & Discussion - Page 25

Quixote · #**481** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 9:10 PM**

The Board has adopted the LRT alternative as the LPA for the Crenshaw Corridor. The project now moves forward into the FEIS/FEIR phase. Amendments introduced by Mark Ridley-Thomas and Don Knabe have also been approved by the Board. The following article from The Source provides more details...

Metro Board Says It’s Light Rail for Crenshaw

By Steve Hymon
December 10, 2009

After talking about upgrading mass transit for a quarter-century, the Metro Board of Directors unanimously selected light rail as the best alternative for Crenshaw Boulevard on Thursday.

The vote by the Metro Board means that the project now advances to its final environmental study phase. As part of its vote, the Board accepted staff recommendations that light rail should be built instead of bus rapid transit and also selected a route, shown on the map above. (Here’s a link to the Crenshaw transit project page on the Metro website.)

The 8.5-mile-long project is due to be complete by 2018 and cost $1.3 billion in 2009 dollars. The light rail line would include a station at Aviation and Century near LAX and would require either a people mover be built to get into the airport or a later extension of the light rail line into the terminal areas.

Metro staff said that construction could begin in 2012 or 2013.

...

ChrisLA · #**482** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 9:52 PM**

Personally I think they need to extend the Green Line east as well to terminate at the commuter rail Norwalk Metrolink station.

202_Cyclist · #**483** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 10:02 PM**

Quote:

Then need to extend it east as well to terminate at the commuter rail Norwalk Metrolink station.

This would be good but as discussed on another thread, hopefully there is not a high speed rail station at Norwalk. High speed rail is not designed to be commuter rail and this station will both cost extra money and lengthen trip times for intercity travel, encouraging people to stay in their cars.

Quixote · #**484** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 10:11 PM**

^ Wait, what are you saying? Why can't Metrolink and CAHSR coexist with one another?

202_Cyclist · #**485** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 10:26 PM**

Metrolink (and CalTrain in Northern California) and HSR certainly can coexist and these commuter rail systems provide a necessary feeder route for high speed rail but high speed rail is designed for rapid intercity travel, not as a local commuter system from Anaheim to Fullerton. These marginal stations (Norwalk, Fullerton, etc...) will raise the cost of building the high speed rail route and will add significant travel time, diverting some of the potential pasengers to other modes.

mwadswor · #**486** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 10:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

The Metro Board of Directors just voted to launch a draft environmental study of extending the Green Line 4.6 miles from Redondo Beach to the Torrance Regional Transit Center and to call the project the South Bay Green Line Extension.

Did I miss something? Of all the places to extend the green line, shouldn't the priorities be either Norwalk or LAX? Why the South Bay?

mwadswor · #**487** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 11:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Metrolink (and CalTrain in Northern California) and HSR certainly can coexist and these commuter rail systems provide a necessary feeder route for high speed rail but high speed rail is designed for rapid intercity travel, not as a local commuter system from Anaheim to Fullerton. These marginal stations (Norwalk, Fullerton, etc...) will raise the cost of building the high speed rail route and will add significant travel time, diverting some of the potential pasengers to other modes.

Quixote · #**488** Posted **Dec 10, 2009, 11:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Metrolink (and CalTrain in Northern California) and HSR certainly can coexist and these commuter rail systems provide a necessary feeder route for high speed rail but high speed rail is designed for rapid intercity travel, not as a local commuter system from Anaheim to Fullerton. These marginal stations (Norwalk, Fullerton, etc...) will raise the cost of building the high speed rail route and will add significant travel time, diverting some of the potential pasengers to other modes.

We are talking about 15-mile (or so) stop spacing on the Norwalk-Anaheim-Irvine spur, which is hardly a "local commuter system." And there is no station planned for Fullerton.

Quixote · #**489** Posted **Dec 11, 2009, 12:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwadswor

Did I miss something? Of all the places to extend the green line, shouldn't the priorities be either Norwalk or LAX? Why the South Bay?

Political reasons maybe? The South Bay remains unserved by Metro Rail and the project happens to be both Measure R deliverable and relatively cheap.

Kingofthehill · #**490** Posted **Dec 11, 2009, 12:44 AM**

*Yawn*

Another trolley on steroids through the inner-city? And one with paltry bus ridership (political interests aside, since when does a bus route with ~13,000 warrant LRT?!) to boot? When will LA ever get it together!

Quixote · #**491** Posted **Dec 11, 2009, 1:00 AM**

^ The current Expo-Green route is admittedly not justifiable as LRT, but it has the potential to grow into a key north-south corridor -- perhaps one that stretches from Hollywood all the way down to the South Bay.

bmfarley · #**492** Posted **Dec 12, 2009, 6:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

This would be good but as discussed on another thread, hopefully there is not a high speed rail station at Norwalk. High speed rail is not designed to be commuter rail and this station will both cost extra money and lengthen trip times for intercity travel, encouraging people to stay in their cars.

Your statement makes complete sense; however, CHSRA will operate different layers of service. Express, regional, semi-regional and local. Or something like that. There is nothing preventing local or semi-regional HSR trains from stopping at a Norwalk station and enabling HSR users to access the Green Line to get to LAX, and vice versa.

Granted, some of the those semi-regional or local HSR trips could be funded from local sources, with CHSR being the operator.

Quixote · #**493** Posted **Dec 12, 2009, 10:47 PM**

Was this awning recently added to the subway portal? I don't remember it being there.

From Flickr, by impalergeneral

LAofAnaheim · #**494** Posted **Dec 13, 2009, 8:09 AM**

^ That looks really cool! Is that the new portal/entrance at Hollywood/Vine? If so...the developers on-site have done a fantastic job of integrating the portal with the development!

I was at Hollywood/Vine 2 weeks ago...that wasn't there.

Quixote · #**495** Posted **Dec 13, 2009, 8:56 AM**

^ Well, the portal itself has always been there. I'm talking about the awning, which appears to have been recently added. Here's a picture of the portal prior to the construction...

From Flickr, by Mel Gray

They've basically redesigned the whole station plaza. The original artwork has been removed and the cinematic motif done away with.

From Flickr, by Mel Gray

Can you confirm that they also redesigned the elevators? Because I really do like how this design echos the design of the station itself.

From Flickr, by Mel Gray

Bootstrap Bill · #**496** Posted **Dec 13, 2009, 7:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

Was this awning recently added to the subway portal? I don't remember it being there.

From Flickr, by impalergeneral

What station is that?

Bring back the Rams? Is that being considered?

JDRCRASH · #**497** Posted **Dec 13, 2009, 11:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

What station is that?

I wanna say Wilshire/Vermont, but idkfs...

Quote:

Bring back the Rams? Is that being considered?

Yeah, but they (along with the Raiders) should be in a Chavez Ravine Stadium.

The Chargers might be the ones that end up in the CofI stadium.

BrandonJXN · #**498** Posted **Dec 14, 2009, 6:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bootstrap Bill

What station is that?

Bring back the Rams? Is that being considered?

Hollywood & Vine.

LosAngelesBeauty · #**499** Posted **Dec 14, 2009, 8:25 AM**

1600 Vine and the W Hotel look GREAT. Passed by it tonight and thought if more of LA had projects that look as nice, that would be so nice! hehe

LAdude · #**500** Posted **Dec 14, 2009, 9:34 AM**

Hey everyone, I know this is really short notice but I found this on StreetsBlog and figured a lot of you might be interested.

http://la.streetsblog.org/2009/12/09...re-r-proposal/

I'm not sure how to post the article, but it is basically talking about Mayor Villaraigosa's plan to expedite mass transit projects in Los Angeles so we can see things such as the purple line extension in as little as 10 years. There is going to be a meeting Monday December 14th 6:30PM in LACMA's Brown building(today people) to discuss how he plans on doing this, etc... Metro's CEO Art Leahy will be there along with other elected officials. This is a great opportunity for us to show support for the mayor's plans and I'm trying to get the word out to as many people as possible. It's so important that there is a good turnout. Thanks.