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Originally Posted by Easy
It will set things in motion assuming that they vote yes. Either way I see this as being decades out to even start. I imagine that with the current D line extension, with the existing E line, and with the planned Sepulveda line that the westside is already getting more than most areas. Yes it's needed, but I don't see this happening before there is a rail line down Vermont and that's already decades away.
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It gets the conversation started again after formal talks having basically ended nearly 15 years ago. This is a 3.5-mile, 4-stop extension. Since it’s a straight alignment, I’d peg the cost at $3.75-4 billion. But because it will connect with Sepulveda and Crenshaw (which can both be factored into cost-benefit analysis since they’re planned and have funding) and because Santa Monica is both job rich and a popular destination in general, I think it would be cost-competitive enough to receive federal funding. So the project really costs us $2 billion-ish.
There are potential local funding mechanisms like parcel taxes, lifting the Prop A/C subway ban, amending A/C/R/M to decrease highway capital and allocate more for grade-separated rail and a portion specifically for subway, etc. The word “subway” has instant appeal (for the most part), and “grade-separated” could mean subway or elevated. Unlike R/M, A/C don’t allocate funding for specific projects. This language would force us to commit to spending more on rail projects, and that’s the point. The most expensive rail corridors are also the ones that are the most cost-effective and have the greatest potential to reshape travel patterns. In particular, subway corridors which would provide direct routes from one area to another that currently require multiple freeway changes (e.g. a branch of the Vermont corridor going up Alvarado and underneath Echo Park or Silver Lake to Colorado/Brand in Glendale) are competitive with car travel at all times of the day.
But instead Metro wants to focus on a $7.9-billion extension of the Gold Line, which has already been truncated. Ridiculous.