L.A. Metro Area Transit: What's Next?

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Downtown L.A. streetcar line cost estimate is shaved by $55 million

Building a streetcar line in downtown Los Angeles may cost about $55 million less than officials had previously said — an estimate that has buoyed the spirits of the project's boosters, including City Councilman Jose Huizar.

But the lower price tag of about $270 million could still complicate the city's bid for a $75-million construction grant, a crucial portion of the streetcar funding plan. Projects that cost more than $250 million must compete for federal dollars alongside the nation's most expensive and sophisticated transit proposals, including subway lines.

http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhal...903-story.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by Curbed LA

The first phase in the the huge makeover for ever-evolving Broadway has debuted, providing some instant breathing room for pedestrians from Third Street to just past Eleventh Street along the busy Downtown thoroughfare. The Downtown News reported last Friday that the "dress rehearsal"—which has limited car traffic to just three lanes on Broadway and dotted the street with tables, chairs, and planters—is intended not only to give people a glimpse of what's to come, but also for LADOT to work out any potential kinks before the whole thing goes permanent.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...y_makeover.php

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

O.C. agency backs 405 widening, possibly clearing way for toll lanes

Orange County transportation leaders voted Monday to move ahead with widening a congested stretch of the 405 Freeway, a project that could clear the way for adding controversial toll lanes

Although the decision affirms an earlier vote to widen the freeway between Costa Mesa and the 605 Freeway with only general purpose lanes, Caltrans — which manages the state's freeway — voted in July to replace the highway's carpool lanes with toll lanes.

The project approved by the Orange County Transportation Authority would leave enough space for an additional carpool or toll lane in each direction.

Some board members wanted to add two general purpose lanes in each direction, excluding the possibility of toll lanes. Others said they had no choice in the matter.

"They're not our roads," said Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson, chairman of the county's transportation authority.

http://www.latimes.com/local/orangec...923-story.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Metro breaks ground on key downtown L.A. subway link

Transportation officials Tuesday cheered the start of construction for a subway project designed to close a frustrating gap in Los Angeles County's growing rail network.

During a symbolic groundbreaking in Little Tokyo, local and federal representatives touted the 1.9-mile, $1.4-billion Downtown Regional Connector's potential to help unite a sprawling and congested region. The subway project is designed to provide a connection between three disjointed rail lines in downtown Los Angeles.

The project is scheduled to open in 2020. It will allow Metro Blue, Gold and Expo lines to run through the urban core between a 7th Street subway station in the southwest section of downtown and Union Station on the Central City's northeastern edge.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...930-story.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by MTA

High Desert Corridor draft environmental study is released

Caltrans and Metro today released the long-awaited draft environmental study for the High Desert Corridor project, which contemplates a new 63-mile freeway between Palmdale in Los Angeles County and the town of Apple Valley in San Bernardino County — along with a possible high-speed rail line, bikeway and green energy transmission corridor.

http://thesource.metro.net/2014/10/0...y-is-released/

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by SGVT

Gold Line lays final track in Azusa, project 80 percent complete

The laying of the final Gold Line track re-introduces the first passenger-service rail line into the foothill communities since the Pacific Electric trolley disappeared more than 60 years ago.

While the $1 billion, 11.5-mile extension from east Pasadena to the edge of Glendora won’t be completed for another 11 months, and will not carry its first passenger until March 2016, the driving of the last spike connecting 28 miles of double track has historical and practical implications for the region.

“This project brings all of those cities together. There are no political boundaries for this project,” said Habib Balian, CEO of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-ne...rcent-complete

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Can a $5.4-billion tunnel plan fix the notorious 710 gap?

By RONG-GONG LIN II, DOUG STEVENS, JAVIER ZARRACINA

Officials have long blamed the unfinished 710 Freeway for congestion on nearby freeways and local streets. Opposition from cities led by South Pasadena has always quashed finishing the 710, but now, authorities are considering extending it with 4.9-mile-long twin tunnels. Light rail, enhanced bus service and wider streets are also being explored.

Setting a record

A 4.9-mile-long tunnel would be longer than any other in California for auto traffic. The current longest is the Wawona Tunnel in Yosemite National Park, which is less than 1 mile long.

Cost comparison

The 710 tunnels are expected to cost $5.4 billion. Extending the Purple Line subway from Koreatown to the Westside by 2035 would cost $6.3 billion.

What comes next?

Caltrans and Metro will release a draft environmental report in February evaluating the freeway tunnel, mass transit and street-widening options; the public will have three months to provide comment.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-c...htmlstory.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Mayor Garcetti can't get enough D.C.; Gov. Brown has had his fill

Mayor Eric Garcetti parachuted into town this week for the sixth time since he was sworn in just a year and a half ago, raising the question: What is Los Angeles getting out of it?

Garcetti has, indeed, fetched Los Angeles more than its share of White House attention of late. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is scheduled to travel to Los Angeles soon, his third visit in a year, to announce yet another massive infusion of money for the subway system.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a GOP partisan who represents Bakersfield in Congress, seldom gets wooed by Democrats. But like Garcetti, he’s enamored of high tech and aerospace, he’s an outdoor enthusiast, and his rise in politics has been rapid.

The two worked together on creating a high-tech aerospace manufacturing zone in Southern California, positioning local companies to compete for $1.3 billion in federal grants. Garcetti has promised to visit Bakersfield and hopes to lure McCarthy to Los Angeles for a dinner with Olympics officials at which the city will begin to make its case to host the Games.

“He also wants to come and take a tour of the Los Angeles River,” Garcetti said of the long neglected waterway that the city wants $1 billion to restore. “He takes bike rides here. So maybe he can come take a bike ride along the Los Angeles River.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politi...023-story.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by MTA

Metro Board approves Union Station Master Plan, allowing near-term projects to go forward

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors today approved actions to officially move the Union Station Master Plan, an ambitious long-range roadmap for L.A.’s single largest public transit hub, from planning to implementation.

Metro can now pursue its initial implementation strategy for near-term projects, which includes a programmatic environmental review of the recommended transit improvements as well as the commercial development program. Metro can also seek immediate funding opportunities for improvements to the station’s perimeter, and will form partnerships with the city and county, real estate and investment communities to support related implementation efforts.

“Today is a milestone day in our goal to bring ‘America’s Last Great Train Station’ into the 21st century,” said Eric Garcetti, L.A. City Mayor and Metro Board Chair. “Metro is now on the move to make Los Angeles Union Station a world-class transit hub.”

http://thesource.metro.net/2014/10/2...to-go-forward/

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Will L.A.'s 'subway to the sea' finally get there?

When then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promised 10 years ago to build the long-stalled “subway to the sea,” many Angelenos probably rolled their eyes and thought, “Yeah, right. We can't even get a train all the way to the airport.” But on Friday, Metro will officially break ground on the first phase of the Purple Line extension, a four-mile segment from the existing Wilshire/Western station to Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards in Beverly Hills that should be completed by 2023. The subway will travel under one of L.A.'s most densely populated and highly trafficked corridors. When it reaches Westwood and the Veterans Administration Hospital in 2035, the line will be the backbone of the region's rapidly expanding public transit system.

Los Angeles County now has five rail lines under construction, including one that will connect to LAX by 2022, and two — the Expo Line to Santa Monica and the Gold Line to Azusa — slated to open in 2016. It's easy to forget that when Villaraigosa pitched the subway to the sea while campaigning for mayor, major transit projects were moving at a snail's pace, if at all.

To resuscitate the Westside extension proposal, Villaraigosa and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had to persuade Rep. Henry A. Waxman to change the law barring use of federal funds to tunnel under Wilshire, a measure Waxman had pushed through after a 1985 methane explosion in the Fairfax area. They also had to find a way around a 1998 county ballot initiative by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky that prohibited the use of existing sales tax revenue to fund new subways. They did — L.A. County voters passed the Measure R half-cent sales tax in 2008, which dedicated about $4 billion for the Purple Line extension.

The full subway line is expected to cost $6.3 billion. A federal grant and low-interest loan will cover $2.1 billion of the $2.8-billion price tag for the first phase. Metro has asked the Obama administration to set aside an additional $1.4 billion for the second phase, from Beverly Hills to Century City, which is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/edito...107-story.html

[dragonsky]

• Video Link
http://thesource.metro.net/2014/11/0...ire-boulevard/

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Orange County takes continuous-access approach on carpool lanes

Freeway carpool lanes are being extended and tied together across Southern California, but one county is taking a decidedly different — and some studies suggest safer — approach to how they work.

Orange County is reconfiguring its 267-mile network of HOV lanes so motorists can enter and exit anywhere, rather than just in designated areas that are often spaced far apart.

During the ongoing conversion, the double yellow lines prohibiting drivers from moving in and out of carpool lanes at will are being replaced by white dashes.

O.C. officials, who began the change seven years ago on the 22 freeway, cite research that says the so-called continuous-access approach has reduced accidents, congestion and pollution in part by cutting down on sudden accelerations and quick lane changes.

The free-access approach also results in fewer potentially dangerous maneuvers in regular highway lanes next to the carpool lanes, officials say.

http://www.latimes.com/local/orangec...118-story.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by MTA

Metro Board to consider motion on studying new ExpressLanes corridors

The above motion is to be considered by the Metro Board of Directors at their meeting Thursday. With the ExpressLanes being made permanent earlier this year on the 10 and 110 freeways, the motion asks Metro to begin studying other potential freeway corridors where congestion pricing may work.

The Board this summer also voted to study expanding the ExpressLanes to the 105 freeway between the 605 and 405 freeways.

http://thesource.metro.net/2014/11/1...ing-corridors/

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by CLA

Biking Has Shot Up an Insane 356 Percent in Santa Monica
Tuesday, December 2, 2014, by Bianca Barragan

Whoa, it's a good thing Santa Monica didn't dilly-dally on launching that bike share program—they saw a formidable 356 percent increase in bike riding between 2000 and 2012, according to a progress report on the city's Bike Action Plan, which went into action about three years ago. The figure comes from the League of American Bicyclists, who surveyed SaMo earlier this year for its overall bike-friendliness in those years. True, it covers several more years than the bike plan's been in action, but still—nationally over the same period, even the average bike-friendly city only saw an 85 percent rise in cycling. Santa Monica crushed them all.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...nta_monica.php

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by CLA

Rail Connection to LAX Will Open By 2024 With Six Stops

The long-fuzzy plan to finally build a rail connection to LAX is starting to come into focus—we now have a construction schedule for the automatic people mover that will link Metro to the airport, and a decision on how many stops it'll have inside the airport (three, more on that in a minute). Officials from Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX, gave the Metro board an update on the project yesterday, and promised to be finished with the people mover by 2024, when Los Angeles is hoping to host the summer Olympics (the city's improved public transit is central to its bid, which was just submitted to the US Committee). They plan to start environmental studies at the beginning of 2015 and break ground in 2017 or 2018, with five to seven years for construction.

The people mover will connect to a recently-added Ninety-Sixth Street station on the under-construction Crenshaw Line, which is expected to open in 2019. From there it will travel east to a forthcoming rental car facility, and west to an also-forthcoming Intermodal Transportation Facility with parking, shuttle buses, and pick-up/drop-off areas, then to three stations inside LAX. The Source reports that one station will serve Terminals 1, 6, and 7; one for 5 and 6; and one for Tom Bradley International, 3, and 4. The project will also include new moving sidewalks to move passengers between the people mover and the terminals.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/1..._six_stops.php

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Gleaming new transportation hub reflects O.C.'s embrace of public transit

But this week, commuters got their first view of an enormous, airy transportation hub that reflects Orange County's growing embrace of public transit.

The $188-million transportation center in the heart of Anaheim, not far from Disneyland, is designed as a central hub where trains, buses, cars and bicycles will converge. Officials hope it ultimately will be the final stop for the state's proposed high-speed bullet train.

There are 1,082 parking spaces, a wide circular drive that invites car drop-offs and a dozen bicycle lockers plus additional bike racks.

The station itself is a stunning crisscross of steel pipes that form a rounded skeleton that seems to hover above the ground like a cloud.

Translucent pillows of Teflon-impregnated plastic — the same material used in Beijing's National Aquatics Center, or Water Cube, and Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia — fill each diamond of the frame, allowing the sun to light 75% of the public space in the building, which is also powered by solar panels.

More than 600 strips of LED lights will turn the pipes red for Angels games and orange when the Ducks play. The teams will have pre- and post-game shows oriented toward the center.

Inside, a large open area faces a main staircase that soars up the building's three levels, each one recessed from the next. Hot and cold water piped through the floors controls the temperature on each level.

http://www.latimes.com/local/orangec...210-story.html

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by MTA

Caltrans holds ribbon cutting for new I-5 truck lane and freeway widening in Santa Clarita

SANTA CLARITA — Hundreds of thousands of motorists will now enjoy reduced congestion and enhanced safety on a segment of Interstate 5 in Santa Clarita thanks to the completion of a $67 million project by Caltrans and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) that has extended the southbound I-5 truck lane and added mixed-flow lanes in both directions in this heavily traveled corridor.

“I-5 is the backbone of California’s freeway system and is vital to our economy,” said Caltrans District 7 Director Carrie Bowen. “The widening of I-5 and the extension of the southbound truck lane represent an important investment in our transportation infrastructure that will provide improved mobility, faster travel times for commuters, and more efficient goods movement for years to come.”

“The completion of this phase of the I-5 truck lane is part of a long-term plan to improve the movement of goods through the corridor,” said Metro’s Executive Director of Engineering and Construction Bryan Pennington. “More improvements are coming as phase two begins in a couple of years, with phase three on the horizon.”

The project, which began construction in May 2012, has added a fifth mixed-flow lane to northbound I-5 between State Route 14 and the Gavin Canyon undercrossing, a distance of 1.4 miles. The 3.7 miles of southbound I-5 improvements include a fifth mixed-flow lane between Pico Canyon Road/Lyons Avenue and a half-mile south of Gavin Canyon, and a new segment of truck lane that begins north of Weldon Canyon and merges with the existing truck lane north of the SR-14 connector. New median and outside retaining walls were also built to accommodate the widening.

http://thesource.metro.net/2014/12/0...santa-clarita/

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by MTA

Airport officials approve plan for people mover at LAX

Los Angeles – The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners today unanimously approved moving forward with a $4 billion plan to transform LAX’s ground transportation and arrival and departure experience. The future Landside Access Modernization Program includes a new automated LAX Train that will connect passengers to the airline terminals from new facilities at the airport including a Rental Car Center, multiple locations for passenger pick-up and drop-off, and Metro’s planned Crenshaw Line station at 96th Street/Aviation Boulevard. The plan is designed to relieve congestion in the Central Terminal Area (CTA) as well as on local streets surrounding the airport.

“Today we are moving one step closer to bringing rail to LAX and building the world-class airport our residents and visitors deserve,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who chairs the Metro Board of Directors. “The automated train to LAX, consolidated Rental Car Center and new passenger check-in facility will not only save time for travelers, but it will also ease traffic at the airport, on our freeways and in the surrounding neighborhoods. The LAX train will also improve our local economy as part of our airport modernization program that will create 40,000 jobs, remodel terminals and dramatically upgrade the passenger experience at LAX.”

The LAX Landside Modernization Program includes the following elements:

A new automated LAX Train to connect the passenger terminals to the Rent-A-Car Center, multiple pick-up and drop-off facilities and Metro’s planned Crenshaw Line station at 96th Street/Aviation Boulevard.

- Provides free, fast, reliable and convenient access to terminals for passengers, employees and other users of LAX 24/7, 365 days a year.

- Includes three stations in the Central Terminal Area connecting to the airline terminals with a convenient pedestrian walkway system.

- Encourages passenger pick-up and drop-off outside the Central Terminal Area.

- Designed specifically for travelers with luggage.

A single Rent-A-Car Center that will consolidate all rental car companies into one convenient location connected to the airport by the LAX Train.

- Improves the customer experience for visitors renting cars at LAX.

- Eliminates the need for rental car shuttles.

- Provides rental car customers direct access to major freeways.

New locations for arrival, departure, pick-up and drop-off outside the Central Terminal Area connected to the airport by the LAX Train.

- Offers new convenient parking with direct access to the LAX Train.

- Provides easily accessible and comfortable areas to meet and greet passengers.

- Creates new pick-up and drop-off locations with access to other hotel and airport shuttles.

- Includes retail, dining options and other amenities.

A quick connection to Metro’s planned Crenshaw Line station at 96th Street/Aviation Boulevard.

- The LAX Train will link the airport to Metro’s transit station and provide a connection to the region.

http://thesource.metro.net/2014/12/1...-mover-at-lax/

[dragonsky]

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...sportation.php

[dragonsky]

Originally Posted by LAT

Metro takes extra-long electric bus for test drive on the Orange Line

The bus runs on eight lithium iron phosphate battery modules, four to a side, that provide enough charge for more than 170 miles, Holtz said. In lab tests, the batteries have a life cycle of about 27 years, about twice the life span of an average bus, he said. The bus can hold up to 120 passengers.

The zero-emission bus, named the Lancaster after its birthplace at the BYD manufacturing facility, was unveiled in October at the American Public Transportation Assn. Expo in Houston. Its next big appearance was on the Orange Line, where Holtz said the bus was praised for its quietness.

Electric buses themselves are not so uncommon. Cities around the country already run these types of buses, including San Antonio, Pomona and the Tri-Cities area in Washington state. Stanford University also operates a 40-foot bus, which was BYD's first U.S. electric bus order. But none of those electric buses bear the accordion-like articulation of L.A.'s extra-long bus.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has submitted an order for 25 of BYD's 40-foot electric buses, said Brendan Riley, vice president of sales for BYD Motors Inc. But it has not ordered the articulated electric one, which is still being shown around several cities.

http://www.latimes.com/local/califor...227-story.html