[Wright Concept]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

Okay. My question to you now is if we can increase service on the branches to 5-minute headways and on the trunk to 2-3 minute headways?

Simple answer: Build the Purple Line to at least Century City!

By that point both lines willl need 6 car trains and operate on the same short headway. Right now if we were to do that, the Wilshire branch trains would look very empty while the North Hollywood trains would be fine.

Another variable in this transit equation is understanding the role the Regional Connector (RC) will play in all of this because if we build RC and nothing else capacity will be freed up on the Downtown trunk portion of the line because another alternative have been introduced.

That is why it's so important to think of the building of our transit network as being a shark. When a shark keeps getting stalled, it stops moving. When it stops moving it dies, so would our transit network if we don't plan ahead and keep building and funding the network.

So its silly to get caught up in the details or dilemmas of at-grade, elevated, subways, light rail, heavy rail, BRT, because in a developing network that stalls the shark, it stalls the building of our much needed network.

So, what's stopping us? Why aren't we doing this?

What else the political will to do it. CRA helps connect some of the City Councilmembers with potential campaign donors through projects. So doing what i'm proposing would essentially cut some of the Councilmembers from their power source.

Regarding the last sentence, how can we afford 4-track corridors?

We'd have to use a larger TBM (40-45' in diameter) to go very deep under that street and have the four track corridor be in essence 2 two-track corridors stacked on top of each other. I was making that statement as more of a coulda, shoulda, woulda. With stop spacing every mile apart underground and dedicated bus only lanes or LRT with signal preemption on the ground that is the best way to create the Local-Express transit network that is needed for our corridors.

Any rail line down Western would have to be a subway because the street is too narrow. So, it is definitely not financially feasible now and won't be anytime soon. I think bus-only lanes would work fine, but I'm not sure how effective they'd be.

The biggest improvement to Western with Bus Only Lanes isn't capacity but operational efficency. They can get by with better schedule reliability moving the same number of passengers on fewer buses. The trolley buses would be a means of moving large numbers of people for a lot less fuel consumption.

Wow, you're talking about maybe 30 years from now!

At least.

In the meantime, how about the Venice branch? I think it should feed into a La Brea, rather than Crenshaw, trunk because Venice would probably be served by the Green Line by then.

My intention for the North La Brea Subway sketch is to have both Crenshaw and Venice branches run together between Hollywood and Mid-City to connect with the Red and Purple Lines. Think of the Regional Connector in concept. Venice branch wouldn't have ran through to the Crenshaw branch.

Yes, yes, and more yes! I was worried that if such a line were to happen, then the standard 1-mile stop spacing would be used, to which I would've argued that the area was built on a more pedestrian scale and that 1/2-mile stop spacing would be more appropriate.

Also, doesn't this bring in the possibility of a San Vicente branch to feed into the Pico trunk?

Wouldn't it have to be a subway until Crenshaw, where it would then run either at-grade or elevated?

These are entirely possible, in this hypothetical stage.

All this talk shows just how little the federal government is doing in the name of funding. If the pool of funds were greater, proposals like these would be taken more seriously.

BINGO!!!