LOS ANGELES | Transportation News & Discussion

[bzcat]

Originally Posted by Quixote

@bzcat Huge news too! An acceleration of 14-15 years for the WSAB puts the potential start of revenue service at 2026-27. I'll go bat-shit crazy if that's the goal for the Sepulveda Pass as well.

I'm sure the private proposal involves premium fares but given the alternative to wait up to 40 years, I think the answer is clear - we must do this.

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by bzcat

In the long run, sure.

But we can make significant improvements to the transit quality of the corridor with BRT in the short term.

Also, BRT and rail are not an either/or proposition. A high demand corridor (like Wilshire or Vermont) needs both. Look at major cities around the world... surface BRT and underground rail tend to work really well on the same corridor.

Good point.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by bzcat

I'm sure the private proposal involves premium fares but given the alternative to wait up to 40 years, I think the answer is clear - we must do this.

Yep, I take it that PPPs are only viable for independent, made-from-scratch projects. Maybe that's why we haven't heard anything about Phase 3 of the Purple Line extension? I know Metro at least solicited and received proposals.

[numble]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Yep, I take it that PPPs are only viable for independent, made-from-scratch projects. Maybe that's why we haven't heard anything about Phase 3 of the Purple Line extension? I know Metro at least solicited and received proposals.

There is a proposal from Skanska still being studied. At least it was not rejected yet like the 2 proposals that were just rejected.

http://thesource.metro.net/2016/10/1...-under-review/

[mrsmartman]

The weird thing about LA Metro is that its longest line is not a heavy rail line, which is supposed to transport the largest amount of people into the city.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by Heartofthecity

https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho..._20lines.0.jpg

So the gold and blue lines are merging together it seems.

Does anyone else think that the Norwalk-South Bay line should just go away in exchange for higher frequency on the Norwalk-LAX route, with an easy cross platform transfer at Aviation/Century?

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by bzcat

Metro announced that it will move forward with evaluation of 4 unsolicited bids to accelerate constructions on West Santa Ana branch.

Originally Posted by plutonicpanda

New subway to arts district.

http://la.curbed.com/2017/1/15/14278...urple-red-line

What if these two projects were combined into something like this?


This way, the already mostly grade separated line out to the green line gets faster and higher capacity HRT, with a transfer to Artesia LRT at the green line. While this does require a transfer, it means one isn't needed downtown, which would be necessary under most circumstances anyway. The overall trip time would even probably be shorter, if the transfer was well timed, because of HRT's overall faster speed. It also plans for the purple line Arts District extension, and allows the purple line to someday be extended to Long Beach Airport, CSULB, and Belmont Shores (Measure M2 anybody?).

[a very long weekend]

Originally Posted by Car(e)-Free LA

Does anyone else think that the Norwalk-South Bay line should just go away in exchange for higher frequency on the Norwalk-LAX route, with an easy cross platform transfer at Aviation/Century?

i assume you mean the el segundo/redondo beach branch. and if you do, the answer is: obviously not, that's insane.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by WrightCONCEPT

BTW after that La Cienega corridor turns to go down Venice Blvd. How do you see that Venice Blvd corridor operating as? Light Rail in the wide street median? Elevated? Subway?

Elevated west of the 405, tunneled east of it.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

i assume you mean the el segundo/redondo beach branch. and if you do, the answer is: obviously not, that's insane.

Why? Does the green line really warrant two routes?

[Quixote]

^ It's not that the Green Line 'warrants' two routes so much as it's the existing infrastructure; the wye connection is already in place.

Those traveling exclusively on the alignment spine will have trains running twice as frequently.

[Quixote]

Re: LAX-LAUS Express

It was considered in the Harbor Subdivision's AA back in 2009. Travel time was estimated to be 20 minutes and the cost ranging from $1-2.2 billion.

I wonder if the prospective Olympics have anything to do with this sudden revelation by Washington?

[ChargerCarl]

Thats very disheartening. This should be a very low priority project.

[Quixote]

^ Why is it disheartening? No Measure R/M funds would be used to construct this; there's no reason to fret. It's a worthwhile long-term investment.

Think about the potential connections with Metro Rail, Metrolink, and CAHSR. FlyAway buses could be done away with and hundreds, maybe thousands of LAX passengers could be picked up by friends/family at Union Station instead, thereby relieving congestion at the airport itself.

[NSMP]

Originally Posted by Quixote

^ It's not that the Green Line 'warrants' two routes so much as it's the existing infrastructure; the wye connection is already in place.

Those traveling exclusively on the alignment spine will have trains running twice as frequently.

The stops in question are among the least used in the entire rail network. They absolutely do not require split service. Make those few riders transfer at century and provide more frequent service to the airport.

You should not, as a rule, put the strongest destination point on a line on a branch.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Could a LAX Express be an extension of the San Bernardino Metrolink line? This would seem to especially make sense after LINK US is completed, especially because the two northernmost lines (Ventura County and Antelope Valley) would feed into the two southernmost (Orange County and 91), leaving LAUS as the terminus of both the San Bernardino line and the Riverside line.

Also, what if the LAX Express used the rail line via Watts, West Athens, and Hawthorne, in which only a short segment of teach would have to be built from Del Aire to the LAX ITF.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by NSMP

The stops in question are among the least used in the entire rail network. They absolutely do not require split service. Make those few riders transfer at century and provide more frequent service to the airport.

You should not, as a rule, put the strongest destination point on a line on a branch.

What kind of frequency are we talking about?

Why not run 6-minute headways on each route, with trains along the spine arriving every 3 minutes? Think about connections to the Blue Line, WSAB, and Vermont BRT/HRT.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Car(e)-Free LA

Could a LAX Express be an extension of the San Bernardino Metrolink line? This would seem to especially make sense after LINK US is completed, especially because the two northernmost lines (Ventura County and Antelope Valley) would feed into the two southernmost (Orange County and 91), leaving LAUS as the terminus of both the San Bernardino line and the Riverside line.

Also, what if the LAX Express used the rail line via Watts, West Athens, and Hawthorne, in which only a short segment of teach would have to be built from Del Aire to the LAX ITF.

This would need to be a premium service (with premium fares) rail link, so through-routing wouldn't work. In my fantasy world, I've always envisioned this project as our Heathrow Express or the Hong Kong MTR's Airport Express.

[Car(e)-Free LA]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Why not run 6-minute headways on each route, with trains along the spine arriving every 3 minutes?

Because the green line doesn't have demand for trains every 3 minutes? Even the red/purple lines don't have that. The choice is between trains every 15/20 minutes on each line or every 7.5/10 on a green line to LAX with a transfer for the South Bay.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by Car(e)-Free LA

Could a LAX Express be an extension of the San Bernardino Metrolink line? This would seem to especially make sense after LINK US is completed, especially because the two northernmost lines (Ventura County and Antelope Valley) would feed into the two southernmost (Orange County and 91), leaving LAUS as the terminus of both the San Bernardino line and the Riverside line.

Also, what if the LAX Express used the rail line via Watts, West Athens, and Hawthorne, in which only a short segment of teach would have to be built from Del Aire to the LAX ITF.

This is the exact route I was thinking. So basically the Union Station express would exit LAX to the south and head over to the Hawthorn ROW. Do you know who owns that right of way and is there space for double tracking?