Quote:
Originally Posted by WrightCONCEPT
The Vermont Corridor Red Line idea, to provide a straight corridor from SFV to South Bay is admirable until we realize that Wilshire/Vermont would be an overloaded forced transfer point for current and future Red Line passengers trying to reach Downtown LA CBD, especially on the Purple Line which will be very highly utilized with the Westwood extension even with short headways.
All we have to do is look at Toronto's Metro at Bloor/Yonge to see how that impacts capacity and demand unless there is another entry into Downtown Toronto. They are looking at a Downtown Relief Line to solve this problem. Yonge Street is Toronto's Wilshire Blvd, the Bloor Street line is like our Red Line in that it connects the inner suburbs into the edge of the CBD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloor%...3Yonge_station
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...bate-1.4129332
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle37813027/
Here in LA I see the same exact scenario, unless another entry point can be built to replace that section of service into our Downtown CBD for the Red Line. |
LA isn't Toronto, though. Toronto is like New York or Chicago with a highly centralized CBD and a huge percentage of jobs there. DTLA only has 3% of regional jobs, Toronto's Downtown has 35%.
The forced transfer, such as it is, wouldn't really affect a lot of commuters in absolute terms and it would open up a direct commute for people going to the South LA or the South Bay, and could turn a VERY long 3-seat ride into a manageable 2-seat ride for some of the 97% of Angelenos that don't work in DTLA.
Not only that, but the Wilshire subway east of Vermont is still only two tracks. If there is a huge influx of riders after Purple Line opens to Westwood, Metro will have constrained frequency on both Purple and Red Lines because of the interlining.
The advantage of the grid layout is that there are always two and sometimes several routes between two points in the network. If the Orange Line -> Red Line -> DTLA commute becomes unmanageable because of a forced transfer at Wilshire/Vermont, SFV commuters can switch to a Sepulveda -> Purple Line commute and keep their two-seat ride.
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