Small step for Wilshire subway

A U.S. Senate committee has approved the long-stalled bill that would allow subway tunneling under Wilshire Boulevard. But there are several other steps in the process, including full Senate approval and probably a conference committee. From Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office:

The Fiscal Year 2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill unanimously approved today by the Senate Appropriations Committee includes an amendment offered by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein that would allow for subway tunneling in parts of Los Angeles. This could help provide much needed public transit to one of the most congested regions in the country. Specifically, the spending bill includes a provision to overturn a 1985 law that prohibited tunneling because of the potential for methane gas explosions. After the Los Angeles City Council passed a motion in support of reversing the laws banning tunneling in 2004 and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted to begin discussions of subway expansion in 2005, an independent scientific safety review determined that subway tunneling could move forward safely.

Comments

[dgabbard]

Southern California Transit Advocates is sponsoring the second of a series of public meetings in the Wilshire corridor regarding the proposal to extend the subway (also known as the Purple Line) west to Westwood and eventually Santa Monica via the Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills and Century City. This will provide a venue for interested corridor residents to learn about the status of the proposal and their role in its progress. Information will also be provided on how residents can engage in effective advocacy by contacting elected officials.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held in the Auditorium of the Beverly Hills Public Library, 444 North Rexford Drive at the corner of Rexford and Burton Way on Tuesday, July 17 from 6:00pm-8:00pm.

Free parking is available at the structure on 450 N. Rexford Drive between North Santa Monica Boulevard and Burton Way. Transit access is via MTA routes 4, 14, 16 and 316.

Grant funding for the meetings is provided by the American Public Transportation Association.

Dates, times and places for the other corridor meetings shall be announced shortly.

Further information: (213) 388-2364.

[Kate]

Hey, Ernie, it wasn't the whole Westside. Plenty of us over here have been frustrated by the shortsighted nay-sayers, too.

[Archie Bunker]

Bob,

If the Mayor is sooo Transit Savy, then why in the world does he have the most ineffective Transportation Deputy on his staff in Jaime De La Vega. Folks, this is just another ploy to give a fat contract for one of Richard Riordan planning companies or his buddies at Tutor-Saliba.

[Bob Zwolinski]

Wow! Finally! We’re getting somewhere!

It's a shame we had to endure the Wilshire subway being stub-ended at Western for an entire generation! Hopefully this will begin to change soon.
I'm thankful that Los Angeles finally has a mayor that is transit-savvy, knowing that a world-class city requires a world-class transportation system and is doing everything in his power to get the Wilshire subway construction in motion again!
(Sorry BRU... We don't need another bus line plodding along at 5 MPH).

Let’s start digging to Fairfax ASAP!

Then onward to Century City and Westwood!

[Ernie]

We have would have had a subway all the way down Wilshire if it wasnt for westside NIMBYism. Thank you westsiders again for ruining the rest of LA just for yourself.

The westsiders who are responsible for blocking the original Red Line project should fund this project directly out of their pockets, and not burden the rest of the county's tax payers.

[lsm]

Yesterday my wife and I had to cross mid-town from west to east to make a 7:30p appointment. To compare our current transportation options head-to-head, she crept through traffic in her car while I bumped through the gridlocked Wilshire traffic on the 720. Including parking, she made her drive in 47 minutes. I lucked out. The first 720 -- although full -- stopped to pick me up and I made my ride in 63 minutes. Although I do not fit the BRU's racist sterotype of an MTA bus rider, I wished we had heeded its demands and added more buses. If so, my ride would have been no shorter but I could have sat down during my 63 minute trek. Unfortunately my wife, who does fit the BRU's racist sterotype of an MTA bus rider, would have had her 47 minute drive slowed down even more due to the extra buses.

Adding more buses to an already jammed Wilshire corridor will only make a bad situation worse. As many critics have pointed out, completing a subway under Wilshire will be very expensive. Failing to complete this subway, however, will be much, much more expensive due to lost productivity and decreased quality of life. To leave to future generations a legacy of a productive and livable LA, we must pony up now and get this subway built.

[Manuel]

I just hope that they open a station once it is completed. So we wont have to wait ten years for the whole thing to be built. Instead wait some time per station until the whole thing is built.

[Ken Alpern]

Well, I suspect that the original ban and its potential reversal (we could still see shenanigans in the Senate, unfortunately!) was never about methane, only about politics, but at least the momentum is there.

The funding is always a thorny issue, but the consensus is finally building to allow L.A. County politicians to demand the operational and construction funding to create a true mass transit network and infrastructural backbone to L.A.'s 21st century economy.

[Tim]

Good news...It'll probably be some time before it actually gets built, but it'll be a good day when it is. I live in the Antelope Valley, but every time I drive in LA's terrible traffic I dream of a rail system like New York. Can you imagine a Los Angeles free of car-dependency?

[sam i am]

That's a great move forward. If they ever get shovels in the ground I hope they plan ahead and get more then one set of tracks going in each direction.
It seems like a waste to spend that much money and forget to plan for an express line.