Expo Line: A milestone

Local officials gathered Friday morning for what everyone agrees is a milestone for the MTA rail system: the groundbreaking of major construction on the Expo Line. The route from downtown L.A. to Culver City has been planned, debated  and revised many times over the last three decades. And officials said they were excited to finally have a rail route to the traffic-clogged Westside under construction.

"We have entered a new era of public transportation," said L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "L.A. is expected to grow 30% in the next 25 years. Just how many cars will clog our highways ... the answer is too many."

The $640-million project will include eight new stations and is expected to open in 2010. The Expo Line will run through southwest L.A. on an existing rail right-of-way -- something that has significantly reduced costs. But there have been concerns that the route misses some major Westside destinations such as West Hollywood, the Beverly Center area, Beverly Hills and the Miracle Mile.

Officials say they believe there will be ridership, particularly if Phase 2, from Culver City to Santa Monica, is built. But that section is in question because of budget battles in Sacramento.

The current work consists of building a huge trench in the USC-Exposition Park area.

-- Rong-Gong Lin II

Comments

[Daniel OC]

Daniel, i like your enthusiasm for tackling the congestion problem, but it really all boils down to money. maglev is a good idea and They (whoever They may be) are working on a line from Anaheim via Ontario to Las Vegas. as for subways, there's always a need to have them shut off for some time of the day so that maintenance crews can go into the tunnels and do any repairs (don't want those cars derailing in tunnels now do we?). what can be done instead is have an owl bus service that parallels the subways and light rail lines when those are closed for the night. bus lanes are useful like those busways (orange line, el monte line, 110 line). as for handicapped busses, good luck trying to get anything like that implemented with the ACLU breathing down your neck.

but then again, i'm not willing to pay an exorbatent $1.00 for say a twinkie in sales tax. granted i spend much more on starbucks but it's all about how we socal people PRIORITIZE our budgets right? ;-)

[Wright Concept]

With Expo Line and East LA under construction what really needs to be looked at is a way of eliminating that transfer between the Gold Line to the Blue Line.
That project is the Downtown Connector and it needs to get fast-tracked to an EIR so that project can be built and enable more riders on the Gold Line that would acutally beat the time for driving into Downtown via the 110 as well as direct trips from East LA to USC, Culver City, West LA and Santa Monica via Expo.

[Flyer]

When will these stupid idiots stop wasting our money (on dumb Buses, Freeways), polluting our city and build CLEAN, FAST, EFFICIENT MONORAILS!

There is no city in the world better suited. We've had a plan since the 1960's...Corporations, politicians won't let it happen because the public WINS and they lose!

Too bad. LA really could have been a 21 Century City...now we'll end up like third world Mexico City, choked to death.

[Flyer]

When will these stupid idiots stop wasting our money (on dumb Buses, Freeways), polluting our city and build CLEAN, FAST, EFFICIENT MONORAILS!

There is no city in the world better suited. We've had a plan since the 1960's...Corporations, politicians won't let it happen because the public WINS and they lose!

Too bad. LA really could have been a 21 Century City...now we'll end up like third world Mexico City, choked to death.

[Daniel]

I think our leaders really lack imagination.
Let me say this: Our public transportation system would work great if
1) we had bullet or Maglev(magnetically levitated) trains to either replace or complement the Metrolink trains, and add another corridor to the Inland Empire particularly Riverside county, another to Ventura county, and perhaps one more to Orange county, and have them run 24 hours a day, that way maybe people will start working at different times of day instead of everyone in the morning during rush. also have a "web" like connection from station to station with the focal point being Union Station in downtown.
2) Also keep the subways open 24 hours.
3) have a separate bus service for the handicapped, that way bus services speed up for everyone. Loading of people in wheelchairs takes several minutes and having them come on board every other stop seriously slows down the bus line. (try being late an hour or two to work every once in a while!)
4) Develop more lanes for buses only.

I realize this would take a lot of money to bring about but we can help make these things happen so long as we vote appropriately and help raise and secure funds for our transportation.

[John Boom]

Well for a major US city, outside of NYcity, this is not bad. Of course, compared to the rest of the civilized world, it still sucks majorly

[mike]

The best use for the rail system is of course to cut down on the commute.

The 2nd best IMHO is to make it easier to go hit some late night spots that can be all over LA. The problem with that is even if the spot you are want to go it is near a rail stop (like the red line to hollywood and vine or highland) they dont run all night. So you have to schedule yourself. LA is far too spread out to take a taxi, so people drive.

[mike]

The best use for the rail system is of course to cut down on the commute.

The 2nd best IMHO is to make it easier to go hit some late night spots that can be all over LA. The problem with that is even if the spot you are want to go it is near a rail stop (like the red line to hollywood and vine or highland) they dont run all night. So you have to schedule yourself. LA is far too spread out to take a taxi, so people drive.

[mike]

The best use for the rail system is of course to cut down on the commute.

The 2nd best IMHO is to make it easier to go hit some late night spots that can be all over LA. The problem with that is even if the spot you are want to go it is near a rail stop (like the red line to hollywood and vine or highland) they dont run all night. So you have to schedule yourself. LA is far too spread out to take a taxi, so people drive.

[mike]

The best use for the rail system is of course to cut down on the commute.

The 2nd best IMHO is to make it easier to go hit some late night spots that can be all over LA. The problem with that is even if the spot you are want to go it is near a rail stop (like the red line to hollywood and vine or highland) they dont run all night. So you have to schedule yourself. LA is far too spread out to take a taxi, so people drive.

[michelle]

I've ridden them at peak hours. As long as the route you're taking is a straight shot on only one leg of the Metro, you're good to go. But me? Having taken the Gold Line to the Red Line to the Blue Line is a downright pain in the butt.

I also, for two years, sporadically took the Gold Line to Union Station to take Metrolink to Anaheim. It was faster for me to drive out of my way to go to the Glendale Metrolink Station than it was for me to take the Gold Line only a few blocks from my house.

I'm not going to naysay the whole thing...it's definitely an asset. But as excited as I am about the Expo Line, I don't know if the Gold Line > Red or Purple > Expo will make my commute any shorter than it is in my waste veggie oil car.

[oakmonster]

Any convenient public transportation, though, is good. I ride the OCTA bus from the OC to downtown LA instead of driving. And hallelujah for that. I wish all the best to folks in the Westside and Downtown with this new line.

My 2 cents though. You CAN get in and out of downtown LA from just about anywhere. But once you're out there, trying to get somewhere else on public transportation? Good luck, buddy. Until that is solved, the stigma of no/limited mass transit is still going to stick around.

[John M]

for Scott Mercer and others with similar POV: what does longevity have to do with it? and size relative to what? LA Mass Transit is largely a class-based system and is not functional as a job or shopping transit system for much of the people of the region. The Expo line is a drop in the bucket. To reach the utility of systems in your top 5 cities (and many others, old or new), LA, at this rate, has a century to go. It will take a lot more investment and a lot more time to get to the point where most citizens would really consider public transit here a serious choice to driving.

[greg harper]

I hope they have a line from
union station to LAX. I took the train from Sanbernardino then the "express" but to LAX. It took longer to get to LAX than it did to get to Union Station. They Bay area is best.

[Cleo]

MTA should also look into have a better bus system. LA bus system is so horrible and slow, having to spend an extra two and half hours to get on a bus to go somewhere that only takes 30 minutes on the freeway, encourages me to want to hop in a smog polluting car just to save the extra time and money. I think its great that the metro is 'trying' to do better but they can do better with the bus system while we wait for the metro to 'try' its hand in expanding.

[Mike Schmittdiel]

Scott Mercer, you wrote, "When is the common meme that Los Angeles has "no mass transit" or "limited mass transit" finally going to die a deserved death? This idea was true 30 years ago, but certainly not now. Get it into your heads, everyone: LA is no longer Autotopia."

LA lags far behind the other major cities in the US, and even further behind major cities worldwide. For all intents and purposes, LA still is "Autotopia" and will be so for the near future.

I grew up in LA, moved away when I was 18, and now live in Europe. I take mass transit each and every day for work, shopping, entertainment, everything. It truly is fantastic what a real mass transit system does for a city. LA is making strides and I encourage it to continue to do so. But it has a LONG way to go.

LA won't be livable (to me) until a mass system throughout the region is in place.

[Barbara]

I also ride the Gold Line frequently from Pasadena Del Mar Station to Union Station. The 7:41 express train arrives at Union Station in just 20 minutes. Some mornings the drive on the Pasadena freeway can take 30 minutes or more.

I agree that the authors of the articles should actually ride the rail systems during peak hours to see how good they really are!

[sam i am]

its a great start, but I honestly don't think another 33 mph, at grade, single tracked express line is going to solve our transportation woes.

We need to start building lines that will truly help the citizens of this city.

transit lines need to be
grade separated ( 60 to 70 mph safely)
double track in each direction ( concurrent express service)
one modality ( less transfers more one seat rides)

[LA Bus Girl]

"Brave" the Magic Johnson theatre? Yes, gasp... God forbid one should see a movie and sit next to, gasp, a black person.

I go to USC. I go to the Baldwin Hills mall and the Magic Johnson theatre a lot, and I think it's a remarkably nice theatre.

Please tell me you're not a student at USC because I can literally feel my degree devaluing as I read what you write. Especially when you say that the area around USC has "nothing worthwhile."

That says to me that you're, quite frankly, an idiot, who can't be bothered to explore the neighborhood around him because he spent too long growing up in some cookie-cutter suburban gated community. Have fun living a sheltered and completely uninvolved life.

[David in Los Angeles]

Nice start, I would be a bit more excited if in addition a) the purple line (Wilshire) was green-lighted to Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood, and Santa Monica b) the orange was rail (rather than bus), basically extending the red line to Warner Center d) a line followed the 405 from the Valley to LAX to Long Beach, etc, etc. Why is this system taking DECADES to build??

[Scott Mercer]

I agree with Stephan's comment.

Metrorail is no longer fledgling. It has been running for 17 years. The Blue Line began running in 1990. Metrorail is now the fifth largest urban rail-based mass transit system in the USA, after New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington. By 2010, it should be number four, surpassing Washington. It is older than many other urban rail systems in the USA, including Dallas' DART system, Salt Lake City's TRAX and St. Louis' Metro.

When is the common meme that Los Angeles has "no mass transit" or "limited mass transit" finally going to die a deserved death? This idea was true 30 years ago, but certainly not now. Get it into your heads, everyone: LA is no longer Autotopia.

[erict]

How can the MTA fund a subway anywhere in this city if it might not even have the money to finish this tiny light rail line? Not to mention the Zev law forbidding local funding of new subway construction. THe MTA is constantly attacked by all sides, yet no one else seems to even have a plan to solve LA's traffic jam. I fully support the MTA in there effort to bring rail to this city against all odds.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

Inflated construction costs for materials and labor? Materials, maybe;
labor, maybe not (remember we have these millions of illegal workers)
who will under bid any job-site.

[yours truly, johnny dollar]

Inflated construction costs for materials and labor? Materials, maybe;
labor, maybe not (remember we have these millions of illegal workers)
who will under bid any job-site.

[katrina alexy]

The writer's of today's article astound me with this quote:
"The Gold Line from downtown to Pasadena has also been a disappointment, largely because it runs close to residential neighborhoods and hits so many street crossings that taking the train is significantly slower than driving."
I take the goldline every day to work from Highland Park. The Express train is amazing! It takes me 5 minutes to get to Union Station from the Highland Park Station. It is fast, efficient, and it is standing room only. I strongly urge these writers to actually hop on a train from Pasadena heading downtown in the morning and see what I am talking about. A disapointment? I think not. I own a car, but opt to take the train because the bottleneck on the 110 coming into downtown in the morning is horrendous.
The writers also state that a bus trip would take just as long as the new light rail to Culver City. Obviously these writers do not take buses in Los Angeles, as they would know that the trains are far fast.
I was born and raised in this city and am thrilled at the positive changes being made with transportation and look forward to the opening of the Culver City line.
Katrina Alexy

[Tim]

I see this news, and it makes me really happy, and even though I can think of a few things that would make it a lot better (like grade separation so it's actually faster than driving), I have to acknowledge that it's something. I can just hope the rail system continues to slowly expand and get better with every line that is built. If they're able to finish the line all the way to santa monica, it would be HUGE. Let's hope.

[movielocke]

it's not a far walk on campus to the vermont /expo stop or to the Grand/Vermont stop.

The expo line will be EXTREMELY heavily trafficked by USC students on weekends to get to downtown, especially with LA LIVE and a multiplex theatre being built. Right now students have to either brave the magic johnson theatre or drive to the Grove or Hollywood to see a movie, shop, or eat anything remotely decent.

An 8-15 minute train ride is infinitely more convenient than making a trek all the way across LA to access any sort of weekend activity. The infrastructure and community around USC campus doesn't support a single damn thing to hold student interest (literally there is nothing worthwhile in the area). There are so many drunken incidents on the Row because there is no other outlet for most students. Having access to downtown via the expo line will change that in a major way; USC will contribute greatly to the revitalization and success of downtown because downtown will become an extension of the USC campus life due to the expo line. The USC administration hasn't figured that out, and have foolishly opposed the expo line.

[mike d.]

Does anyone know whether there is going to be a station at USC/Exposition Park? I know that it was up in the air because some of the USC administration did not want it.

[Ken Alpern]

Just as the figure for the 405 HOV Lane project suddenly jumped from $500 million to up to $950 million, the Expo Line to Culver City should have jumped up as well to accommodate inflation, rising construction material and labor costs, and added mitigation costs.

This project needs to include the elevated Venice/Robertson terminus as originally planned, and once the routing for Phase 2 is determined, the funding for a Venice/Robertson terminus should be found immediately.

Constructing and then deconstructing a Wesley Street interim terminus is both wasteful and unnecessary for a line that can and will go all the way to Santa Monica.

[Stephan]

Journalists who use subjective adjectives should be able to back up their decisions for using them. I didn't even get through the first line of Rong-Gong Lin's article before finding one I wished he'd define.

Why is LA's rail system "fledgling?" And by the same logic, couldn't LA's freeway system be viewed as fledgling? What's the criteria for that word? Is it that "there have been concerns that the route does not hit some major Westside destinations such as West Hollywood, the Beverly Center area, Beverly Hills and the Miracle Mile."

This is an article, or it should be, about opening a new line of the rail system. If this were a story about adding a carpool lane to the 405 between Sunset and Ventura Blvd, I suppose it would say "but there are concerns that the added lane will not relieve congestion on Highway 5." Kind of beside the point.

The system is growing, not fledgling. And it's becoming exponentially more valuable with every new addition. When the extensions to Culver City and East LA go online in the next couple of years, only those people driving to and from work every day will be able to say the system is fledgling.

[Shaun]

"But there have been concerns that the route does not hit some major Westside destinations such as West Hollywood, the Beverly Center area, Beverly Hills and the Miracle Mile."

That's b/c that is what the Red/Purple Line is suppose to go if they ever extend it. The Wilshire Corridor needs a subway line more than any other corridor in the nation.