Purple Line planning

The MTA is holding a series of meetings in the Westside to gather comments about the idea of extending the Purple Line to Santa Monica. MTA officials are not passing around the hat (they don't have money for the $6 billion project). Details and dates below:

All meetings are from 6-8 p.m. and will be at the following locations:

• Tuesday, Oct. 9, Emerson Middle School, 1650 Selby Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
• Thursday, Oct. 11, Pan Pacific Recreation Center, 7600 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036,
• Tuesday, Oct. 16, Wilshire United Methodist Church, 4350 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90005
• Wednesday, Oct. 17, Beverly Hills Public Library Auditorium, 444 N. Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
• Thursday, Oct. 18, Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401

Comments

[Jennifer Reyes]

If this Wilshire Purple Line is to even have a smidgen of usefulness to it, it needs to go away from Wilshire Blvd and serve the Farmers Market, Grove, Cedars Sinai, Beverly Center, Wilshire/Rodeo Drive, Century City and UCLA Westwood that way LA would have more users clamoring for a better transit network. One gold plated subway, does not a system make.

As for a straight line corridor, How come Santa Monica Blvd isn't mentioned? That is a much better candidate for a subway end to end. Or for cost-effectively link LA, West LA, Westwood and Santa Monica why not build a branch of the under construction Expo Line along the old Sepulveda Railroad right-of-way to UCLA Campus. The LRT line would have an immediate impact on relieving congestion and serve all of the off-campus apartment dwellers that live in Palms.

[Sheryl]

THERE ARE ALSO MEETINGS PLANNED FOR THE CRENSHAW/PRAIRIE CORRIDOR.

Metro is NOT publicizing those meetings, so you can bet your bottom dollar that they don't want people who live in Hawthorne, Inglewood, Baldwin Hills, and the Crenshaw District actually attending these meetings and commenting on anything.

The CRESHAW/PRAIRIE CORRIDOR MEETINGS ARE:

10/15/08, 6-8 pm at Darby Park--3400 W. Arbor Vitae St in Inglewood. Transit access via route 210.

10/17/2008, 6-8 pm at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 W. Washington Blvd in Los Angeles. Transit access via route 68.

10/20/08 (This is on SATURDAY) 9-11 AM, Audabon Middle School 4120 W. 11th Street. Transit access via route 40 or 42.

Look at Metro's information at http://www.mta.net/projects_programs/crenshaw/default.htm. This is the ONLY item currently being addressed by the Long Range Plan with the potential to provide NORTH-SOUTH rail access anywhere in the county!

[Simon]

We need everyone there to get the MTA movin' on this!!

[howard]

Instead of extending the Purple Line (which I take to be the new name for the branch of the Blue Line to Wilshire and Western) to the sea, wouldn't it be more practical and cheaper to extend the Expo Line to the sea?

Another thing I wish we could do is put in another light rail down Santa Monica Boulevard where there used to be tracks; one end could join the Expo Line and go to the sea, and the other might have to do some tunneling at the other end, but it would meet the Blue Line at Hollywood and Highland. This would be a lot cheaper than tunneling through the Tar Pits.

Wilshire itself, from Western west, could be devoted largely to transit, while 6th St. and Olympic could be enhanced for automobile use. In fact, perhaps something like the Orange LIne, a full "virtual rail," could be run down the middle of Wilshire!

[Dan W.]

Everyone interested in this issue should go look to the Westside Extension webpages within the MTA site.

http://www.mta.net/projects_programs/westside/default.htm

From previous studies, it looks good for the Purple Line to go actually to Century City, not just near it. Thank goodness. There also seems to be an understanding of a need for a connector from Hollywood/Highland west as well. West Hollywood would be relieved if they weren't left out of the loop.
There looks like there has been prior discussion about a parking lot near the Veteran's Hospital for those people who just cannot or will not leave their cars at home.

These seem like the probable stops IMO:

Wilshire/Western
Wilshire/Crenshaw
Wilshire/LaBrea
Wilshire/Fairfax
Wilshire/LaCienega
Wilshire/Beverly
Wilshire/Santa Monica
Century City
Santa Monica/Westwood
Wilshire/Westwood
Veteran's Hospital
Wilshire/Barrington
Wilshire/Bundy
Wilshire/26th St.
Wilshire/14th St.
Wilshire/4th
Santa Monica Pier

I'm glad there is interest in extending the Red Line from Hollywood/Highland.

I wrote to the MTA suggesting the following two alternatives for this "connector", sometimes referred to as "The Pink Line"

Hollywood/Higland
Sunset/Labrea
Santa Monica/Fairfax
Santa Monica/La Cienega
Santa Monica/San Vicente
Santa Monica/Canon
Wilshire/Santa Monica
Century Century

OR

Hollywood/Highland
Sunset/La Brea
Santa Monica/Fairfax
Santa Monica/La Cienega
Beverly/LaCienega
Wilshire/La Cienega

When the Purple Line and this connector is finally, finally built, the next step will be extending the The Green Line from LAX (where it's hopefully been extended) north to UCLA over/through the pass into the Valley to connect to the Orange Line, Metrolink, several Rapid Lines and numerous local lines.

Then we might actually have a "system" in place. Imagine that.

Put in Bus-Only lanes on Wilshire and change Pico/Olympic to one-way streets and we are rolling.

People all over L.A. will benefit from this. And as traffic on the 10-Fwy will bear, there are numerous people traveling TO the westside for work, not just from.

L.A. is changing for the better. Let the good times roll!