Getting rail to LAX: Round Two

Remember the failed effort last year to get the Green Line rail system extended to LAX? Well, some of those same backers are trying again, according to the Argonaut. The MTA is now talking of a new rail line that would attempt to connect the Green Line to downtown via Crenshaw Boulevard. Here's details on the new rail-to-LAX push:

Three influential Westside legislators are seeking to reconfigure a plan for light rail to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) that failed last year in its original form. Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Assemblyman Ted Lieu of Torrance and State Senator Jenny Oropeza of Redondo Beach have put their support behind an extension to the airport of the Metro Green Line, which currently travels from Norwalk to El Segundo and Redondo Beach. Last year, Lieu sponsored Assembly Bill 889 that would have established a joint powers authority for the Green Line that would function as the lead agency in charge of hiring contractors and overseeing the construction of the proposed extension. The bill passed several legislative committees before it was tabled in the Appropriations Committee of the Assembly.

Comments

[Dan W.]

Dan W.:

"It wouldn't be a one-seat ride, really, as the Crenshaw line LAX stop is supposed to be at Century & Aviation."

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I don't consider riding a people mover a la JFK Air Train to be onorous or burdensome. A one-seat ride from Downtown to a transit/people-mover hub at Century Aviation would still be wonderful.

[Bob Zwolinski]

It’s great to hop directly onto a rapid transit line to get to my final destination whenever I fly into Portland, Chicago or Atlanta.

I wish L.A. had this same convenience.

My concept of the ultimate the LAX extension would turn north up the Harbor ROW, dip into a subway before veering west for a station underneath the LAX Bus Depot, then meander ½ mile further west to a subway station under Terminal 1, before going north to meet up with Lincoln Boulevard.

Simply having a station at Century and Aviation on the Harbor ROW doesn’t improve anything. It’s still forces another retched shuttle-bus ride to the terminals.

Hopefully METRO, LAWA and those horrific NIMBYs can all be appeased so we can see this project completed in our lifetimes.

I still can’t fathom the political hell we have to go through just to get a 2-mile rail line extension built to the airport in this town…

[Robb Briggs]

Dan W.:

It wouldn't be a one-seat ride, really, as the Crenshaw line LAX stop is supposed to be at Century & Aviation.

[Michael]

It will still be a pain getting to LAX since if your coming from Union Station, you'd first have to take the Red Line, then the Blue Line, and tehn the Green Line which doesn't even look like it's going to reach the Terminals. They need to create a new airport express using the Harbor Subdivision from Downtown.

[Dan W.]

"Yeah, because complicating the line with two separate directions - a la red/purple line - is worth it for two stops. Get real, people."

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"Get real"?

Uh, The Crenshaw Line is coming from the NORTH of LAX and the Green Line is coming from the SOUTH. LAX is in the middle of the peninsula, and can be reached from the north, south, or east.

In NYC several lines share tracks in Manhattan and Brooklyn and splinter off in different directions. Shared track is not a sign of inefficiency.
The shared track with the Crenshaw and Green Lines will also form the foundation for the desired Sepulveda/405 parallel Line to begin.

As for "getting real", I agree. Perhaps you'd like to start by reading a map?

[Jeremy R]

Even in NYC circa 2000, very very few people took mass transit from JFK to manhattan. Rail to airports is cool, but obviously, we can survive without it if New Yorkers did.

The flyaway can be very effective and efficient at getting people close to where they want to go (valley, west side, and downtown)

[Paul]

Yeah, because complicating the line with two separate directions - a la red/purple line - is worth it for two stops. Get real, people.

[Dan W.]

What's great about the Crenshaw LRT is that is would offer a one-seat ride between LAX and Downtown via light-rail.

The Green Line and Crenshaw Line extensions would likely share tracks. The Green Line extension is also the base of a Sepulveda LRT up into the Valley and perhaps even a Lincoln LRT.

I have doubts whether the rail would go all the way to the terminals. I imagine a public transit center with an Air Train people mover as in JFK.

Build it, already. And face down the NIMBYs and the mucky mucks protecting their turf.

[manuel]

They have to also consider extending the Green Line east to where it was originaly intended to; the Norwalk Metrolink station.