MTA picks subway route(s!) for further study

In a surprising and ambitious move, local transportation officials said Tuesday that they would recommend further study of two subway lines to the Westside, with one train going down Wilshire Boulevard and the other shorter leg partially following Santa Monica before diving south to meet the Wilshire line.

That's what the map above shows. The dark green areas indicate sections of the route where the MTA needs to do further study.

While the whole effort is still largely hypothetical -- the subway has no funding, nor has it been formally approved -- it shows how officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are gearing up should any money be secured for a project with a potential $9-billion price tag.

It was just a decade ago, amid several spending and construction boondoggles on the existing subway, that voters in Los Angeles County banned the MTA from using sales tax money for subway tunneling. That ban remains in effect, but complaints over Westside traffic have continued to pile up, fueling efforts to continue the subway.

"We know there are some people internally [at the MTA] who have said 'this is always where [the subway] was going to end up," said Jody Litvak, a spokesperson for the Metro Westside Extension study. "But now there's some validation for what we've thought. We thought people would say they want a Wilshire line or we want a Santa Monica [Boulevard] line. We were surprised they wanted both."

The Wilshire line would get first priority for funding because it has higher ridership estimates, said David Mieger, the project manager for the Westside study. But the other line is being considered because it would make the entire system more versatile by stopping near major job centers and attractions such as the Warner Hollywood studios and Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood and the Beverly Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

It would also chop significant time off the trip to the Westside from the San Fernando Valley, according to MTA estimates -- shown above on this page from the latest study. Mieger said a train trip from North Hollywood to Westwood could potentially drop from 61 minutes according to today's MTA schedules to 28 minutes if both lines were built.

One major job center and attraction that would remain more than a half-mile from either line would be the Grove and CBS Studios, both located along Fairfax Avenue.

Officials with the MTA have been studying the best way to expand mass transit on the Westside for the past year and have slowly been narrowing the options. In public meetings set to begin tomorrow night (the meeting times are posted below and at the MTA's website), agency officials will say they're now down to their final four choices: don't build anything, try to improve road and bus capacity or build one or two subway lines.

In a briefings with The Times and other media on Tuesday, agency officials said that the subway has the greatest potential to move the most people quickly. While trying to push the project forward, they are also urging caution and saying that these are only draft recommendations and that anything could change.

"At this point, all we're doing is recommending what should go forward for a full environmental impact report and environmental impact study," said Litvak.

Still, Litvak and other MTA officials say their choices has significance. From this point forward, the focus of big and expensive studies will be on the Wilshire, Santa Monica and La Cienega corridors -- giving them momentum should the subway project actually happen.

It will be up to the 13-member MTA Board to decide to launch those studies. Litvak said that the goal is for the Board to consider the matter later in the fall. The environmental studies, which would also include engineering work, would take at least three years. Under the best case scenario, Litvak and Mieger said construction could begin by 2013.

There is, however, one huge obstacle to that taking place: The Wilshire line alone is estimated to cost $6.1 billion and the combined lines would require $9 billion in 2008 dollars. So far, there is not one cent of funding that has been set aside for any kind of subway project.

The MTA and many public officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, have been pushing to place a half-cent sales tax increase proposal on the November ballot to help pay for mass transit and road improvements. The proposal, called Measure R, has secured a place on the ballot in Los Angeles County, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still needs to sign a state bill by Sept. 30 authorizing the election. The Governor has said he won't sign any bills until the Legislature adopts a workable budget.

A budget that includes a sales tax hike for state residents, as Schwarzenegger has proposed, may make it politically difficult to ask residents to raise their taxes even more. His press office has declined to comment on the sales tax bill, but the governor made an exception last week and signed a bill that clarifies how $9.95 billion would be spent if voters approve the high-speed rail project on the Nov. 4 ballot.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich's transportation deputy criticized the proposal and said it could consume too much transit money if the sales tax passes.

"This is why the supervisor will continue to make the case to the San Fernando Valley that their money [from the sales tax] that they think they're getting can be diverted back into the subway," said Michael Cano, the transportation deputy.

As for the subway, the precise location of all the stations would need to be worked out in the next round of studies, said MTA officials. A station on the Wilshire line may be added at Crenshaw Boulevard and one station on Santa Monica Boulevard could be at either La Cienega or San Vicente.

There are other big decisions that would have to be made. The route between Century City and Westwood hasn't been settled upon and could follow the street grid or take a more direct route under residential neighborhoods. Litvak said that may not be a problem.

"Our system today looks like it's under city streets, but we do go under private property at all kinds of depths," she said. "If people could feel or hear the subway, don't you think you would be hearing from them why won't those bozos at Metro do anything about it?"

Mieger said that the subway would serve more riders from outside the Westside than those who live within it because it would be a popular way for people to reach their jobs. Critics of the sales tax proposal -- including three of the five Los Angeles County supervisors -- say tax revenues would not equitably be spent around the county and that too much would end up being sunk into the subway.

There is another potential obstacle. A cost effectiveness measure that takes into account construction cost, ridership and potential time savings for commuters, shows both lines exceed a target considered by the Federal Transit Administration before that agency provides funding. MTA officials hope that they can refine the subway further to bring those costs down.

--Steve Hymon

MTA MEETINGS ON SUBWAY

City of Santa Monica: Wednesday, September 3, 6 – 8 p.m., Santa Monica Public Library, Auditorium, 1st Floor, 601 Santa Monica Boulevard, Santa Monica. Served by Metro Lines 4, 20, 33, 333, 720 and Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Lines 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10. Validated vehicle and bike parking is available.

City of West Hollywood: Thursday, September 4, 6 – 8pm, Plummer Park, 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood. Served by Metro Line 4. Free vehicle and bike parking is available at the location.

City of Beverly Hills: Saturday, September 6, 2 – 4 p.m., Beverly Hills Public Library – Auditorium, 2nd Floor, 444 N Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills. Served by Metro Lines 4, 14, 16, 704. Free 2-hour parking available in the adjacent structure.

Wilshire/Fairfax area: Monday, September 8, 6 – 8 p.m., Los Angeles County Museum of Art West - Terrace Room, 5th Floor, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Served by Metro lines 20, 720, 920, 217, 780. Validated vehicle parking is available in the Museum’s 6th Street underground garage. Enter from 6th and Ogden

Westwood area: Wednesday, September 10, 6 – 8 p.m., Westwood Presbyterian Church, 10822 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Served by Metro Lines 20, 720, 920. Free parking available at the location.

Metro has completed three rounds of community meetings — in October 2007, January/February 2008 and May 2008. Based on the analysis and public input received at these meetings, Metro has identified the alternatives to be recommended for further study through an Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement.

These new round of meetings will present to the public the refined set of alternatives that will be recommended for further study and a schedule for future steps.
Content presented at these meetings will be identical, so members of the public can attend at the time and location most convenient for them.

In the fall, Metro will present the Alternatives Analysis Report and its recommendations to its board of directors, which may then authorize a full environmental review.

For additional information or questions, please visit the Westside Extension Transit Corridor Study web site at metro.net/westside or contact the project information line at 213.922.6934.

Comments

[dave]

it's funny, but the delays in rail to the west side (oh, and to the airport, like most world-class cities) happened on the L.A. Times' watch - transit was always a dead-end beat at the Times, and resulted from a lack of any coherent SoCal political leadership (leaders are groups of people who come together to advocate for something and use persuasion and argument to drive needed change). We have what we deserve, gridlock and more gridlock. The Olympics will never come back to L.A. because the carbon foot-print of the airport alone, with no terminal access to rail, equals that of many small countries. Lots of luck!

[SubwayJared]

Here's an idea for funding: Make the westsiders pay for it.
They opposed the subway decades ago because they didn't want the riffraff coming to their neighborhood. Now, they are the ones crippled by freeway traffic.
Typically short-sighted BS. Well, they've all got deep pockets, so let them start digging.

[Abbey]

Please make this happen! It's shameful for a city of this stature to have such a meager mass transit system.

For anyone who talks about cost - the 2008 dollars for this project amounts to just one month of expenditure on the Iraq war. One month.

[la joe]

yes, a monorail down the 405.. hello? duh.

[TCF]

$9 billion is pricey for sure. But there are other benefits to a subway to the Westside.

It will encourage a more practical business density. Large buildings in Westwood and Century City could be approved without having to worry about parking (as much). We've seen the beginning of this with the planned construction of the new Universal Bldg above the station in N. Hollywood.

I don't think downtown will ever become what we hope it to be until more LA residents can get down there quickly and reasonably. Including those from the westside who currently face an awful time of things on the 101 or the 10.

A subway to the Westside will also provide critical access to the most visited areas for tourists who have come here expressly to spend their money.

Looking farther ahead, won't it be nice to ride that subway right into the terminal at LAX when they finally get around to that, too?

[John von Kerczek]

Holy cow! That was not what I was expecting, but I am pleasantly surprised. Go big or go home.

[Jay]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make this happen!!!!

It is so incredibly over due it's not even funny! This city is choking -- start building today!!!

[Bill]

As Los Angeles continues to grow, it will go up (highrise office buildings, apartment and condo towers, etc) rather than out. This will make the core of the city even denser than it already is.

We need to put serious thought and money into long range planning of how to make traffic in the city more managable. Better bus and above ground public transportation is only part of the solution. We need a good, expansive and flexable subway system.

Many people who live in the valley commute to work in the core of the city and the west side. We all need this subway!

Start planning now...not 10 years down the road.

[ESB]

START BUILDING TOMORROW!!

[David Raether]

Build all of it.

Right now, using subways and buses, to get from Pasadena to Santa Monica on a good day takes 2 hours, 15 minutes.

That's 25 minutes to downtown on the Gold Line, another 15 minutes to Wilshire and Western... and, well, the rest is spent battling to squeeze into a Rapid bus and stand for the rest of the way.

SG Valley politicians need to calm down. The Gold Line Extension is part of the funding package for the sales tax increase, so they'll get their share. This subway, however, is critical. If these guys think that everyone who lives in the San Gabriel Valley only works in the SGV or downtown, they're kidding themselves. Plus, there's thousands of people from Santa Clarita, etc., who work on the Westside who could use this from North Hollywood.

It has regional benefit

[Mike]

How about a light rail line or subway that follows the 405 down from the valley to Santa Monica? That would serve millions of people and make the 405 less congested.

[Jeremy R]

So, 2016 is the earliest we could use this line?

and this whole equitabliltiy thing is getting old. People from the valley and east side will be using the subway, not people with 20 bedroom homes on the west side. Also, transit is never completely equitable. Denser and more job rich areas always get more transit than sparse exurbs. Laslty, the job rich westside has been providing more than is fair share of tax revenue for the city and county, while westsiders have had to suffer from all of the congestion. Where is the equitablilty there?!

Let's wake up and smell the coffee.

[Jon K.]

I hope it happens.