Downtown connector meetings begin Thursday

One of the more intriguing mass transit projects that has been talked about for years --they usually require decades of talk before actually getting built -- is the downtown connector, also known as the regional connector. It's a line that would connect present and future light rail lines, the idea being to eliminate time-munching transfers.

For example, the connector would allow a train to run straight through from Long Beach to Pasadena, a trip that now requires a rider to go from the blue line to the subway to the Gold Line. Just as important, the connector would allow riders on any of the light rail lines to get closer to their downtown destinations instead of having to transfer to another line.

That's key because the Gold Line goes nowhere near the core of downtown, and the Blue Line and future Expo Line terminate at 7th and Flower, missing the northern and eastern swaths of downtown. When people complain that mass transit in L.A. kind of gets them near where they're going, this is what they're talking about.

The MTA is holding a pair of public meetings on the project this week to discuss two possible routes: one at street level, the other that would go underground. Eric Richardson at blogdowntown has been closely watching this project, as has Zach Behrens at LAist, who kindly converted the above map from Metro (aka the MTA) to a jpeg file and allowed Bottleneck to use it -- saving the Bottleneck many keystrokes. (Side note: why does Metro insist on putting all its maps and timetables in the annoying pdf format? Have you tried downloading a pdf timetable on your phone lately? This is a travesty!)

At the moment, Metro doesn't have any money to build the connector, but they're trying to get a lot of the studies completed in case the money arrives one day. Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase proposal in Los Angeles County, would provide $160 million for the connector. The Measure R expenditure plan also lists the connector as costing $1.3 billion and says it would be completed between 2023 and 2025. Gulp.

As blogdowntown reports, the subway alternative would cost more than the street level alternative (that's a map of possible routes from Metro). Presumably the street level line could be built more quickly than a subway, but street level also takes space on the street away from cars, a politically touchy notion here in the City of Angels Who Drive Everywhere, Including the Corner Market They Could Easily Reach on Foot.

Again, this is an early study that is only looking at alternatives. But the real action is often in these early studies. Once a route is chosen, Metro tends to stick with it, even if years later people begin asking "hey, why'd they choose that route?" The agency hopes to pick a route and then ask the Board of Directors later this year or in early 2009 to begin the environmental and engineering studies to prepare the line for construction.

As for the meeting locations:

Thursday, Oct. 16, noon to 1:30 pm
Los Angeles Central Library
630 W. 5th St
Los Angeles, CA 90071

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 6:30 to 8 pm
Japanese American National Museum
369 E. 1st St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

-- Steve Hymon

maps: Metro