This week’s thoughts:
photo by Bradley Tollison, via Twitter
•The more big events in downtown L.A., the better for Metro Rail. Downtown is the hub of the rail system, of course, and events such as the NHL and NBA playoffs I suspect give people a chance to ride a transit system they may otherwise not use.
And every indication is that they are using it.
The victory parade for the L.A. Kings on Thursday at noon is yet another chance to use the system. The parade route on Figueroa between 5th Street and L.A. Live, is easily accessed by the Red/Purple Line subway, Blue Line and Expo Line. The Silver Line also offers easy transfers to Metro Rail in downtown L.A.
On a related note, I went for a nice, long hike across the Dodger Stadium parking lot before a recent game. That’s just a silly amount of pavement, people. Downtown transit-adjacent ballpark, please!
•May ridership estimates are in and show the Expo Line carried 11,347 average weekday boardings, 9,000 on Saturdays and 7,000 for Sundays. In total, there were an estimated 320,627 boardings in May, the Expo Line’s first full month of service. That’s not bad considering that two stations — Farmdale and Culver City — don’t open until June 20.
Again, I’d like to ask for everyone’s feedback who uses the line — use the comment board please. The one issue that keeps coming up is speed, particularly in the stretch along Flower Street.
•The question over whether to ask voters to extend the Measure R sales tax increase finally comes to the Board of Directors this month. The Board’s Executive Management Committee is scheduled to discuss the extension at their meeting on June 21 with the full Board taking up the matter on June 28.
I’m working on a fairly extensive post that should be ready soon about the extension, which is recommended by Metro staff as the best way to accelerate transit and highway projects, among other things.
•Media has overlooked that the lawsuit filed by the city of Beverly Hills against Metro over the Westside Subway Extension alleges that impacts of constructing the Wilshire/La Cienega station were not properly studied (it’s on page 6 of the lawsuit).
The La Cienega station is within Beverly Hills city boundaries and is part first phase of the project between Western Avenue and La Cienega that is currently scheduled for completion in 2020. Up to now, the controversy in Beverly Hills has involved the route of the subway tunnel from the Wilshire/Rodeo station to Century City in the second phase of the project, currently scheduled for completion in 2026.
Not to toot our horn, but we at Curbed picked up the La Cienega business before the suit was even brought. In their letter to Metro requesting the special hearing over the BHHS tunnel, Beverly Hills had a long list of seemingly-specious grievances about the La Cienega station–and it was pretty clear they were going to use those purported problems as part of their efforts.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/04/metro_oks_subway_to_la_cienega_work_could_begin_next_year.php
I would say as far as responding to issues surrounding the Expo Line, again, the Flower Street segment comes up. The westbound trains seem to go a bit faster than the eastbound trains, which is interesting. However, even then, I would highly recommend much better light synchronization or perhaps a proposal to add crossing rail arms to allow the train to proceed more quickly. The same can be said about the segment between Expo Park/USC station and Western Ave. The train does move much more slowly around at point than any of us imagined it would. Between Western and Culver City station, however, I would say that the speed is decent, mainly due to the crossing arms as well as the fact that the train is above grade.
From my experiences, and from those of my friends etc., it seems speed is the main issue. I have blind faith in Metro and will ride regardless but I am concerned about all the people who are on the fence (it’s LA after all).
A large issue, and one which may currently be overlooked at Metro judging by red line service (but please correct me if I’m wrong), is the issue of how late the trains run. I’ve heard a lot of concern about becoming stranded on a night out (and I talk to A LOT of people about Metro). It eliminates public transit as an option if the last train leaves an hour and a half before the bars close. Also think of USC students going out in downtown or in Culver. It seems like there is huge potential to service the night life market but this would require the last train leaving no earlier than 130-2am.
On that note, personally, when I go out in North Hollywood I need to leave the bars at 1140 to catch the red to catch the last Expo. If I arrive at 1030-11, leaving at 1140 puts a damper on the night and I just end up driving.
Other than that, the fact that everyone lives in West LA / West Hollywood and has to drive 15-20 minutes to get to the Expo, by which point they could already be halfway to downtown.
I enjoy the Expo line, however personally it is not much a utility for my day to day life. I wish the Bus service went further south from La Cienega. In example, the 217 going to Aviation Station (which would kinda simulate the Crenshaw Line), or the 42 from Expo & Crenshaw to LAX Transit Center. I also wish that Crenshaw had gates to give the train right away instead of waiting at traffice stops. I rode along the Expo last night, and we clocked it at 55 mph, which isnt bad at all, however I still feel that 5-6 minutes could be shaved off that trip with speeding it up along flower, and installing gates at particular crossings. I guess that would not help surface traffic on Crenshaw, however, I am not much of an advocate for motorists, so I feel they should wait for the people that make an effort to ride public transit, and may have a longer trip than a motorist in regards to the clock. Im sure Metro will improve, since in the grand scheme of things, we are kind of our pubescent years.
I feel from the few times that I have ridden the Expo Line the Flower Street Segment between Washington and Jefferson has been on the slow side. It takes quite a while to get to USC. While the Expo Park to Western is quite fast as far street running light rail is concerned. Im always shocked how much faster it is to get to Western from Expo Park considering how slow it was from Pico to Jefferson.
But aside from that I still love the line and super excited for the Culver City station opening next week since it will provide much better bus connections to destinations west than the La Cienega Station could.
I’ve taken it a few times. Flower Street is a disaster. Eastbound on the second day we were delayed at least 5 minutes. This week westbound to sit 11/2 minutes before Wash. and about the same after it is such a disincentive to riding! (At Crenshaw we also sat for a good while)They must do what they did on Wash. for the Blue Line and let the trains roll! The lights MUST give priority to trains with hundreds of people on them and not to a few cars with 5-10 people in total!
I have taken the Expo train many times since it opened, and I have enjoyed being connected to the rest of the system. I have lived near Culver City for 13 years and the Expo Line’s opening marked the first time I had reasonable access to public transit (other than buses). I have used the train to go to Staples Center, Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach…all over! I have taken my bike on board and have also had a friend meet me at La Cienega with his bike to ride on the Ballona Creek Bike Path to the Ocean.
However, like you mentioned…the speed of the line is a serious issue. I see no logical reason why a nearly $1,000,000,000 train carrying large numbers of people should be sitting at stop lights waiting for two cars to turn left in front of it (and a pedestrian to cross the street). Easily 6+ minutes could be shaved off the total trip by giving the train proper signal preemption and (eventually) correcting the safety overreaction of the 10MPH speed limit around Farmdale. I think I could ride my bike faster up Flower Street than the train travels…and as Metro and LADOT have it set up right now, the train would probably have to wait at a stoplight for my bike to pass it.
There are far too many opportunities for the train to have to stop at signals, be it at Western, Crenshaw, Normandie, Vermont, Jefferson, 23rd, Washington, or at many others in between. I find myself frustrated when I ride it…watching regular traffic pass the train left and right. Even the traffic crawling along the 110 freeway during rush hour moves faster.
The westbound trains run mostly on time, but the Eastbound trains are completely unpredictable. The closest to an on time arrival into 7th street Metro has been 2 minutes late. The worst well over 10 minutes late. I have missed many transfers to the Red line. I want to like the Expo Line, and I keep hearing rumors of signal preemption and synchronization, but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet.
I was disappointed to see the new timetables for the Expo Line…and that there are 3 minutes planned between Culver City and La Cienega….and that no time has been shaved off the rest of the line. I hope that in time they can speed this line up.
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Expo Line complainers:
What were you guys expecting from a government project? Government can’t get anything right.
I took it for a couple weeks to try it out, but it just never beat the times I could get with the 733. I think this will change for me personally once the Culver City station opens – or I hope so at least.
Like everyone else, I agree that the Flower Street segment has been dreadful. Signal timing seems to be the main source of delay. I’ve observed several intersections from outside the train over the past few weeks and I can’t tell you the number of times the light turned red for the train just as it arrived at the intersection, forcing the train to wait through an entire signal cycle.
Maybe you can elaborate on the signal sync mechanisms in a future article: Do they work like the rapid bus ones where the train can only hold a green light longer? Or is the train supposed to command a green light upon arrival? Is there a way that the train can jump its turn in the signal cycle (i.e. reorder the turn arrows, etc.)? Or is the whole system based on pre-timed slots where once a train misses its window everything falls out of sync?