Category Archives: Transportation News

Transportation headlines, Thursday, Jan. 6

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.

Metrolink looking to test express service (KCET So Cal Focus)

Metrolink CEO John Fenton thinks the commuter rail agency should be carrying more passengers and that one way to get more people on board would be to make trains more competitive with driving. As a result, the agency is looking at testing express routes on some of its longest trips, which can take upward of 90 minutes at present. The goal would be to shave 30 to 45 minutes off those trips as a way to possible incentivize people out of their cars. Caltrain, which runs between San Jose and San Francisco, did something similar a few years ago by making upgrades that greatly sped up trains and resulted in a ridership bump.

NYC Tries ‘Rapid’ Buses in Bid to Cut Transit Costs (New York Times)

For decades, “World Class Transit” has been synonymous with subways. But times are changing: New York City is rolling out its own bus rapid transit projects, joining a host of regions including L.A. County, Paris and Syndey.  The new system has a number of features that should speed up travel times. The bus-only lanes speak for themselves, but another way the buses are saving huge chunks of time is by requiring passengers to buy tickets before boarding, a la Metro’s Orange Line.

Transport study derails thinking on outer suburbs (The Age)

A study by researchers in Melbourne, Australia, suggests that the correlation between residential density and transit ridership may not be as strong as previously thought. They point to the fact there is relatively high average density in Los Angeles County but low transit ridership compared to cities with similar densities. But, beware the perils of average density! The keys to good transit patronage in the suburbs, according to the report, are: “more frequent buses, running at least every 10-15 minutes, and not just in peak hour; better co-ordination with rail services; more convenient transfers; and fares that allow free transfers between modes.”

Statement by Metro Board Chairman Don Knabe re: U.S. action on subway, Regional Connector

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Metro Board Chairman Don Knabe has issued this statement on FTA go-ahead for Westside Subway Extension and Regional Connector:

Metro has received welcome news from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) that it can proceed with preliminary engineering for the subway extension to Westwood and the Regional Connector underground light rail line that will connect the Metro Gold, Blue and future Expo lines making it easier for passengers to reach their destinations without having to transfer to a bus or another train.

Hopefully, this is a prelude for the FTA partnering with Metro to help pay for construction of these two major transit projects that will attract tens of thousands of new riders. Historically, FTA has funded just one Los Angeles County rail project at a time so this positive action is unprecedented. Competition for federal New Starts rail project funding is extremely competitive across the nation. The FTA news received this week also comes on the heels of a $546 million federal loan commitment for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor light rail project announced last Fall.

These actions underscore federal confidence in Metro’s ability to deliver public transit improvements to give Los Angeles County motorists a viable alternative for slogging in traffic, and it bodes well for accelerating a dozen local transit projects that 2 million county voters approved when they voted for the Measure R transit sales tax two years ago.

Metro is leveraging Measure R funds with federal grants and loans to build these countywide rail and bus improvement projects in the next decade instead of spreading them over 30 years, which will save taxpayers money by beating inflation and taking advantage of current low construction bids. This investment in transit infrastructure also will create more than 100,000 new jobs at a time when unemployment remains stubbornly high.

On behalf of the Metro Board of Directors, I also want to acknowledge and thank the FTA for moving so quickly to advance two projects of this magnitude. I also want to personally thank Senator Barbara Boxer for championing federal support for the subway extension and the Regional Connector and we look forward to working with the Senator and her staff as these projects advance.

Transportation headlines, Wednesday, Jan. 5

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.

Businesses fear hikes at L.A. parking garages (Los Angeles Business Journal)

A plan to lease city-owned parking garages to private enterprise has local businesses up in arms, fearing a significant loss in business due to increased parking rates. The plan to lease the lots is the city’s attempt to plug the budget hole – and stave off cutting city services and staff. Private companies in charge of the lots would be allowed to triple the costs of parking in certain areas (Hollywood and Westwood) and local business owners feel these inflated rates will spell doom for their patronage. Is this another case of “the high cost of cheap parking” or an example of public space being sold wholesale to private enterprise without thought of the consequences?

Pedestrian-Only Shopping Streets Make Communities More Livable (Planetizen)

Planetizen offers a look at Pedestrian-Only Shopping Streets, or POSS, across the globe. These car-free streets are typically adjacent to public transport, offer plentiful bicycle facilities and are flanked with auto parking on the nearby mixed-mode streets. Livability is hard to define, but Planetizen concludes that POSS make communities more livable than traditional shopping streets due the the increased safety and social interaction that stems from removing the car from the equation.

Keep myki [smart fare card in Victoria, Australia] and fix the problems (Herald Sun)

This is an interesting story (hat tip to The Transit Wire) for L.A. taxpayers frustrated with the implementation of the TAP card. In Victoria, Australia, the transit agency has been trying to implement their own version of the TAP card – the myki card – but the $1.35 billion system (about half has been spent so far) is being called a boondoggle and there are questions of the whole thing should be scrapped. Aside from the costs, the system has been plagued with technical problems and doesn’t work as promised, although transit riders still experience benefits – when it works. There’s lessons to be learned here, the most obvious being that implementing smartcard systems is never as easy as it would seem.

Destination Discounts: $5 off Los Angeles Art Show

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LA Art Show

The Los Angeles Art Show (LAAS), the premier and most significant art fair in the Western United States will return to the LA Arts Month will be hosted at the L.A. Convention Center from January 19-23, 2011.

Presented by the Fine Art Dealers Association (www.fada.com) For additional information about the Los Angeles Art Show, please visit www.laartshow.com. General admission to the Los Angeles Art Show is $20.

Dates: Jan. 19-23
Discount: Receive $5 off a general admission ticket, at the time of ticket purchase.
Restrictions: Patrons must present their Metro pass AND accompanying coupon from L.A. Arts Month Kick-off Festival.
How to get it: Coupons are available only at the L.A. Arts Month Kick-off Festival at the ExperienceLA booth on January 5, 2011 on the Music Center Plaza.
Where: L.A. Convention Center, West Hall A, 1201 S. Figueroa St.
Nearby Metro Rail: Blue Line Pico Station
Nearby Metro Bus Stops: Venice/Figueroa (33, 81, 442, 445, 460, 733) Pico/Figueroa (30, 81, 439, 442, 445, 730, Silver Line)

Report: Gas tax often fails to cover full cost of highways

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The transportation team at the California Public Interest Research Group (a staunch supporter of Metro’s 30/10 plan) has issued an interesting report that attempts to debunk the oft-cited notion that highway’s are fully paid for by user fees, such as gas taxes and tolls. Contrary to conventional wisdom, their research illustrates that government has always used gas taxes for a variety of purposes, which have included public transit and general deficit reduction.

The report contends that this misconception has been used to justify putting more money into highway construction and expansion, at the expense of investment in public transit.

Above all, this report really points to the fact that the United States is profoundly under-investing in its infrastructure — as many other experts have said in recent years. The percentage of Gross Domestic Product spent on infrastructure in the U.S. is about two-thirds of what is was in the 1960s and about half of what Europe spends today — you know, that continent with the extensive high speed rail network and intra-urban transit.  As this New York Times graph indicates, building the intestate highway system boosted investment in physical infrastructure, after which spending dropped off substantially.

In a time of constrained federal budgets and crumbling bridges, how would you find the money to keep up investing in transit?

Here’s the link to the PIRG report [PDF].  And here’s a link to Streetsblog’s coverage (disclosure: work there too!).


Metro to hold six public hearings in February for proposed bus service changes

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We posted yesterday about the new round of bus service changes proposed to take effect in June. Here’s the press release issued today by Metro — after the jump is a list of the proposed changes:

Metro will hold six public hearings beginning February 1 to receive community input on proposed bus service modifications to be implemented on June 26, 2011 or later in an effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Metro bus service.

Included in the proposed changes are specific Metro Rail new Expo Line bus/rail interface changes that will be considered at the upcoming public hearings. The Expo bus/rail interface proposed changes will not be implemented until the Expo Line opens. A date has not been set but construction from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City is nearing completion.

The public can attend any of the following public hearings and comment on proposals of interest to them. The following are the public hearings scheduled during the month of February.

•February 1, 2011 – ( 5 p.m.) Metro Board Room, One Gateway Plaza, 3rd Floor, Los Angeles.

•February 2, 2011 – (6:30 p.m.) Marvin Braude Constituent Center, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys

•February 9, 2011 – (5 p.m.) La Cienega Tennis Center, 325 South La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills.

•February 10, 2011 – (2 p.m.) Salt Lake Park-Community Center, 3401 East Florence Ave., Huntington Park.

•February 14, 2011 – (5 p.m.) El Monte City Hall East/Council Chambers, 11333 Valley Blvd., El Monte.

•February 17, 2011 – (6 p.m.) Carson Community Center, 801 East Carson Street, Carson.

The proposed service changes under consideration will help to optimize service levels to demand and will result in reducing wasteful and underutilized service. In nearly all cases where lines are proposed for elimination, they will be replaced by other Metro bus lines or by transit services within one-quarter mile of existing service.

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Transportation headlines, Tuesday, Jan. 4

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Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.

Bundling up for global warming (New York Times Dot Earth blog)

California has been soaked and cold for the past month — Mammoth has already received more than 300 inches of snow this season — and the East Coast and Europe have also been the recipient of big snows and cold snaps. This interesting post at the always interesting Dot Earth blog explores the relationship between weather (short-term meteorological events) and climate (what happens over the long-term) and asks scientists to put recent weather in the proper context. Attentive readers know that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases, much of which is produced courtesy of the transportation sector.

High-speed rail: Obama’s high stakes gamble (Time)

One of the best articles I’ve read on the Obama Administration’s push for high-speed rail projects across the country — even in places where the trains were going to travel nowhere near high-speed (Ohio). The article suggests that even though Obama doesn’t have the trillion dollars needed to build a national network of bullet trains, it was following the old Robert Moses maxim of break ground first and worry about how to finish later — because once ground is broken, there will be momentum to find the money to finish. Excerpt:

Big Government is always a convenient political opponent, especially when times are tough and families are cutting back, and the Administration was clearly overconfident that high-speed rail would inevitably expand once stakes were sunk. Still, it’s one thing to complain about federal spending and quite another thing to divert it elsewhere. Shortly after Wisconsin’s money was redistributed, the Spanish firm Talgo announced plans to shut down its U.S. train-manufacturing operations in Milwaukee and relocate the jobs to a state that continues to pursue high-speed rail. “I can’t wait to see the ads in Wisconsin in 2014,” an Obama aide says. “You’ll have some guy working on the train in Florida: ‘Thanks for my job, Governor Walker!’ “

As the South and the West grow, agendas must follow (Next American City)

Recently released Census data shows that the population in the U.S. is shifting toward the south and west — New York state once had five times the number of people in Florida. Now the states are almost even. Although some cities in the South and West are reviving their urban cores, many people in those areas live in suburban or exurban areas. The author of this post, Yonah Freemark, suggests that advocates will need to make new and better arguments to get the funding needed to bring back urban areas.

Transportation headlines, Monday, Jan. 3

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Happy New Year, everyone! Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.

FTA awards $16.6 million in grants for fuel cell bus research (Engadget)

Two alternative transportation research teams received a nice holiday gift from the Federal Transit Administration in the form of multi-million dollar grants to boost research into fuel cell.  Pasadena based CALSTART got the lion’s share of $10.2 million.  In the short-term, the goal is to build a more compact and more durable fuel cell.  Eventually, the FTA’s hope is to develop a commercially viable alternative that will allow transit agencies to replace loud and polluting diesel buses with cleaner and quieter ones.

Optimism on Villaraigosa’s 30/10 initiative (L.A. Times)

Columnist Tim Rutton kicked off the new year reaffirming his faith in the 30/10 Initiative. Even though there’s been something of a shakeup in Congress, Rutton takes comfort knowing that there is a broad consensus of political support for the plan to build thirty year’s worth of transit projects in ten years using Federal financing.

No Bond Guarantee From Rep. Mica (Wall Street Journal)

The incoming chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. John Mica, wants to set the record straight regarding his position on Build America Bonds — those subsidized loans that fund infrastructure projects.  Rep. Mica thinks they might be too generous for these fiscally constrained times, but he is open to any innovative ideas that won’t increase federal taxes.  30/10, as it turns out, is both innovative and locally funded.

Critic’s Notebook: Los Angeles needs a game plan (L.A. Times)

In his last column of 2010, Christopher Hawthorne takes the Los Angeles Planning Department to task for failing to develop plans that steer development in a way that’s good for the city, not just developers.  Specifically, he gives credit to cities like Portland, Ore. and New York for revitalizing their cities with better transit, bicycling infrastructure, and other “human-scaled improvements.”


Metro Rail ready to carry thousands of revelers, parade-goers and football fans to Pasadena New Year’s festivities

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Video: Rain didn’t stop 2011 Tournament of Roses Queen Evanne Elizabeth Friedmann, Princess Tenaya Miyoko Senzaki and Princess Michelle Kaye Washington from an official and enthusiastic endorsement of the Metro Gold Line. The royal entourage joined with Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro Director Michael Antonovich, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, members of the Los Angeles Kimono Club, transit officials and civic leaders in the Little Tokyo community on Wednesday to encourage taking public transit to the New Year’s festivities in Pasadena. And, while you’re at it, take the Gold Line to Little Tokyo for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in April.

More info here: Reminder: Metro Rail and Orange Line run all night tonight; extra service added on Gold Line for Tournament of Roses

Details + Schedule for Overnight 24-Hour Rail Service for New Year’s Eve

So noted, but worth repeating: after the jump

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Year in rewind: Source features worth another read

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In addition to our daily coverage of the latest local and national transportation news, service alerts and transit lifestyle issues, we often like to do feature stories that build upon the latest news and offer a bit more for our readers to chew on. Be it helpful tips on how to better take advantage of Metro’s transit system or an in depth look and some of the problems the agency faces, the following feature stories from the past year warrant another look.

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December: