Category Archives: Transportation News

Transportation headlines, Wednesday, Dec. 22

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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.

Taming the mean streets: A talk with NYC transportation chief Janette Sadik-Khan (Grist)

Grist writer Sarah Goodyear has a great interview with New York City’s transportation reformer in chief. Livable streets advocates have lauded Sadik-Khan for her efforts to enhance the experience of pedestrians and bicyclists on the city’s streets, while her critics accuse her being on an anti-car vendetta. If you’re wondering what advice she might have for L.A., Sadik-Khan says, “if we can make it work here, you can make it work almost anywhere. My advice is to be bold.”

Expo Line Phase 2 Gets Judge’s blessing, but neighbors vow to appeal (LA Weekly)

In case you missed it, LA Weekly has a recap of the tentative court decision in favor of Phase 2 of the Expo Line. Going forward, the Expo Construction Authority will now select a contractor to design and build the line that will continue west from the Phase 1 terminus in Culver City, ultimately connecting downtown L.A. to Santa Monica largely along a former Pacific Electric Red Car right-of-way.

A Few More Expo Quick Hits: At LA Streetsblog, Damien Newton explains why the presiding judge will have to review another case before issuing his final decision and why he believes Expo will prevail in a lawsuit brought against the project.  Also, the BuildExpo website has a new look, including nice interactive features which provide a glimpse of the design of future stations.

Downtown’s Union Station being sold to Texans (Curbed LA, via Bloomberg)

It may come as a surprise, but Union Station was not in fact owned by the County of Los Angeles or Metro.  Originally owned by private rail interests, the iconic transit hub is now changing hands between two holding companies, with ProLogis selling the property to the Fort Worth, Texas-based TPG Capital.

Bloomberg offers this tidbit about the buyer: “TPG Capital is the global buyout group of TPG, an investment company with more than $48 billion of assets under management…TPG is run by billionaire David Bonderman.”


FTA gives Metro the green light to study transit alternatives for Van Nuys corridor

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Van Nuys Corridor Map

Metro announced today that it has been selected to receive $2 million in Federal Transit Administration funding to begin two new transportation projects: an alternatives analysis for a premium transit service on Van Nuys Boulevard and work to improve the agency’s transit forecasting model. See the FTA’s announcement.

And here are the project descriptions.

This latest funding notice from the FTA injects new momentum into the agency’s Measure R program and is a win for the San Fernando Valley.

The Van Nuys Corridor is a main element in the East San Fernando Valley North-South Rapidways Project, which seeks to provide better transit service on key corridors in the Valley.

For the Van Nuys Corridor project, the goal is to greatly improve mobility on Van Nuys Boulevard for about 10 miles between Ventura and Foothill Boulevards. Anyone who has ridden a bus down Van Nuys Boulevard in this area knows this street is primed for some sort of premium service.

The Van Nuys corridor consistently ranks as one of the top ten busiest bus corridors in Los Angeles County. In the Valley it is the busiest corridor. Total weekday boardings on Metro buses serving this boulevard even beat the Metro Orange Line and Ventura Metro Rapid in terms of daily ridership. (Metro has approximately 27,000 weekday boardings for buses running on Van Nuys compared to the Orange Line’s 23,500 and Ventura Rapid’s 5,500 boardings).

So what are the possible transit alternatives the Alternatives Analysis will study? Besides the obligatory No-Build and Transportation Systems Management alternatives, Metro will be looking at the following options:

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, Dec. 21

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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.

A lot of noise over the Expo Line (L.A. Times)

Cheviot Hills and Rancho Park might seem to be an endless spring of opposition to the Expo Line, but one pair of neighborhood residents says it’s just a very vocal minority. Karen Leonard and Sarah Hays have spent weekends interviewing their neighbors about Expo – they’ve talked to more than half of Cheviot Hills 1,400 households – only to discover that the majority of residents are either for or have no strong opinion about the Expo Line passing through their suburban ‘hood.

Angels Flight to Celebrate 109th Anniversary With Penny Fares (blogdowntown)

Amid discussions about raising fares (currently 25 cents) for the short funicular ride in Downtown L.A., Angels Flight officials have decided to drop the fare to a penny on New Year’s Eve to commemorate the rail line’s opening on December 31, 1901. No decision has been made on whether or not to increase fares in 2011, but a new donation box is being installed in hopes of finding a way to close a $125,000-budget gap. If you haven’t taken a ride on Angel’s Flight, it’s a fun trip back to yesteryear (and up to California Plaza) and it’s an easy walk from the Pershing Square Metro Rail station.

Best Careers 2011: Urban Planner (U.S. News and World Report)

College students, are you still undeclared? Well maybe you should consider urban planning, U.S. News and World Report has chosen the vocation as one of the 50 best careers of 2011. The field is expected to grow by 19% in 2018 and the median salary is $61,820. Got your bachelor’s degree in something else? That’s actually a plus, as a master’s degree is usually required for planning jobs and a diverse background is welcomed. Go ahead and mention that you read The Source on your application.

Huge Projects Planned for Downtown Santa Monica (Santa Monica Mirror)

Expo is coming to town and Santa Monica is getting ready in a big way. Plans are underway in downtown Santa Monica for new parks, improvements to existing infrastructure and the creation of new bicycling amenities. In addition to bringing thousands of people into Santa Monica, officials hope that the Expo Line will also change local residents mode choices – shifting from the car to taking the train, cycling and walking.

Human Transit: toward aggregated information? (Trillium Solutions)

Jarret Walker has a post about the future of agency trip planners – namely that in the future they will be replaced by aggregate services like Google Transit. Aaron at Trillium Solutions offers a lengthy but smart response, summarizing the benefits of aggregate planners (“less expensive for the agency”) and the benefits of agency planners (better access to trip data for analysis). Personally, I’ve already made the full switch to Google Transit.


Blue Line delays likely to continue through Wednesday

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The Overhead Power System failure was caused by a broken section insulator, but the support wire and the train contact wire did not break. The train came to a stop on the Slauson Station grade. Photo by Luis Inzunza

The Overhead Power System failure was caused by a broken section insulator, but the support wire and the train contact wire did not break. The train came to a stop on the Slauson Station grade. Photo by Luis Inzunza

UPDATE: 9 p.m. Here’s a complete rundown of Blue Line’s modified schedule for tomorrow, Dec. 21, plus alternate travel options.

UPDATE 10 p.m. Repairs underway after the jump.

UPDATE: 5:30 p.m. – Report from Rail Operations Director Bruce Shelburne:

The Overhead Power System failure was caused by a broken section insulator. This caused the next passing train to take down the hanger support wires for approximately 2000 feet.

Good news. The support wire and the train contact wire did not break. At this time, only the hanger support wires, connecting the main support and train contact wires were damaged.

Bad news. The train came to a stop on the Slauson Station grade. The constant rain will require significant safety precautions to be in place before the train can be prepared to move.

Once the train is prepped for towing back to the Maintenance Yard, each car will have to be uncoupled and moved individually with a hi-rail truck, designed for the specific purpose of moving rail cars.

The primary problem with this operation is weight of the cars needing to be moved over wet rails on a grade. This action may need to be delayed until weather conditions improve, to provide for extra, wet weather safety measures to be in place.

Continue reading →

Transportation headlines, Monday, Dec. 20

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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.

New census numbers confirm resurgance of cities (Sustainable Cities Collective)

Not exactly surprising news, but the blog has a nice breakdown of new Census data showing that a lot of growth in cities is coming from the urban core of many metro areas. And data suggest that in one city — Atlanta — wealthier people are moving back to the city and into older homes instead of moving back into fancy new places. Interesting stuff and the re-urbanization of America should certainly be good for mass transit. If, that is, funding follows the trends.

BART studying operating hours (SFBARTblog)

On weeknights, BART is only closed for two-and-a-half hours — from 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. At the same time, patrons frequently ask for trains to run past 1:30 a.m. on weekend nights. Problem is, the agency has very little downtime to do needed maintenance work. As a result, the agency is going to look at the hours it runs and see if perhaps there’s another way meet demands of passengers. The 4 a.m. start date is going to get another look — it was started after the Loma Prieta earthquake to help people reach jobs because of damage to freeways.

Scientists weigh in on polar bears in a warming world (New York Times)

A fascinating post on the NYT’s Dot Earth blog about the retreat of older, thicker sea ice that is preferred habitat of polar bears in the Arctic. Optimism is in short supply, although there are still disputes within the scientific community over exactly how and when global warming is threatening polar bears. The bottom line, though, is that mortality is up and over time that will have a corrosive effect on bear populations. Attentive readers of The Source already know there’s widespread agreement among many scientists and governments that there’s a direct link between what comes out of your tailpipe and global warming.

Rail communique details Gold Line delays; final repairs may take up to two weeks and cause 5-minute delays

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Here’s a report from Bruce Shelburne, a Rail Operations director, that explains the loss of traction power last night and the repairs underway that may continue for a couple of weeks but cause only minor delays:

At 9:28 p.m. on Saturday night, the Pasadena Water and Power Department incurred a power service interruption, in turn impacting multiple Metro Gold Line Traction Power Substations.  Significant damage was sustained to one of the substations.

Gold Line service was suspended between Southwest Museum Station and Del Mar Station, with buses used to travel between the two stations, including service to Fillmore, Mission and Highland Park Stations.

Metro Wayside Department crews were able to repair power systems adequately to restore service to northbound Track 1 at midnight, allowing trains to share one track in the area with speed restrictions.  The time between trains was 30 minutes.

Still, a significant amount of work needed to be completed to repair additional damage to allow for the power system to support the return of power to Track 2.  With the opening of revenue service this morning, trains continued to run every 30 minutes at reduced speed.

At 2:45 p.m., power was restored to Track 2.  Trains were added to service and the regular Sunday service frequencies have been restored.  However, all service between Del Mar and Southwest Museum Stations will be operated at reduced speeds until further notice, as all repairs have not been completed.  Final repairs may take up to a couple of weeks, as additional Power Systems specialized components need to be acquired from the supplier.

Passengers using the Gold Line should plan for and expect delays that will be at least 3 to 5 minutes in each direction.

Should power supply conditions change before the morning peak period, additonal information will be posted on www.metro.net as necessary.  Likewise, staff will be assigned to stations in the morning if necessary.

We apologize for the inconvenience to all of our passengers.

Transit subsidy to remain at $230 per month

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Good news, transit riders: The pre-tax transit subsidy will remain at $230 per month through the end of 2011. Originally, the subsidy was scheduled to fall back to $120 per month on December 31st.

The retention of the increased pre-tax transit subsidy was a part of the tax bill signed into law by President Obama earlier today.

A previous effort to extend the pre-tax transit subsidy floundered last month: A House bill to preserve the subsidy solicited 47 supporters and the Senate version of the bill had just 17.


Transportation headlines, Friday, Dec. 17

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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.

Autism: Proximity to freeways increases autism risk, study finds (L.A. Times)

A study in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, found that children born to families living within 1,000 feet of a freeway were twice as likely to have autism. The researchers declined to say that freeway proximity and air pollution cause higher autism rates, in part because they had no way to measure how much pollution pregnant mothers were exposed to. A slew of chemicals in exhaust are known to cause birth defects, but the study’s authors indicated that more research will need to be done to establish a direct link between air pollutants and autism

CA Mayors Ask Sen. Barbara Boxer for a 21st century transpo system (DC Streetsblog)

California’s cities are speaking up and they want more transit. With Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) leaving Congress at the end this session — he chaired the House’s Transportation committee and lost his reelection bid last month — transportation advocates are turning to Boxer to take the lead. As the head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer will likely be a key figure in drafting the next federal surface transportation bill. She previously voiced strong support for including financing for 30/10 in that bill.

Gold Line Foothill Extension website gets a revamp (Arcadia’s Best)

Change is afoot in the foothill commute. As construction of the Gold Line extension to Azusa gets ready to launch, the Construction Authority has deployed a new website that will help keep residents up to date on the line’s progress.  The website features pages dedicated to every community along the Foothill Extension, with information about what the new stations will look like and plans for new transit oriented development.

Convenient, affordable transportation option aims to reduce parking demand, emissions and congestion (PR Newswire)

In case you missed it, Zipcar is coming to five locations on a street near you in Hollywood.  Here’s an update on the new locations:

Zipcar will have five pods of two cars located in Hollywood, including locations on Vine Street between Sunset Boulevard and Selma Avenue, as well as at the intersections of Hollywood Boulevard and North Western Avenue, Wilcox Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, North Highland Avenue and Yucca Street and at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue.

Transportation headlines, Thursday, Dec. 16

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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.

America’s Most Walkable Cities (The Atlantic)

Walkscore has become a popular way to find out if your neighborhood is walkable. Now someone has gone ahead and made a list of the most walkable cities in the U.S. using Walkscore data, and wouldn’t you know, Los Angeles made it in to the top 10. Of  course, it pays to remember that Walkscore just uses an algorithm based on proximity to amenities – it doesn’t take into account the quality of the built environment surrounding those amenities.

The Federal Interest in Non-Highway Transportation (Planetizen)

One argument against funding transit projects with federal dollars is that transit in cities (and other non-highway investments) does not address interstate concerns while highways do. Michael Lewyn argues against this idea on Planetizen, noting that most highway improvements are meant to serve local needs – like improving commute times. Likewise, transit and other non-highway projects can address national concerns such as pollution and America’s obesity problem by encouraging people to walk to and from stations.

Third Quarter 2010 Public Transit Ridership Declines Slightly (APTA)

According to this press release from the American Public Transportation Association, nationwide transit ridership is still down, but only slightly (.67%). The decrease is blamed on the continuing high unemployment rate that has been plaguing the country. Some places did show ridership increases on certain modes – L.A.’s light rail ridership is up 9.1% in 2010.

The Truth About HOT Lanes (The Infrastructurist)

The Infrastructurist has a good interview with Jack Finn from the infrastructure firm that that designed Orange County’s Route 91′s high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. Route 91 was the country’s first HOT project. For those who need a reminder: HOT are toll lanes that use variable pricing to ensure traffic keeps moving.

Hong Kong’s Expanding Metro a Model of Development-Funded Transit (The Transport Politic)

Hong Kong is expanding their heavily used transit system and funding it using a unique method. MTR, Hong Kong’s transit agency, is also one of the city’s biggest property developers. It uses profits from its development activities – residential, commercial and retail projects which are complimented nicely by the transit that reaches them – to fund future expansion. It’s not all that different from the funding mode America’s streetcar companies used at the turn of the 20th century. The so-called streetcar suburbs of L.A. are a perfect example of this. Could this mode of funding return to L.A.?


Metro's clean and green New Year's resolution

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In a video getting interest on You Tube, Metro’s CEO Art Leahy said the transportation agency with the “largest clean air fleet in the nation” will make a clean and completely green start in the new year when the last remaining 14 diesel buses in the fleet of more than 2,500 will retire.

Leahy talks up Metro’s clean public transportation systems and other improvements underway in “AQMD On the Air,” a video produced by South Coast Air Quality Management District and posted on YouTube.  The AQMD online program highlights agencies who have demonstrated a strong commitment to improving air quality and the difference they have made in helping clear the air we breathe.