Tag Archives: Westside subway extension

Digging to begin in few weeks for exploratory shaft for Purple Line Extension project

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Photo by Metro.

Photo by Metro.

Activity continues to ramp up on the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Ogden Drive, where Metro will soon be digging an exploratory shaft for the Purple Line Extension project. The site is located directly opposite LACMA, as the above photo shows.

Metro took possession of the site on April 1 and is prepping the area and bringing in equipment in order to begin drilling around June 1. The shaft will be approximately 40 feet by 20 feet and 75 feet deep.  Once drilling begins, it should take about six months to reach that depth with work occurring between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday.

The exploratory shaft will be used to gather more data about geologic and soil conditions in the area. The first phase of the subway project will run for 3.9 miles from the current Wilshire/Western station to Wilshire/La Cienega.

The current schedule has tunneling beginning in 2015 with the segment opening to the public in late 2022. The project is funded by the Measure R sales tax increase approved by L.A. County voters in 2008 and is seeking matching funds from the federal government’s New Starts program that helps local transit agencies build large and pricey projects.

Related Source posts: 

President Obama’s budget calls for $130 million for two Metro projects: Purple Line Extension and Regional Connector 

Westside Subway Extension gets a new official name: Purple Line Extension

This photo explains why Metro is building the Westside/Purple Line Extension

President Obama’s proposed budget calls for $130 million for two Metro projects: Purple Line Extension and Regional Connector

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This page from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation booklet of budget highlights. Click above for the full document (pdf).

This page from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation booklet of budget highlights. Click above for the full document (pdf).

Some very welcome news via the proposed budget released today by President Barack Obama: the budget includes $130 million to help fund two of Metro’s big rail projects: the Purple Line Extension and the Regional Connector. The budget allocates $65 million to both projects.

This is the first time that both projects will actually receive federal money. The funds are extremely significant because they help supplement Measure R funds for two projects that are both very expensive and need additional funds. Although Congress still must approve the budget, historically these type of funds don’t change much during budget negotiations.

There’s another reason the money is important. The funds are the first payment for more federal dollars that will flow to both projects in future federal budgets via the federal New Starts program that helps local transit agencies pay for big, pricey transit improvements — such as new rail lines.

Formal agreements that detail the New Starts money are expected to be signed between Metro and the Federal Transit Administration later this year. The subway will be asking for $2.3 billion in New Starts money and has a budget of $2.4 billion for its first phase to La Cienega Boulevard. The Regional Connector will be asking for $671 million in New Starts money and has a budget of $1.3 billion.

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Metro Board to consider change to Measure R expenditure plan as part of latest project acceleration effort

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UPDATE: The item will be considered at April’s meeting of the Metro Board of Directors.

In 2010, the Metro Board of Directors approved the 30/10 plan, the idea being to build 30 years worth of Measure R projects in the next decade. Although it hasn’t yet worked out, that policy is still very much on the books — and Metro staff are still trying to advance Measure R road and transit projects.

The first part of a new acceleration strategy will come before the Metro Board at its monthly meeting on Thursday. In particular, Metro staff are recommending that the Board approve a public notice of a planned change to the Measure R expenditure plan that would allow second- and third-decade Measure R projects to begin receiving funds this decade.

If approved, the proposal would then be vetted by a three-judge panel that provides oversight for Measure R. After the judges release their findings, the plan is for the Metro Board to vote on the new dates for the expenditure plan and a new acceleration plan at the Board’s May meeting.

And what will the acceleration strategy be this time around? I don’t know the details beyond what’s in the staff report issued last week (the report is below). The report shows that Metro is looking at assembling funds from a variety of sources — Measure R, America Fast Forward loans and bonds (30/10 was renamed America Fast Forward in 2011) and possibly revenues from Prop A and C, the half-cent sales tax increases approved by L.A. County voters in 1980 and 1990, respectively.

So stay tuned. As always there’s a lot of balls in the air, particularly at the federal level, where Metro is trying to lock down New Starts money for the Westside Subway Extension and Regional Connector while also getting getting Congress to fully adopt and fund the America Fast Forward plan.

Transportation headlines, Monday, March 25

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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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

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ART OF TRANSIT — Click above to see a larger version; black and white version after the jump. I was walking through Union Station last week with camera gear in tow and noticed some very nice late afternoon light on the old ticket room at the front of Union Station, used these days mostly for special events and filming. It will be interesting to see what is recommended for the gorgeous old room in the ongoing Union Station Master Plan process. We’ve had a couple of recent posts on the plan: a powerpoint on early findings by the architectural team in charge of the plan and a Metro staff report explaining that making Union Station work as a transit hub is the first priority of the plan. Both are very interesting. Thoughts on how you would like to see the old ticket room used? Comment please! Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

Wilshire Boulevard, a Main Street that stands apart (L.A. Times) 

The last of architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne’s series on major streets in the region and how they are changing (or in some cases not) with the times.

As would be expected, Hawthorne writes quite a bit about the Westside Subway Extension of the Purple Line, which will run mostly under Wilshire all the way to Westwood. If anything, Hawthorne writes, the subway will “intensify Wilshire’s traditional role as L.A.’s boulevard of reinvention.”

He also makes two other very interesting points: the first is that one way that UCLA could bring the campus closer to the subway station at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards is to develop the land it owns that is currently parking lot 36. First excerpt:

Because UCLA isn’t subject to local zoning or height limits, it could build atop the subway stop a very tall tower holding classrooms, apartments and even a museum or auditorium.

“We have a temporary building there now, but we do see this as a key site for UCLA in the future,” Jeffrey Averill, UCLA’s campus architect, said in an email. So do other architects, who look at the chance to design a tower on Lot 36 as the commission of a lifetime.

An architecturally bold skyscraper on the site “would dramatically change the image of the university,” said Neil Denari, an architect and UCLA professor who has produced a preliminary study for a cluster of connected towers at Lot 36. “It could be a kind of instant conversion to urbanism” for a school that until now “has been a drive-in, drive-out world.”

The other big point that Hawthorne makes is that the subway will bring visitors to the doorstep of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Excerpt two:

When the Getty Center opened on a Brentwood hilltop in 1997, inside a luxe billion-dollar campus by the architect Richard Meier, LACMA seemed to be falling even further behind in the chase for attendance. The Getty was right next to the 405 Freeway, after all, near the epicenter of Westside wealth.

Fast-forward 16 years and the conventional wisdom has dramatically changed. As became clear during the two recent Carmageddon shutdowns of the 405, when the museum was forced to close, the Getty’s reliance on the freeway system has become a liability. LACMA, on the other hand, will enjoy a new centrality once the Purple Line reaches Wilshire and Fairfax 10 years from now. It will likely get another boost in attendance when the subway is extended west to Rodeo Drive by 2025 or so.

Give the article a read – it’s very thoughtful. I also think that it’s inevitable that the subway will spur investment and some development near the new stations. As the real estate values rise near the stations, hopefully more investment will spread down to other parts of Wilshire that could use a boost.

And while on the subject, which pencilhead in City Hall decided strip malls along Wilshire were a good idea? Really? REALLY?

New York City commuter cycling stays flat in ’12 (New York Times) 

After three years of significant gains, the number of cyclists counted at six survey locations during the traditional riding season was flat last year, according to the city’s annual count. As with other places, one of the key questions bouncing around in New York is how many cyclists are actually using the new bike infrastructure aggressively installed under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The mayor’s office says that thus far this year they are seeing more people riding and the traditional count didn’t include some places where new bike lanes were installed. It would be great to see a survey here across the region to see which bike infrastructure is being used and which isn’t — the idea being that perhaps the lanes not being used need to be modified to attract more riders. I’m talking to you, Venice Boulevard bike lanes!

At 40 years, San Francisco’s transit first policy still struggles for traction (San Francisco Streetsblog) 

Despite a plan adopted in March 1973 to give priority to transit, the bulk of San Francisco’s streets are still used to operate and store private vehicles, sometimes leaving little space for transit, pedestrians and cyclists, writes Streetsblog. Good post with some great photos and other visuals. Some interestingness: in San Francisco, about 45 percent of people drive to work and about 33 percent take transit — rates that stand apart from most other large American cities in which many more people drive and fewer people take transit.

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UCLA continues to make progress in reducing car trips to Westwood campus

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UCLA recently released its annual State of the Commute report. The gist of it: even as enrollment has climbed in the past 20-plus years, the number of car trips to and from campus has fallen. The folks at UCLA credit this drop to several factors, most notably policies to encourage students and staff to take transit to campus or to carpool or vanpool.

I’ve plucked a few graphics from it that I think are interesting; the ones above and the nifty info-graphic posted after the jump that sums up the report’s major findings.

The campus population at UCLA is about 68,000 people — about 41,000 students and almost 27,000 faculty and staff. About 56,000 students and staff commute to the campus on a regular basis. The nearest rail stations at present aren’t so near: the Culver City Expo Line station (eight-plus miles by the most direct route) and the Purple Line’s station at Wilshire/Western (11 miles from campus).

Of course, rail transit is on the way to UCLA. The Westside Subway Extension will stop at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, albeit that won’t happen until — gulp — 2036 under the current funding scenario. Unless, of course, Metro can find a way to accelerate the project.

In addition, the second phase of the Expo Line will have a station at Westwood Boulevard, just south of Pico Boulevard. It’s a 2.2-mile walk between the station and the intersection of Westwood and Le Conte (the south side of the UCLA campus) or, at present, a 15 to 16 minute bus ride on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus’ 8 or 12 lines. In the future, let’s hope that there’s speedier bus service between Expo, the Westside Subway and UCLA’s campus, not to mention safe and fast bike routes.

Big, entertaining graphic after the jump — please check it out!

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Reminder: why Election Day in Los Angeles matters if you care about transportation

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Click above to find your polling place if you live in the city of Los Angeles.

Click above to find your polling place if you live in the city of Los Angeles.

As you may have heard, there’s a primary election Tuesday in Los Angeles to elect the next mayor of the second-largest city in the nation — a city with about 3.8 million inhabitants and some well-known transportation challenges.

So even if you get all scratchy and/or break out in hives during campaign season, I’m here to kindly remind you to vote because there’s a lot at stake. Strike that. There’s tons at stake. Look up your polling place here.

Here’s why. Metro is a county agency and is overseen by a 13 member Board of Directors who serve as the deciders on most significant issues. The Mayor of Los Angeles gets a seat on that board and gets to fill three other seats with his appointees.

So let’s do some math! A majority of the Metro Board — i.e. seven votes — is required to approve most items. Four of those seven votes are controlled by the Los Angeles mayor. That means that the mayor controls more than half the votes needed to approve items that have impacts (hopefully always very positive!) across Los Angeles County.

Here are some items that are likely to confront the Metro Board in the next four or so years, meaning they’re items likely to confront the lucky soul (if luck is the right word) who becomes the next mayor of the City of Angels and/or Parking Lots:

•Although there’s nothing currently on the table, there will likely be a discussion in the next four years about Metro’s fare structure — all large transit agencies have to confront the fare issue at regular intervals. If you’re one of the readers who has left countless comments on this blog calling for distance-based fares, then this might interest you.

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Transportation headlines, Monday, March 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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: workers in the Chicago subway. Photo by Chicago Transit Authority, via Flickr creative commons.

ART OF TRANSIT: workers in the Chicago subway. Photo by Chicago Transit Authority, via Flickr creative commons.

L.A.’s broken civic promise (L.A. Times) 

With elections in the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday, the Times’ architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at five urban planning issues in the city that represent failures or issues that need to be addressed by the next mayor. They are: LAX (with an emphasis on transit to LAX), Pershing Square, Grand Avenue, the Westside Subway Extension and the Los Angeles River. This is a outstanding article.

Excerpt on LAX:

But the truth is that the airport’s biggest liability is not simply architectural. Somehow Los Angeles built a major rail route, the Green Line, past LAX 20 years ago without adding a stop at the airport.

And guess what? We are about to build another light-rail route — this time the $1.7-billion Crenshaw Line — near the airport and make precisely the same mistake again.

Why? In part it’s because squeezing a station beneath the existing airport complex would be expensive and complicated. And in part because the operator of LAX, Los Angeles World Airports, has not always seen eye to eye with transit planners at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Plans are underway to build a “people mover” automated train that would take passengers to the airport from a Crenshaw Line station at Century and Aviation boulevards, a mile east of the terminals.

The people mover would be a sadly inefficient compromise. The worst-case scenario, which can typically be counted on at LAX, is that passengers on the Crenshaw Line would have to drag their suitcases over a pedestrian bridge before getting on the people mover.

Hawthorne believes a rail station needs to actually be located at the airport.

Excerpt on the Westside Subway Extension:

As the backbone of a thriving new mass-transit system, the subway is worth its admittedly sky-high cost. The subway we build now will be a bargain compared with the one we try to build several decades from now.

And the truth is that opposition in places such as Beverly Hills is not just about safety. (Tunneling of this kind has become routine for subway builders around the world.) It is also driven by fears of the changes a subway line through the city might bring.

The same anxieties kept Bay Area’s BART system out of Marin County and the Washington, D.C., Metro out of Georgetown decades ago. (And the subway out of Beverly Hills in the 1980s, for that matter.) If they were patently offensive then, they are indefensible now.

Hawthorne’s point: get the subway built ASAP. Read the entire article please. Los Angeles has long struggled to create vital public spaces commonly found in other cities. These ideas haven’t generated much conversation in the mayoral campaign thus far, thanks in part to an endless series of debates seemingly designed to generate little more than scripted sound bites.

In the most recent poll reported on by the Times, voters’ top priority was the city budget, job creation and schools. Interesting. I tend to associate local government most with public safety and land use decisions — while voters (at least in this poll) go for broader subjects.

Working from home vs. working from the office (New York Times)

This editorial comes on the heels of Yahoo’s CEO ordering the troops back to the office in hopes of greater creativity and productivity. The Times tepidly suggests that such decisions shouldn’t be made so quick as there are benefits to work-at-home — one of those being that it helps traffic congestion. In Los Angeles County, 4.7 percent of workers work at home — imagine putting 72 percent of time alone in cars and sending them on the freeways at rush hour! Some parts of the county have even higher percentages: in Santa Monica, home of the screenwriter-who-sits-at-Coffee-Bean-all-day, about 10 percent of the workforce does their job from home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hands across America (The New Yorker, March 4 edition) 

A very entertaining recent history of the hand sanitizer industry, which may interest those who sped a lot of time in public spaces. The article begins with a long anecdote about Purell, which took 10 years of losses on its sanitizer product until public appetite exploded, catching on first with health-care workers and then with the masses. The article is behind the New Yorker’s pay wall, but an abstract is available for free.

Transportation headlines, Monday, Feb. 25; looking for love on the bus, subway and Walmart

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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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

Source: Psychology Today.

Source: Psychology Today.

Missed connections: looking for love on the bus, train and Walmart (Psychology Today) 

The above graphic is one big slice of awesomeness. Psychology Today looked at the last 100 “missed connection” posts in Craigslist in each state to find the place where boy/girl didn’t quite connect with boy/girl. Transit got the top nod in five states in addition to the District of Columbia. That’s no match for Walmart, which lead 13 states — because, you know, love never looked better than under fluorescent lights. It’s also interesting that LA Fitness is apparently more of a meat market in Arizona than it is in California, where 24 Hour Fitness serves as the local candy shop.

And some special mentions….

Georgia: Wow, your traffic must really be pathetic if you have that much time to sit and ogle girl/boy from a vehicle.

Utah: very old school — meeting girl/boy at college!

Nevada: I wonder how many of those casino connections last more than a week?

Indiana: The state must lead the nation in shy people if you meet someone “at home” and still need to place a “missed connections” ad.

Maryland: Meeting someone in a park sounds nice.

Hat tip for this post: Human Transit, transportation planner Jarrett Walker’s most excellent blog.

Westside traffic: C’mon, council candidates, let’s fix it (L.A. Times) 

Editorial writer, Brentwood resident and car commuter Carla Hall recently attended a Streetsblog forum for 11th Council District candidates and didn’t come away impressed. She wanted to hear more about fixing car traffic in the congested Westside and doesn’t think transit or cycling offer much hope. Nor is she a fan of left-turn signals.

Of course, fixing traffic in many cities is notoriously difficult and the Westside is no exception. It’s also difficult when so many proposals — including one mentioned by Hall that would have turned Olympic and Pico boulevards into one-way streets — are shot down by Westside residents!

As for Brentwood, I think there are three Metro projects that would have been worth mentioning or debating their merits: the Wilshire/405 flyover ramps under construction, the new and wider Sunset Boulevard bridge and Metro’s decision to end the third phase of the Westside Subway Extension at the VA Hospital, meaning it doesn’t quite reach Brentwood. 

After M.T.A. setbacks, no-swipe fare cards are still stuck in the future (New York Times) 

The paper cards that are swiped to get patrons through turnstiles on the New York subway have been around since 1993 and are likely here to stay for some time. The agency’s efforts to adopt no contact smart cards — i.e. such as TAP cards — no longer seem to be a priority, even though many other large transit agencies have gone that route. The MetroCard used in New York costs too much and does too little, complain officials.

The mayoral candidate video series: Wendy Greuel (L.A. Streetsblog)

The fifth and final installment in the series that allowed each of the leading candidates for Los Angeles mayor to talk about their take on local transportation issues.

Letter to Mark Lacter (Examined Spoke)

A thorough take-down/dismemberment of Lacter’s recent post at LAObserved complaining about providing more space for cyclists on L.A. streets. It’s always fun to watch what someone armed with actual facts can accomplish!

Transportation headlines, Wed., Feb. 20; amazing bike grill, candidate ‘clarifies’ subway position, fare free transit spreading?

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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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

ART OF TRANSIT: The scene on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles last night. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

ART OF TRANSIT: The scene on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles last night. Click above to see larger. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

Millenium Hollywood plan clears first hurdle (L.A. Times) 

The city of L.A.’s planning department approved plans for two towers — a block from the Hollywood & Vine Red Line station — that would house apartments, offices and retails. Some residents are upset, saying the towers, which would be at least 485 and 585 feet tall, respectively, would block views and add to traffic in the area. I’ll offer up the opposing view: it’s nice to see Hollywood getting some much needed new development, homes, jobs and commerce — the things that make a city function like a city. The towers still must be approved by the Planning Commission and the City Council.

The mayoral interview candidate series: Kevin James (L.A. Streetsblog)

Part two of the five-part series includes a video interview with Kevin James.

Kevin James clarifies views on subway station (Century City News) 

“Clarifies” is not the word I would have chosen for the headline — James doesn’t say in this short piece whether he supports the location of the Century City station and whether it’s appropriate for the subway tunnels to go under part of the Beverly Hills High School campus. James, however, says that if Beverly Hills prevails in court and the approvals for the Westside Subway Extension are overturned, he would then sit down with both Beverly Hills and Metro and work through the issues.

Fare-free transit spreading in Europe? (Human Transit) 

The city of Tallin (pop. 425,000) in Estonia is, by Jarrett Walker’s reckoning, now the largest city in the world to offer free transit for its residents — although residents still need to purchase a fare card. Tourists and visitors still have to pay fares. Interestingness excerpt:

Indeed, smart farecards make it possible for anyone to subsidize fares without much complexity, opening up a huge range of subsidy possibilities for any entity that sees an advantage in doing so.  Yet another reason that city governments are not as helpless about transit as they often think, even if they don’t control their transit system.

Like to eat sausages while biking? Then this bike grill is for you (The Atlantic Cities) 

Check out this awesome invention — instead of a bike rack behind the seat there’s a grill capable of holding four large sausages. The inventor is from L.A. and says he will target German audiences because of their high per capita consumption of bratwurst.

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, Feb. 19; another Beverly Hills lawsuit against subway, Najarian and Metro Board,

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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 Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

City of Beverly Hills files lawsuit to block federal funding for Westside Subway Extension (City of Beverly Hills) 

The news release from the city is unclear whose decision it was to file a second lawsuit over the project. The only person quoted in the release is the city attorney. This suit names the Federal Transit Administration as the defendant and alleges that the environmental studies for the subway were flawed; the city doesn’t want the subway to tunnel under parts of its high school campus en route to Century City.

However, the news release notes that Mayor Willie Brien and the four members of the Beverly Hills City Council voted unanimously this month to set aside an extra $250,000 of city funds for legal bills related to fighting Metro’s plans.

The lawsuit comes less than three weeks before Council elections on March 5 and the subway is obviously an issue — well, at least for some. It’s worth noting that Beverly Hills Mayor Willie Brien attended and spoke at a Metro event for the beginning of utility relocations for the subway back in November and said then that he supports the project. Support or not, the city filed this suit against the FTA, the federal agency that approves environmental documents and oversees the flow of federal money to the project.

The city of Beverly Hills last June sued Metro, also alleging environmental studies were flawed. The Beverly Hills Unified School District last year also filed a pair of suits, one against Metro and one against the FTA.

Beverly Hills’ subway spat (Los Angeles Times) 

Excerpt from this editorial:

Beverly Hills’ embarrassing battle against the Westside subway extension, which emerged as a major political issue last year, is becoming one of the key issues in the March 5 city elections. With the lines hardening between those determined to take legal action to stop the construction of a tunnel under the local high school, which they fear will endanger students, and those who see that route as the safest alternative, we urge residents to consider the scientific and engineering reality rather than merely relying on emotion. In other words: Stop gumming up the rails, Beverly Hills, for your own sake and L.A.’s.

The editorial says that Mayor Brien has tried to avoid a costly legal fight. But, as noted above, it’s unclear exactly who on the City Council approved the new suit against the FTA. According to the Beverly Hills Courier — a sometimes accuracy-challenged newspaper — Brien has said he will support the project even if it tunnels under part of the campus.

Jim Newton: an MTA power play (L.A. Times) 

Editorial chief Jim Newton looks at Glendale Councilman Ara Najarian’s battle to keep his seat on the Metro Board of Directors. Some on the Board oppose him, some support him. At the root of the battle is Najarian’s opposition to a possible tunnel for the 710 freeway between Alhambra and Pasadena. That project is currently under study along with other alternatives including no-build, traffic signal and intersection improvements, bus rapid transit and light rail.

The mayoral candidate interview series (L.A. Streetsblog) 

Streetsblog on Monday debuted the first of five short video interviews with the five leading candidates for mayor of Los Angeles. The first is with Emanuel Pleitez. The mayor of Los Angeles has an automatic seat on the Metro Board and also gets to appoint members to three other seats.