Transportation headlines, Friday, Jan. 28

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.

Vermont subway stop could see new development (L.A. Times)

The veteran developer Jerry Snyder says that he intends to build a pair of high-rise apartment buildings at the intersection of Wilshire and Vermont that would have a total of 464 units in two buildings — one 25 stories, the other 30. It’s certainly a good location — with the subway headed from Wilshire/Vermont directly to downtown L.A., Hollywood and (one day!) Westwood.

Figueroa corridor: no shortage of parking (L.A. Streetsblog)

Check out the graphic on this post — seriously you have to see it, to believe it. The map shows how much parking there is along Figueroa between downtown L.A. and the USC campus. How much? Try 545 acres within one kilometer (about .6 miles) of Figueroa. There is an effort underwawy to remake the corridor between South Park and USC, which would be great because Figueroa in that stretch often devolves into a suburban-like commercial strip and the Expo Line will soon be running one block over on Flower Street.

Northeast U.S. should be priority for high-speed rail (Transportation Nation)

The House of Representatives’ transportation committee held a field hearing in Grand Central Station in New York on Thursday and some members said the Boston-to-Washington corridor should be the national priority for bullet trains. It’s already Amtrak’s busiest corridor in the U.S., but some elected officials believe that Amtrak isn’t capable of turning it into a true high-speed line and that efforts to put bullet trains in less dense parts of the U.S. are taking money from the northeast.