A scoping meeting to discuss returning streetcar service to downtown Los Angeles will be held from 4 to 7: 30 p.m. today at the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown at 615 South Broadway.
The big point of the meeting is to discuss and suggest possible routes for the project, which still needs to be funded in order to be built. As far as routes go, nothing has been decided yet — this is the start of the formal environmental review process. Downtown L.A. covers an enormous area and I hope a wide variety of ideas are discussed and refined for further study.
For tons more info about the project, visit the L.A. Streetcar website. The streetcar is a city of Los Angeles project but Metro is overseeing the environmental review aspect of the project.
Categories: Projects
Instead of historic cars, using low boarding cars (as opposed to the current metro style) would be best for a downtown street car. Fast boarding at multiple wide doors will speed the stops. A quick and easy hop-on hop-off system would really help. To pay there fares 2 things would work well: a timed ride system (like many places use, either $1 for an hour or $5 for 24 hours) and the TAP cards swiped at the doors. Having recently ridden the NYC subway system (after taking a crowded Gold-line and full Flyaway to LAX) and both the Oslo and NYC systems about 10 years ago; LA is getting better, but still has a way to go.
Great Idea! I strongly suggest that you use some historic trolleys on this loop much as done in San Francisco and other cities. There are a number of historic L.A. “Yellow Cars” in existence at Orange Empire trolley museum in Perris that might be for lease or purchase.