Click above to see larger map.Community Update Meetings
Good news — the final environmental study for the Regional Connector project — to link the Blue, Gold and future Expo lines — is almost done. The project team has scheduled three meetings to talk about some of the issues they’re working on. Here’s the announcement:
Metro is currently completing the Final Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (Final EIS/EIR) for the Regional Connector Transit Corridor project.
Ahead of the Summer 2011 release of the Final EIS/EIR, Metro is hosting three community meetings to present the designated Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) and project refinements accomplished since October 2010. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us at one of these upcoming meetings:
Tuesday, June 21, 2011; 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., Colburn School of Music, Olive Hall , 200 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011; 6:30 – 8 p.m. , Japanese American National Museum , 369 E First St, Los Angeles . (This meeting will be broadcast through Ustream).
Thursday, June 30, 2011; 6:30 – 8 p.m. , Los Angeles Times, Community Room , 145 S Spring St, Los Angeles.
Meeting format and content will be identical.
For more information:
Email: regionalconnector@metro.net
The Web: metro.net/regionalconnector
Facebook: facebook.com/regionalconnector
Twitter: @metroconnector or twitter.com/metroconnector
UStream: http://www.ustream.tv/user/
Regional Connector Phone: 213.922.7277
Each meeting will have Japanese, Korean, and Spanish interpreters and materials available.
Categories: Projects
@John McCready:
You clearly have missed the point.
The Regional Connector is about efficiency. It makes no sense to have what are effectively two separate light rail systems flanking Downtown LA (with the Expo and Blue Lines to the west and the Gold Line branches to the east). Each of the existing light rail lines individually miss most Downtown destinations. (For example, both branches of the Gold Line suffer because they don’t reach the heart of Downtown, they only reach Union Station and/or Little Tokyo.)
More importantly, the Regional Connector will literally connect the region by allowing light rail passengers to travel through Downtown quickly to destinations on each of the light rail lines.
The benefits go on and on (e.g. the extremely high cost-effectiveness of the project compared to projects nationally, relieving crowding at 7th St/Metro Center, lowering overall rail operating costs, improving the Little Tokyo Station, linking all of the rail maintenance centers by rail, making better use of Red/Purple Line capacity Downtown, etc…)
No. There are still many many more buses than rails in LA, we have a vastly underdeveloped backbone network that rapidly needs expansion. This city cannot sustain itself on core transit that is subject to traffic. Buses simply do not work well as core backbone lines (720 anyone? 761?). They serve as connectors to rail or fill in gaps between core lines and serve localized areas and less dense areas. And most importantly, PEOPLE WOULD RATHER RIDE TRAINS THAN BUSES!!! This is a simple fact of transit. LRT (or HRT) is smoother, accelerates faster, has higher capacity and more room, is non polluting in the city, is better at keeping schedule, can have level boarding, and provides permanent fixed infrastructure that encourages development and revitalization that buses simply don’t do.
Also, the metro blue line was originally supposed to be through-routed to union station anyways. This project continues that original plan. Currently one has to board three separate rail lines just to get from the southern end of downtown to north downtown (past union station) with three separate fares. Most importantly this subway connector helps the whole region because it allows a single seat ride between both ends of the city east and west and also north and south (long beach to Pasadena). Fewer transfers means higher ridership and therefore increased revenue. That kind of connectivity simply cannot be achieved with just street buses. They are indeed important for cities, but they should NEVER replace much needed core rail lines.
The “Regional Connector” is nothing more then a boon-doggle that reflects the MTA’s pathetic bias of light-rail over buses! There are ALREADY TWO CONNECTING LIGHT-RAIL ROUTES FROM UNION STATION TO THE BLUE/EXPO LINES! THEY ARE CALLED THE RED AND PURPLE LINES! THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANOTHER TRAIN LINE OUT OF UNION STATION!