Click here for a high-resolution PDF version of the fact sheet.
If you’re passing through Union Station on the way to work tomorrow morning, take a few minutes to swing by the East Portal of the station (i.e. the bus stop side of the station) for an open house for the Green Line to LAX project study that is currently underway.
There will be some poster boards explaining the project — a fact sheet is above — and agency staff to answer any questions that you have about the project.
The project aims to connect the new station for the Crenshaw/LAX Line and the Green Line at Aviation and Century to the LAX terminals. Among the possibilities being studied are a people mover, light rail extension and busway. It’s obviously a critical connection because LAX is one of the busiest airports in the nation in addition to being a major employer in the metro area.
There are also two community workshops scheduled in the next week — on March 1 and March 7. There’s more information after the jump.
Make Your Connection to LAX!
Metro is examining ways to connect the growing Metro Rail system to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). We are hosting an open house and two community workshops to update stakeholders on the alternatives under consideration. Join us to share your thoughts for improving transit service to LAX.
Open House
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 am – 9:30 am
Union Station/Gateway Transit Center – East Portal*
One Gateway Plaza, P1 Level (Near the Fish Tank)
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Community Workshop
Thursday, March 1, 2012
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Flight Path Learning Center
6661 West Imperial Highway
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Flight Path Learning Center is served by Beach Cities Transit Line 109 with connections at the Metro Green Line Aviation/LAX Station and LAX Transit Center. Free parking is available on site.
Community Workshop
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Union Station – Entrance on Alameda St.*
(Historic Ticketing Concourse)
800 North Alameda Street (Cross Street: Cesar Chavez)
Los Angeles, CA 90012
*Los Angeles Union Station is served by Metro Red, Purple, and Gold lines, Amtrak, Metrolink, Metro bus lines 40, 42, 68, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 485, 487, 704, 728, 733, 740, 745, 770, and 910 (Silver Line), Dash B., Dash D, Dash Lincoln Heights/Chinatown, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Line 10, Torrance Transit Line 2, and Foothill Silver Streak. Parking is available on levels P2 and P3. The underground parking entrance is located on the west side of Vignes St. just south of Cesar Chavez Ave.
Participate online!
A live video stream of the community workshop presentation and chat will begin at 6:15 pm at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/green-line-to-lax on March 1 and March 7, 2012.
Spanish translation will be provided. Special accommodations and information in alternative formats are available to the public upon request. All requests for reasonable accommodations must be made three working days (72 hours) in advance of the scheduled meeting date. Please call the Project Hotline at 310.499.0553 or the California Relay Service at 711.
Categories: Transportation News
I have always felt the central loop parking garages are using up the most valuable and close in land as LAX. Most of them need to go, replace by a combo transit terminal and check in centers. Moving the check in desk out of the existing smaller terminals would make for more room in those terminals and LAX would get another signature building that would actually make a statement that you have arrived.
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The other item that gets lost in the shuffle, is the Harbor Sub and some kind of line to Union station. From everything i have seen, the Crenshaw line is going to make use of the rest of the Harbor Sub very difficult. A quality high speed service LAX to LAUS is really needed to connect the rest of south california to the airport.
IMO, they should just stop using those central parking structures for parking and instead convert them to a consolidated rental car station.
LAX is the only city that I know of where Alamo/National, Dollar/Thrifty, Hertz, Avis, and Enterprise rental car stations are spread out haphazardly near LAX instead of being centralized in a consolidated rental car location. Because of this, you have each car rental company sending out their own car rental shuttle buses which creates so much traffic in the loop.
Put all the rental car companies in one location, ideally right where the central parking areas are at so travelers can easily walk there without the need of a rental car shuttle. This alone will alleviate the need of dozens of rental car shuttles in the loop and should eliminate traffic jams there substantially.
What’s missing from Metro planning is using LAX as a rail hub–potentially terminating the Crenshaw Line at the International Terminal, running it as a subway from Aviation, down Century, underneath the parking garages to the International terminal, with one or two intermediate LAX stops and underground walkways to the terminals on either side.
LAX will be the primary southern destination for the Crenshaw Line, not the Green Line. To imagine using a People Mover from the Crenshaw Line or Green Line to LAX is something of a kludge–an extra, unwanted transfer that will beg the question, “Why?”
The Green Line linkage to LAX offers a more difficult problem. I’m tempted to suggest that a short line into LAX and the International Terminal terminus is my recommended approach to avoid a transfer at Aviation and Century.
As I suggest these approaches, I’m thinking of all the traffic that LAX could generate and the “friction” of requiring transfers at Aviation and Century. Reflecting on approaches in Chicago and Cleveland and San Francisco with airports as termini leads me to the the conclusion that Aviation and Century transfers, in the long run will not be appreciated.
Great point James, however I do not see it feasible for a line to turn north from LAX. Even so the Likely study would be Lincoln Blvd(Street narrows after Jefferson Blvd which makes underground subway likely pass that point which could create extreme cost). Ideally, you would like for a direct connection into LAX with light rail but the people mover seams to be more feasible at this point unless their is a Underground loop with 3 stations inside the terminals( not likely)
great points James, especially about just having light rail to Lot C. That way metro will have the option of going north from the parking lot and can theoretically have the people mover go into the terminal area from there… talk about optimism!
If they can get the Green Line as close as Century and Aviation, a peoplemover ought to be able to do the rest.
I don’t think that you necessarily want to get light rail inside the terminal loop at LAX. One reason is that the loop is something of a dead-end. If a train wanted to get further north beyond LAX to Santa Monica or Westwood, the closest you would logically want to get would be Lot C, outside the loop, and then turn north from there.
Another problem is that LAWA will never cooperate to let a light rail train inside the loop.
A peoplemover, if built correctly, could serve several functions. It should help with transfers inside the loop, but also get passengers to rental cars, nearby hotels and to the Green Line. A smaller peoplemover vehicle might also be able to handle the turns and angles of the loop and the airport in general.