Traffic control officers were deployed to ensure vehicular safety during the busway testing.
Metro Orange Line Extension testing is now in its third week. Buses continue to run intermittently on their very own dedicated right-of-way between Canoga Station and the Chatsworth Metrolink/Amtrak Station.
Metro reminds motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists to watch out for buses as they pass intersections to ensure a safe operation. (see this previous Source post). The extension is still on track for a June 2012 opening.
See Damien Newton’s post on Streetsblog, including video here.
Here are a few photos from the testing now in progress:
Metro Liner arrives at the Southbound Roscoe Station.
Metro Liner descends from the Lassen Street Bridge at the Chatsworth Station.
Metro Liner arrives at the Chatsworth Station.
Metro Liner heading southbound on the Lassen Street Bridge.
All residents of Los Angeles County are entitled to equal access to a train?
How about Metrolink and Amtrak? They have service in the SFV.
I’m not going to get into any argument over the “superiority” of rail over other modes of transportation. It’s pointless.
You want to shutdown and tear out the Orange Line busway and replace it with “rail” repeal this law:
PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE SECTION 130265
Then find the billiions to build your rail line.
Good luck.
“Other parts of LA County want their projects too.”
Lets break down what type of fixed guideway transportation the other urbanized parts of the county are poised to get and/or already have:
Pasadena – rail
The rest of the San Gabriel Valley – rail
Crenshaw area – rail
Expo corridor mid/west-side LA – rail
South Central and Long Beach – rail
South Bay – rail
Hollywood and Vermont corridor area – rail
Wilshire Corridor – rail
Downtown – rail (obviously)
Eastside – rail
San Fernando Valley – bus
Something wrong with this picture? Every other urbanized region of LA county is getting or already has rail projects lined up while the valley is stuck with vastly inferior BRT even though most people in the valley wanted rail (and that was the original plan anyway). The valley is every bit as well suited to rail as any of the other areas listed yet we got utterly shafted. So, the Valley did not get the same equal treatment as the rest of LA county. That’s not what would I call “even distribution of projects”.
“it’s time to discuss upgrading the Orange Line to rail service.”
Discuss it all you want. Couldn’t happen because of a certain state law and it won’t happen because the financial priorities of LACMTA are for other things elsewhere in Los Angeles County, most notably extending the Purple Line down Wilshire Blvd ($$$). Other parts of LA County want their projects too.
I feel a lot safer with buses because they can stop safely etc. Rails do seem to be better because they potentially save the environment and costs, however, energy created to run the rails still comes from electric plants that still have to burn more stuff to get less energy output. So the question is: How to have a system that is both safe, cost efficient, will run continuously good or bad weather and will have the least amount of impact on the environment..
Agreed that it’s time to discuss upgrading the Orange Line to rail service. While busways can typically be launched more quickly than rail, there’s no reason they have to remain as busways forever. Launching a busway helps to generate ridership stats that will be key to obtaining funds to upgrade the line to rail.
@Metro LowRider 2012
More buses means more need to hire more bus drivers = increased labor costs
More buses means more use of fuel = increased fuel costs, let alone the volatility of fuel prices
More buses means more maintenance = increased maintenance costs. Buses need service and maintenance as much any other vehicle.
True, BRTs are easier to establish in the short term, but in the long term, BRTs just adds to increased expense to the system.
“What we need to be discussing is how to upgrade this to proper light rail.”
^ THIS!!! ^
They still have a month’s worth of finish work to do, so be patient. I actually walk by one of the non-station crossings everyday, and I like what I see so far.
Forget light rail. Orange line-type of transit is economical, faster to develop, and easily expandable by adding more buses in service every few minutes.
My only comment is, why not add crossing arms to prevent cars from running into buses and to help the buses to go faster?
this is going to make things so much easier on me once this opens.
I’ve heard the bridges were built with the weight of rail in mind so that is one encouraging thing.
They still have a month’s worth of finish work to do, so be patient.
As far as upgrading to LRT, the first order of business is to repeal the Robbins law, which was largely done on the whim of an Orthodox Jewish community at the eastern section of the alignment. And they’ve been a bit on the quiet side, in spite of the fact that the Orange Line is a variation of what they were against.
Since there is not an unlimited pool of money, I would say light-rail to West Hollywood or connecting the Green Line to Metrolink is way more imperative.
@Y Fukuzawa Some NYC MTA stations have more than just waiting areas. Port Authority bus terminal has shops and eats too. LA Union Station does.
What we need to be discussing is how to upgrade this to proper light rail.
@ Y Fukuzama. I would imagine there will be benches. No, Cirque de Soleil though. 🙂
Pretty much the same bland emptiness as with all of our other stations; a bus station is a bus station and nothing else. No services, no retail, no benches, just a place where people stand and do nothing but wait for the bus.