Metro invites you to an open house to learn about design changes that have taken place through the project’s preliminary engineering phase. A second public meeting will be held when the environmental assessment is completed later this summer, at which time public comments will be taken.
Thursday, May 10, 2012, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Christ the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
3303 W. Vernon Av.
Los Angeles, CA 90008
Served by Metro Bus Lines 40, 42 and Rapid Bus Line 740.
Refreshments will be served.
The Federal Transit Administration and Metro are preparing an Environmental Assessment to review design changes that were not previously evaluated in the final environmental document approved for the project. These include a change in location for the Crenshaw/Vernon Station at Leimert Park to an in-street underground station just north of 43rd Pl. Other design changes include the demolition of two existing railroad bridges at I-405 and Century Bl, and additional full and partial property acquisitions.
We look forward to having your involvement in the dynamic process of building a world class transportation system. Please use one of the following to RSVP or to learn more about the project: 213-922-2736 or email crenshawcorridor@metro.net. The project’s home page is here.
Categories: Projects
I think the significance of the Crenshaw/LAX line for Metro Rail will be great because of another connection to job centers, a closer connection to LAX for travelers, the potential to be extended north to West Hollywood and Hollywood, sorta transit access to The Forum/Hollywood Park, formation of another trunk segment leading into the South Bay, not to forget another vital north-south route in western LA County. It also reminds everyone not to write off the Crenshaw district also with its future new hub at Expo/Crenshaw with regional transit transfers and the potential for further development, densifying, and shopping (renovated mall) and cultural institutions (Leimert Park and its art walk).
It’s worth noting that LADOT is responsible for signal priority in Los Angeles. The Washington Blvd segment of the Blue Line works very well. Long Beach’s DOT is responsible for signal priority/preemption in Long Beach. The FEIR document says in street running city traffic lights are followed, thusly priority or preemption is up to the programmer of the traffic lights.
It makes sense that LA County obviously finds more value in using a boulevard as wide as Crenshaw (180 feet across at parts that contain frontage streets) for what the street was originally designed to do more than 100 years ago, host at-grade electrified streetcars. That’s an integral part of what the flexibility of light rail offers and cities the world over keep discovering the same as LA County. (Toronto recently, in fact, found that putting light rail exclusively underground is silly and erases savings over “heavy rail”)
Public art accounts for about 1% if not less of the project budget.
“You have to come up with money to do it.”
Stop wasting money on art which add to no long term revenue stream? Get the priorities in order and use the tax dollars to install retail space instead which actually generate long term revenues and contributes to jobs and longer term economic growth?
Metro needs to a have a financial planner at the helm. Preferably one from an Asian transit agency.
Well, the issue of the extra funds not being there is more of a fundamental issue with how we are approaching infrastructure. I don’t suddenly expect that metro will add the funds for that last minute. But I’m just pointing out that a setup like that is not “world class”. If we weren’t spending so much money on useless projects like the 405 widening construction maybe there would be more funds to truly make our rail lines world class. It makes no sense to pour more money into an already well developed road network when the transit network is in severe need of expansion. One mode is overwhelmingly more present than the other.
There is not exactly a good track record when it comes to addressing signal issues for metro street running. There are still signal issues with the eastside gold line extension and that’s been open for over 2 years, as well as the blue line (Long Beach especially). The expo line crenshaw crossing causes train delays for almost two minutes if it misses the light, and that’s a crossing where there are normally supposed to be crossing gates. So I Imagine the Slauson crossing will be just as problematic. Metro says they will work out the signal issues with expo, but again, the results of other lines suggest otherwise.
On ridership: The crenshaw line may have questionable ridership in its first phase form, but once its extended northward, said ridership will most likely jump up dramatically, which is why this line is so important. It has the potential for a one seat ride from mid LA to the airport all while connecting to the red line (future Hollywood extension) purple, expo, and green lines. Let’s not underestimate the potential this line has to positively impact LA transit as a whole.
Connor, it is easy to say just build subway everywhere. You have to come up with money to do it. The Crenshaw Line is already a questionable project in that it is quite expensive with marginal expected ridership. Measure R only allocates so much money to each project. With that said, I don’t think the street running section here will be much of a problem or slow the line much. Expo is much different because downtown streets are closer together, you have the junction with the Blue Line to deal with and many more trains (Blue plus Expo) than Crenshaw will have that messes with the street signalization.
“We look forward to having your involvement in the dynamic process of building a world class transportation system.”
And part of building said world class system would involve the elimination of that last mile of street-running still proposed between 48th and 59th streets along crenshaw blvd. Just trench it. Seriously. Otherwise this line will end up beginning underground to then come at-grade for one mile to stop at lights and run at 35 mph, then go back underground and on to a dedicated RR row to continue running rapidly. That results in very odd design: a rapid transit line with a random street running section (slow zone) in the middle of its route… Let just connect the two tunnels between 48th and 59th to keep it consistent and safer too. And no, I don’t always like the way Damien Goodmon goes about what he does but he’s right about some things.