Transportation headlines, Thursday, August 9

Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

State Supreme Court will hear Expo Line case (L.A. Streetsblog)

The case involves the second phase of the project and a lawsuit brought by the group Neighbors for Smart Rail against the Expo Line Construction Authority. Two lower courts have already ruled in favor of the Construction Authority. The legal issue involves whether the Authority could use future traffic projections in determining how at-grade crossings would impact traffic. The Neighbors for Smart Rail group mostly consists of homeowners in the Cheviot Hills area who don’t believe the train should be built at street level in that area — with a particular focus on the crossing of Overland Avenue. In the meantime, construction of phase 2 has been underway since last year.

Worry at both ends of the Long Beach Freeway (NBC L.A.)

A quick overview of two Metro project studies underway on the 710 freeway. In the south, Metro is studying the possibility of widening the freeway to include truck-only lanes to handle traffic coming from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In the north, Metro is studying a number of possible projects to help improve traffic created the gap in the 710 freeway between Alhambra and the 210 freeway in Pasadena. That includes everything from a freeway tunnel to a north-south transit project — or some combination. Here’s a recent post looking at the possibilities.

What will L.A.’s future Union Station look like? (KPCC)

A brief look at the master plan process underway for Metro-owned Union Station. Passengers say they want public address announcements that they can actually understand and point to wayfinding issues. Another concern: how to handle the 1,000 passengers or so that may jump off a high-speed rail train arriving at the station — leaving questions about where to put those platforms and how to get all those people through the station.