Expo Line at La Brea Station/Metro photo

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.

2012’s biggest transportation successes (The Atlantic: Cities)

After a year of fighting the good fight for transit development across the country, it’s important to remember what went right, even though it’s tempting to think of what went wrong.

The Atlantic: Cities picks out a few winners, including New York’s valiant efforts to keep the city moving after Superstorm Sandy. They also mention the increasing prevalence of real-time transportation data to make travel easier for transit users. (A new version of the Go Metro app is now available here.)

Not mentioned is that in L.A. we have a lot to celebrate, including the opening of two lines: the Expo Line to Culver City and the Orange Line Extension to Chatsworth. But perhaps our greatest achievement may turn out to be  the new national tool created for transit funding with the integration of elements of Metro’s America Fast Forward initiative into the surface transportation bill championed by our hard-working Senator Barbara Boxer and Mayor Villaraigosa.

Feds sign $1.55-billion commitment for Honolulu rail project championed by Sen. Daniel Inouye, who died this week (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)

Sad news followed by good this week, as Hawaii mourns the death Monday of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). Sen. Inouye championed the light rail project that the federal money will support.

See tons of game changing L.A. projects that never got built (Curbed LA)

This could be fun. In March, the A + D Architecture and Design Museum will host “Never Built: Los Angeles,” a collection of project plans for the L.A. that could have been. The show will display master plans for all kinds of dreams, including amusement parks, subways and the monorail that might have been, had we had the resources and commitment to get the jobs done. The Metro Transportation Library & Archive supplied lots of cool stuff for this show.