The more I find out about this project, the less I like the alternative chosen.
My understanding is that the whole point of the project was to provide a single-seat, all-rail connection between Union Station and LAX, ultimately replacing the Flyaway bus.
Yet according to the Wikipedia article (I could find absolutely nothing on Metro.net), the chosen alternative neither directly branches off the Expo line, nor actually reaches the airport.
At present, passengers transferring between rail and air have a choice: either the Flyaway Bus, or the virtually-useless alternative of taking the Red Line to the Blue Line, to the Green Line, to the airport shuttle (or vice versa). Once the Regional Connector is built, the general expectation is that the Blue Line would take over the Pasadena end of the Gold Line, and the East L.A. end of the Gold Line would then take over the Expo Line. This would improve things marginally for those taking the Blue and Green Lines, but it would still leave the “Crenshaw/LAX Corridor” a virtually-useless 3-transfer nightmare for air/rail transfers, with or without the Regional Connector.
In Boston, I can take the terminal circulator bus to their Blue Line, and reach downtown directly, or the North and Back Bay Stations (or Copley Square) on a single transfer, or South Station on two transfers, ON A SYSTEM THAT’S A CENTURY OLD. Surely, with a system we’re building from the ground up, we can do better than this! One wonders if there wasn’t undue influence from those with a stake in keeping the Flyaway Bus around indefinitely.
The more I find out about this project, the less I like the alternative chosen.
My understanding is that the whole point of the project was to provide a single-seat, all-rail connection between Union Station and LAX, ultimately replacing the Flyaway bus.
Yet according to the Wikipedia article (I could find absolutely nothing on Metro.net), the chosen alternative neither directly branches off the Expo line, nor actually reaches the airport.
At present, passengers transferring between rail and air have a choice: either the Flyaway Bus, or the virtually-useless alternative of taking the Red Line to the Blue Line, to the Green Line, to the airport shuttle (or vice versa). Once the Regional Connector is built, the general expectation is that the Blue Line would take over the Pasadena end of the Gold Line, and the East L.A. end of the Gold Line would then take over the Expo Line. This would improve things marginally for those taking the Blue and Green Lines, but it would still leave the “Crenshaw/LAX Corridor” a virtually-useless 3-transfer nightmare for air/rail transfers, with or without the Regional Connector.
In Boston, I can take the terminal circulator bus to their Blue Line, and reach downtown directly, or the North and Back Bay Stations (or Copley Square) on a single transfer, or South Station on two transfers, ON A SYSTEM THAT’S A CENTURY OLD. Surely, with a system we’re building from the ground up, we can do better than this! One wonders if there wasn’t undue influence from those with a stake in keeping the Flyaway Bus around indefinitely.
Hi James,
Not sure if this was what you’re looking for or if it answers any of your questions, but here’s the project site: http://www.metro.net/projects/crenshaw_corridor/
Anna Chen
The Source, Writer