The Metro Board of Directors last year decided to build a new rail station at Aviation and 96th Street that will allow passengers on the Crenshaw/LAX Line and Green Line to transfer to a people mover to be built by Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX. This is part of the Airport Metro Connector project that is receiving funding from the half-cent Measure R sales tax increase approved by L.A. County voters in 2008.
Besides connecting to Metro Rail, the people mover will have three stations near airport terminals, in addition to stations serving both a new pickup/dropoff facility called the “Intermodal Transportation Facility” and a consolidated rental car center.
The decision by the Board allowed Metro to go ahead with the legally-required environmental approvals needed to build the new rail station. Here’s the news release from Metro:
Metro is planning a new transit station that will connect the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the regional rail system and wants public feedback on proposals being discussed at an upcoming scoping meeting set for Monday, February 23.
The Airport Metro Connector (AMC) Transit Station planned near Aviation Boulevard and 96th Street will provide the connection between the regional rail system to a future Automated People Mover (APM) to be planned, built and operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA).
Metro’s AMC transit station is envisioned to include a light rail station served by the Metro Green and Crenshaw/LAX lines, a bus plaza for Metro and municipal buses, pedestrian and bicycle amenities and an enclosed transit center/terminal building that connects Metro’s transit station with LAWA’s APM station.
The AMC transit station will serve as a new transit “Gateway” to LAX for transit riders. Metro is seeking public input on the scope of the project and environmental impacts to be evaluated.
The Airport Metro Connector Scoping Meeting will take place on Monday, February 23 from
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Flight Path Learning Center, 6661 West Imperial Highway, Los Angeles.
The location is served by Beach Cities Transit Line 109 with connections at the Metro Green Line Aviation/LAX station and LAX Transit Center. Free parking is available on site. The meeting will be broadcast live online for those unable to attend the meeting in person. The broadcast will be accessible by visiting metro.net/laxconnector or ustream.tv/channel/airport-metro-connector. In addition, the public can make their voice heard by submitting comments either at the scoping meeting or through one of the following options:
Via US mail to Meghna Khanna, Deputy Project Manger, Metro, One Gateway Plaza, Mail Stop 99-22-5, Los Angeles, CA 90012
By phone at 213.922.4484
Via e-mail at laxconnector@metro.net
Via the web at metro.net/laxconnector
Via Facebook at facebook.com/laxconnector
Via Twitter @laxconnector – Be sure to use #LAXConnectorScoping.
Comments at this stage of the planning process must be received by March 9 2015.
Passengers, visitors, airport employees and others will be able to transfer quickly and easily from the at-grade Metro transit station to the elevated APM. LAWA will lead the environmental review for the APM, while Metro will conduct the environmental review for the AMC transit station.
This type of rail to a people mover connection can be found at other major airports around the country including San Francisco, Oakland, New York (JFK), Newark, Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Phoenix.
About Metro
Metro is a multimodal transportation agency that is really three companies in one: a major operator that transports about 1.5 million boarding passengers on an average weekday on a fleet of 2,000 clean air buses and six rail lines; a major construction agency that oversees many bus, rail, highway and other mobility related building projects; and the lead transportation planning and programming agency for Los Angeles County. Overseeing one of the largest public works programs in America, Metro is, literally, changing the urban landscape of the Los Angeles region. Dozens of transit, highway and other mobility projects largely funded by Measure R are under construction or in the planning stages. These include five new rail lines, the I-5 widening and other major projects.
Stay informed by following Metro on The Source and El Pasajero at metro.net, facebook.com/losangelesmetro, twitter.com/metrolosangeles and twitter.com/metroLAalerts and instagram.com/metrolosangeles.
Categories: Projects
Why is the stationto be Aviation and 96th St instead of Century? Makes no sense to me to have it at an inconvenient location. And I would like to know when the people mover is to be built. If it takes another 20 years; I may not be alive by then.
Reblogged this on Living90045.com – Westchester Up Close & Personal.
With this new airport station, the Aviation/Century station appears to be irrelevant. They better be doing an updated ridership study. All of the buses that would have been serving Aviation/Century are probably going to turn north and serve one of the people mover stations, and the Aviation/Century location doesn’t really have that much of value as a destination anyway. May as well save money, speed the trip, and cut the station.
Will this station be planned and built with future expansion in mind?
By that, I mean that there may be future demand for Westside rail linking LAX to Santa Monica, or areas further south – like a proposed extension of the Crenshaw Line along the Harbor ROW as far as possibly San Pedro.
It would be prudent to leave room in the design for additional sidings and platforms so that the station can be used as a transfer point between the Crenshaw/LAX line, Green Line, and a future Westside line.
This isn’t unprecedented, since if I recall the southernmost Green Line station was built with exposed rebar so that the line could be extended further along the Harbor ROW in the future.
Hi;
You are more than welcome — and should — submit an official comment to the project to that effect. Comments on The Source are welcome, but they are not considered part of the official record. As for your question, I don’t know the answer.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source