The city of Torrance held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for the Torrance Transit Park and Ride Regional Terminal. The project will be a LEED-certified multimodal transit facility with eight bus bays and a park-and-ride lot, which will help reduce single occupancy vehicle trips in the region. Approximately 85 percent of the total funding for this project was provided by Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase approved by L.A. County voters in 2008.
Another Measure R project is an extension of the Green Line deeper into the South Bay. That is briefly referenced in the following news release from Torrance. Some background: a Green Line extension is due to receive funds from Measure R. But the project isn’t scheduled to be complete until the mid-2030s unless funds are found to accelerate it. Still, the Metro Board of Directors in 2009 approved studying an extension of the Green Line to a new transit center in Torrance using the old Harbor Subdivision right-of-way. That explains the reference to the Green Line serving the future transit center in the news release:
The City of Torrance broke ground today on its new Torrance Transit Park and Ride Regional Terminal located at 465 Crenshaw Blvd. Mayor Patrick J. Furey, along with the City Council, other elected officials and representatives from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Caltrans and the South Bay Cities Council of Governments helped mark the official start of construction.
Torrance Mayor Patrick J. Furey called the project a milestone for the City, indicating that there is also interest from other transit providers including LA Metro, Gardena’s GTrans, Beach Cities Transit and Los Angeles World Airport to use the terminal as part of their transportation services. He also said that “with careful planning and looking to the future, we hope it will be the home of a Metro Green Line station.”
“This facility truly will be a regional transit center and a regional asset,” Mayor Furey added. “It is a wonderful example of City staff working together and with outside agencies on a project that really will benefit so many.”
Architecture firms RNL and Frank-Webb & Associates worked on the design of the facility.
“The project has been in the works for several years. The closure in 2004 of the Transit Center at Del Amo Fashion Center created the need for a new facility,” Mayor Furey said. “Once funding through Measure R became available in 2008, the plan was moved along from that point due to the foresight and leadership of current and former mayors and council.”
Funding for the terminal came from various sources, with $18.1 million in Measure R funding awarded by the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, $2.4 million in State Proposition 1B bond money and $1 million from the City of Torrance.
“The Torrance Transit Park and Ride Regional Terminal will go a long way towards improving mobility and air quality by reducing single occupancy vehicle trips along the I-405 and I-110 corridors,” Don Knabe, L.A. County Supervisor and Metro Board Member, said in a statement. “This project is a great example of Measure R funds being reinvested at the local level, and once it is completed, commuters will have a safe and convenient place to park their cars and ride transit, carpool or vanpool.”
Categories: Projects
Hurray for (K) Crenshaw Line to Torrance! Please make the Torrance Transit center mixed use by adding affordable housing and commercial space—that will cut some auto trips.
They should also include the South Bay extension of the Green Line with the Olympic bid funding. We need to start building things a lot more faster than having them caught up in years in bureaucratic red tape.
I’m not a big fan of those middle of nowhere transit centers. Although the Del Amo Mall street stops are poor because they’re on busy streets, at least there are plenty of businesses and places to go. This will be another middle of nowhere transit center, which the South Bay already has in the Harbor Gateway Transit Center, where it takes a good 10-15 minute walk to get to any public-serving business other than the Home Depot across the street. And for a Flyaway stop, there seems to be too LITTLE parking. I’d charge $4 or $5 a day and build a thousand spaces for airport parkers.
“And for a Flyaway stop, there seems to be too LITTLE parking. I’d charge $4 or $5 a day and build a thousand spaces for airport parkers.”
Or people can just Uber or Lyft to the Flyaway stop. Much better use of land space than building yet another parking space.
Speaking of the Green Line to South Bay extension, there is a missed private-public partnership opportunity between the Douglas and Redondo Beach Stations, notably that the train tracks literally passes by a parking lot for Costco in Hawthorne.
I am a frequent shopper at Costco Hawthorne, and everytime I wonder myself as the Green Line passes by the parking lot on how awesome it would be if there was a Green Line station right here. The parking sucks there!
http://i.imgur.com/amVjbLq.jpg
It would be great for Metro to talk with Costco if they’re willing to build a Metro Green Line station right here between Douglas and Redondo Beach, so people can direct access to Costco.
They have it Vancouver, BC where the Stadium/Chinatown Skytrain Station is right next door to a Costco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium%E2%80%93Chinatown_Station
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6839354933_0fd2ae7bca_b.jpg
Uh, I think someone needs to consult a Map. The Redondo Beach station is only 1/4 miles south of Costco. It is also the kind of store where many purchased items would be impractical to take on light rail – think 64 roll pack of TP!
“The Redondo Beach station is only 1/4 miles south of Costco.”
This actually will depend on whichever online map being that a person is referring to.
Google Maps takes you through the back alley which doesn’t have sidewalks but is a more shorter route of only 0.5 miles (not 1/4 miles). If using Bing Maps, it says it’ll take you 1.6 miles of walking by going through safer pedestrian access sidewalks.
http://i.imgur.com/ZoZqpQ4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Od8Rlsi.jpg
That being said however, the proposed LAX/Crenshaw Line will have two stations that are only 0.3 miles apart: Century/Aviation and 96th/Aviation, so having another station at Costco Hawthorne isn’t something unnatural.
“It is also the kind of store where many purchased items would be impractical to take on light rail’
Not really. Costco doesn’t just sell bulk warehouse items. It also has great deals on cameras often better than BestBuy or mom-and-pop stores, they have a good on site optometrist, a pretty good wine selection, so on.
If Vancouver can build a Costco right next to a train station, I see why not we can’t have one. Costco Canada sells pretty much the same thing Costco in the US does.
Looks like the South Bay Service Council caved to Hawthorne Blvd businesses who are scared of public transit riders. Now we’re stuck with the pathetic Torrance Transit and Metro bus service forever, and that assumes that Hawthorne Blvd will even get a Green Line station.
The Crenshaw Blvd ‘transit center’ location is in a terrible location for TOD. Nearby owners of single family homes won’t welcome high rises, and the local business base will attract negligible ridership.
Most of those “single family home” owners who are against high rises tend to be Baby Boomers and those already in retirement who have the all the free time to go to those council meetings and were lucky to have bought homes when real estate prices weren’t this insane like today. They are less likely to be the average Millennial who don’t really care about density issues, not likely to be home owners or actually have jobs during the day when they have these meetings.
It sounds nice; however, by that point I am not sure I will be doing a lot of traveling anymore. I think it would be good if Torrance Transit had express buses to Downtown LA like they used to have and not just during week day rush hours.
“multimodal transit facility with eight bus bays and a park and ride lot”
Stopped reading and interest lost right there. SNORE. Basically it’s going to be the same old boring design with nothing of interest in them, no retail spaces and continued wasting of precious public spaces with more parking lots.
Wake me up when you decide to become smarter in developing real estate by starting to build mixed-use transit facilities with affordable condos with bustling retail activities.