The Metro Board of Directors meeting today is in the books. The big ticket item was approval of alternative 5C as the preferred alternative for the 710 Corridor Project along with the requirement that no widening of the freeway takes place without Board approval in the future. Here’s a separate post on that.

Otherwise, the Board today:

•Postponed consideration until next month of a contract to expand TAP card sales to hundreds of new retail outlets in Los Angeles County.

•Certified the Final Environmental Impact Report for the Los Angeles Union Station Forecourt and Esplanades Improvement Project to upgrade pedestrian and cycling access to Union Station and ultimately convert the north parking lot to a park.

Please see this post for renderings and more about the project. From the staff report: “Staff has secured approximately $18 million in grant and matching funds to design and implement all of the Project improvements with the exception of the forecourt, for which staff is actively seeking funds.” This is good news!

•Approved expanding the number of possible routes under study for the West Santa Ana Branch Corridor, a project that proposes to build a light rail line between Artesia and downtown Los Angeles. Here’s the staff report. Please see this post for maps and more info. New routes could terminate at an Arts District Station for a transfer to the Red/Purple Line or in the downtown Los Angeles core.

•Approved TAP as the only valid form of fare payment on the Rapid 720 and Rapid 754 after all-door boarding begins on those bus lines later this year. Please see this post for more on that project.