The Metro Board of Directors will hold its regular October meeting virtually on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 10 a.m. due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting will be livestreamed here. The agenda for the meeting is above.
Live Public Comment Instructions:
–Live public comment can only be given by telephone.
–The Board Meeting begins at 10:00 AM Pacific Time on October 22, 2020; you may join the call 5 minutes prior to the start of the meeting.
–Dial-in: 888-251-2949 and enter English Access Code: 8231160# Spanish Access Code: 4544724#
–To give public comment on an item, enter #2 (pound two) when that item is taken up by the Board. Please note that the live video feed lags about 30 seconds behind the actual meeting. There is no lag on the public comment dial-in line.
Among the items that the Board are scheduled to consider are:
•Approving the NextGen Plan to restructure the Metro Bus system to offer more frequent service for most of our riders. Changes proposed to different lines are here. And here’s a Source post from earlier this year looking at the plan. The Metro staff report and attachments are here.
NextGen was approved by Metro’s Service Councils over the summer and public hearings were held. Based on public input 35 changes were made to the draft plan — mostly restoring service in some areas.
The plan will also combine local and rapid lines on major corridors (except for the 720 on Wilshire, 754 on Western and 761 on Van Nuys). Bus service in areas difficult to serve with chronically low ridership will be provided by other muni providers or Metro’s upcoming on-demand shuttle bus service (see the next item below).
The map below provides a look at weekday midday service because that’s when the difference in frequency of service is most pronounced.
•Approving the fare structure and service areas for the Metro Micro on-demand shared shuttle bus service that is scheduled to launch in December. Fares would be $1 for the first six months (without a transfer) and then $2.50 and include a transfer to Metro Bus and Rail.
Service would begin in two areas — Watts/Willowbrok and LAX/Inglewood — and eventually expand to the Northwest San Fernando Valley, Highland Park/Glendale/Eagle Rock, Altadena/Pasadena/Sierra Madre and UCLA/Westwood/Century City. Staff report
•Approving the operations plan for the Regional Connector project that is tying together the A Line (Blue), E Line (Expo) and L Line (Gold).
Under the plan, Metro will operate one set of trains between East Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Another set of trains would run between Azusa and Long Beach. The two lines would share five stations and platforms in downtown L.A. where riders can easily transfer between the two lines. Other service scenarios were looked at by Metro staff but East L.A.-Santa Monica and Azusa-Long Beach were found to be the most efficient. Presentation
•A motion directing Metro staff to study the A, E and L Lines to identify areas with frequent delays and to draw up proposed ways to fix them — and to work with the city of L.A. on getting more green lights for the E Line. Motion
•A motion by several Board Members directing staff to draw up a new and less impactful project alternative for the I-605 Improvements Project. Here’s a recent Source post on the project and the motion is below:
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects