Green Line to get some green
The Green Line in South Los Angeles may be the oddest light-rail line in California, notorious for going from nowhere to nowhere. Sen. Jenny Oropeza, one of the key lawmakers who has been blocking progress on a ballot measure that would improve L.A. County's public transit system, wants credit for changing that. Because of her obstructionism, there's a good chance that the Green Line will run from somewhere to nowhere. Yippee.
Oropeza, a Democrat out of Long Beach, is one of several local politicians who have been holding Measure R -- a ballot initiative that would impose a half-cent sales tax increase on L.A. County residents to pay for public transit -- hostage. Like most of the others, Oropeza wanted to make sure a good share of the proceeds went to her district. Today, she sent out a news release crowing that AB 2321, which would place Measure R on the ballot, now includes language guaranteeing funding to extend the Green Line to Los Angeles International Airport. The bill, with the opposition from Oropeza and others withdrawn, has now passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Green Line runs along the 105 Freeway in South L.A. from Norwalk to... almost... LAX, and then south to Redondo Beach. Bizarrely, it stops two miles short of the airport. Fixing that might end a historical oddity and make life a little easier for airport workers, but it won't do much to improve traffic around LAX or ridership on the Green Line. Those who take the line to the airport are mostly people who work there, not the thousands of airline passengers driving to the airport daily, very few of whom are coming or going from Lynwood.
Oh well. Oropeza got what she wanted, and as a result, L.A. voters might get a chance to vote on the sales-tax measure. Whether it will end up funding the most needed projects, rather than the ones with the most powerful political backing, is another matter.
* Photo by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
GREEN LINE Reality Check:
"Show-boating" politicians should not obstruct
INTER-MODAL, COORDINATED INTER-OPERABLE PASSENGER TRANSIT for SOUTHERN CA!
According to:
"Progressive Railroading"
8/14/2008 Ridership
http://www.progressiverailroading.com/prdailynews/news.asp?id=17637
LACMTA, Metro-North register ridership spikes
Last month, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) posted ridership records on all its rail lines and carried an average of 319,582 passengers each weekday, up 20 percent compared with July 2007.
Nearly half rode the subway system — ridership on the Metro Red and Purple lines also rose 20 percent.
Average weekday ridership rose 39 percent to 27,019 on the Metro Gold Line; 19 percent to 46,527 on the Metro Green Line; and 15 percent to 86,596 on the Metro Blue Line.
Meanwhile, MTA Metro-North Railroad has posted significant ridership increases on its Pascack Valley Line since introducing weekend and mid-day off-peak service last fall. Average weekly ridership now stands at 11,634, the line's highest-ever passenger count. Weekday ridership has shot up 40 percent since spring 2007.
In October, Metro-North added 16 weekday off-peak trains and 23 weekend trains. The agency later added one more weekend train. Since October, morning peak ridership has increased 22 percent and daily off-peak ridership has risen from 35 to 119.
"Not only did the addition of weekday off-peak service make sense for the occasional customer, but we believe it made the line more attractive to would-be peak-hour commuters who wanted the safety net of a way to get home early," said Metro-North President Howard Permut in a prepared statement.
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So the LA "Emerald Line" to nowhere has a 19% increase in ridership even though it goes nowhere!
This morning I took the ONE Metro local bus, the Metro 33, that runs from Santa Monica to Union Station 24 hours.
There is no other Public Transit which runs from Santa Monica early enough to catch the ONE direct METROLINK train that runs to Riverside San Bernadino County during 'normal' commuting hours from Union Station.
The packed Metro bus was late and the 6:25 AM [+ or- five] Metrolink train was long gone---so much for my 10:00AM San Bernadino County Riverside business meeting when you have to connect to a Riverside Transit bus too!
Having missed my business meeting; I returned back on the truncated Purple Line to Santa Monica. Taking the Metro Wilshire buses, I had to wait for 3-4 buses to pass because they were too packed. A Metro employee was assigned to pack the buses more even when there was only standing room! It looked like Tokoyo where they push more people on the trains during peak commuting periods.
The Metro guy explained to me that Metro was down 35 buses due for maintenance---it seems the streets of LA and extra passenger boardings are especially hard on the articulated buses and they are out of service.
If the GREEN LINE ran the two miles west to LAX and the two miles east to the busy Norwalk/Santa Fe Metrolink/Amtrak Station and it even ran a little longer into Orange County's Orange Metrolink/Amtrak station ridership and revenues would up even more and I might have have made my meeting in San Bernadino.
If there was a very early morning Big Blue Bus running to the Greenline that is....it requires intermodal interoperable planning and coordination of course!
Oh and by the way, it would also help with INTERMODAL PASSENGER TRANSIT connections to San Diego County.
If politicians want to bring new jobs and revenue to the greater Southern CA area they better start working together!
Posted by: zz ziled | August 14, 2008 at 11:59 AM
I pretty much agree with Joe's post. Creating a rail transit line as an expedient for the building of a freeway was always a dubious concept. But the Green Line has been in place for 13 years now, so enough griping. I get a little tired of this nowhere-to-nowhere business. The path from Norwalk to Redondo Beach and every place in between may be nowhere to you, but it's somewhere to somebody. It's also encouraging that ridership of the Green Lline has increased, slowly but steadily, every year of its operation.
Has anyone who's obsessed with this Green Line to LAX thing actually used the existing connection? It's perfectly doable. Forget this vision of trains sailing directly into terminal buildings. Ain't gonna happen in a post 9/11 world. At best, we're talking about an intermediate people mover station. Which means the MTA would have to build viaducts and lay tracks toward a destination that isn't even shadows and fog at this point. Isn't an inability for the agencies in question to get in synch the reason why rail to the airport never happened in the first place?
If by some miracle the MTA winds up with funds at their disposal, the money would be better spent on the east end of the Green Line, finally connecting with the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs MetroLink station. That way commuters from O.C. and points south would have a straight shot over to the Westside. Let those heading to LAX endure the rigors of a ten minute shuttle bus ride. What a concept!
Posted by: Donald Stanwood | August 14, 2008 at 10:45 AM
The reason transit in LA is such a mess is that every politican sees a tiny project - nobody cares about a system or what makes the most sense. Oropeza should be condemed not congratulated. #1 project should have been the Blue to Gold line connection that would save $$$$ in operating costs and would have eliminated the need for multiple train storage yards. From downtown LA, Long Beach or even El Segundo a rider will need to transfer into LAX. New TSA regs could block a station near the terminals.
The Green Line was put there as mitigation for the Century Freeway - it never made sense. It never had many projected riders, It doesn't go into LAX because in the early 90s LAX and Tom Bradley blocked the extension into the terminal. They wanted the then LA County Transportation Commission to build them a people mover so LAX would pay for it like at other airports.
If the Green line goes into the terminal area it will drop riders off far from any single terminal and not really be convenient. But who cares - its LA. Go look at the rulings LAX had FAA make that blocked an alignment under the runways to get into the terminal area. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Posted by: Joe | August 14, 2008 at 08:24 AM