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April 17, 2008
Train to LAX Getting Closer, Metro Doesn't Want It
Photo by alistairmcmillan via Flickr
To connect the Metro Green Line light rail to LAX, simply put, it would take about two miles of track and some money. This week, the Senate Transportation Committee passed SB 1722 by Sen. Jenny Oropeza, a bill that would allow a separate construction authority the single-focused job of connecting rail to the airport. The bill will now make its way to the Senate floor.
Metro opposes the idea, saying it will compete with the small funding there is and that they rather see funds go towards their "transit agenda," according to the Daily Breeze. Plus, with the Crenshaw Line and LAX's modernization plan on the horizon, those projects could include the desired airport link. However, the Crenshaw line is a project slated to be completed by 2025.
So, Green Line link relatively soon or a maybe future link when LAX makes a plan or if the Crenshaw lines comes through in 2025?
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Green line to LAX today... should have been done in the first place. Honestly they have been talking about the LAX upgrades and the Crenshaw line for a while and it's all not going to be done until at least 2025... As much as i really think Metro needs to focus on the future, this is one area that needs to be fixed today.
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It's definitely a tough decision when understanding the current fiscal crisis. However, as Metro said in a recent statement, it's time to take fumes off the road:
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I always love seeing people who say the Green Line to LAX "should have been done in the first place" as if there was some deficiency in the thought process.
With even the smallest amount of research, one can discover that the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (one of the two predecessor agencies to today's Metro) originally intended the Green Line to operate to the transit center on 96th St. just east of LAX, but other agencies got in the way. Notably, the FAA claimed that the overhead power wires would pose a hazard to aircraft on approach to runways, even though those wires would be not much higher off the ground than the rail vehicles!
It is a testament to LACTC's desire to have the LAX connection that, even after they acquiesced to the pressure and realigned the Green Line to El Segundo, they left in the branch foundation just west of Aviation Station in the hopes that it would still go to the airport someday.
The problem with a Green Line construction authority is that -- unlike the authority that built the Gold Line to Pasadena or the one that is presently constructing the Expo Line -- the Green Line is not in line yet for [b]any[/b] funding and therefore Metro is right in saying it would place the project in competition with the rest of the projects in the region which already have designs ready to go.
Much as I like Jenny Oropeza, she is putting the cart before the horse, just as the bill that was introduced (and failed) last year did. Before we create a new layer of bureaucracy over this worthwhile project, we need to make sure it is included in the Metro Long Range Transportation Plan (for which the comment period ends next week), and ranked high enough that it becomes eligible for funds. It is the LRTP that the state and federal funding authorities look at when they are deciding what gets the money.