Orange Line to Rail? Subway from Valley to UCLA?

Photo by LindsayWilliamRoss via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr

Daily News' transit writer Sue Doyle today explores the Orange Line and why some people are frustrated with it. Namely, to go 14-miles between North Hollywood and Warner Center, it takes 40 minutes. That's too slow so how can it be sped up? Some want light rail, others say put gates at the intersections and give the buses a right-of-way so they don't have wait at lights. But a light rail could be too costly and inflexible, some say. Gates can be costly too and if you add syncing lights to that equation, it could gridlock crosstraffic.

And what about a direct line from Van Nuys to UCLA? Doyle writes that "Metro is setting aside $1 billion for a subway or light rail from Van Nuys to UCLA by 2038. The money would come from Measure R, which voters approved Nov. 4 to increase the county's sales tax by a half-percent to fund transportation projects. It's clinging to a thin lead with thousands of ballots still to be counted." Some of us hope to be retired by then.