We Got Yer Holiday Spirit Right Here
Eat My Blog: Blogger Bake Sale Will Benefit LA Foodbank
Galaxy 2009 Season Recap
Howie Mandel Opens up About OCD with 20/20 Tonight
A Weather WTF?!: Storm Warning Issued for LA Region
A plan to purchase flying buses was voted down
The most surprising news of the day came during the CEO's report. Leahy reported that he is temporarily halting the installation of turnstiles, leaving us unprotected from terrorists, until 2011. Leahy has directed staff to research internal mobility and TAP implementation issues and to report back in December of this year on whether or not the agency should move forward and what would be the best way to install the fare gates.
The Board again voted to delay the vote on the Long Range Transportation Plan, this time because there were still questions as to the timeline on the highway projects, until September. Cities and governments that are only concerned with the Measure R highway projects want to know when they're getting their highway capacity before the LRTP is passed. The Board agreed.The Board also delayed a vote on trying to earn federal dollars to speed up the Westside Subway and the Downtown Connector. Scores of activists from Little Tokyo testified on the impact the light rail would have on their community.
The most heated battle in today's meeting was over AnsaldoBreda, the Italian rail car company under contract with Metro, who is considering extending the contract. The vote was also delayed. There's been lots of issues regarding lobbying, deals in Iran and the such.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
this is embarrassing. METRO is a joke. Postponing 5 months to make a decision about something they've already made a decision about (putting in turnstiles)?! Postponing a vote on whether to ask for money from the feds?!
why not move a little slower to solve LA's transit needs...? Oh wait. Impossible.
"he is temporarily halting the installation of turnstiles, leaving us unprotected from terrorists, until 2011" Jesus. Still with the terrorists? Really? Moron.
The terrorists in Madrid and London, paid the fare, went through the turnstiles and then blew up the trains. Turnstiles will not stop terrorists. They make money for the company putting in the turnstiles. I fear the greedy companies that lobby the Metro Board for expensive projects like turnstiles more than I fear terrorists.
Also what's with the Italian train maker? They were suppose to open a plant in LA 15 years ago. Give the contract to Siemens, who will open a plant in LA and probably make better trains.
GREAT effing points, skd!
I oppose Siemens since they were one of the few companies that created web spying technology to the Iranian government in order to track down protesters and dissidents.
Snips from an aged, yet pertinent LA weekly article:
MTA turnstile fiasco
"and just $54.7 million of that comes from the system it now
wants to gate."
"a $30 million system of 275 gates, to be built by a huge
defense contractor..."
"the MTA will have to start paying $1 million a year for
“upkeep” of the heavy new turnstiles and gates."
"the MTA this year dropped *$13 million* on a pricey ad campaign urging nonriders to “Go Metro.”
"The savings gleaned from erecting gates will be pocket change
for an agency that ... has ... a gleaming $140 million downtown headquarters — an
edifice for transit bureaucrats filled with luxury furnishings,
Italian marble and a $300,000 fish tank."
Terrorist: "Okay guys, ready to do this? I have 45 pounds of explosives on my back. You guys? Got the backpacks? Good. You know what the plan is, right? Oh... hey wait a minute. I have to pay $1.25 to get into the metro station?! Fuck that, plan aborted."
The "leaving us unprotected from terrorists" was a snarky comment by the writer at StreetBlogLA and not said by Art Leahy.