Metro is looking into connecting the three light rail lines that hit downtown -- Gold, Blue and the soon-to-be Expo -- so that one day, a commuter may be able to travel from Long Beach to Pasadena or from East LA to Culver City -- all without transferring. Eric Richardon from blogdowntown reports that the two alternatives that Metro is currently looking into differ in cost by only $150 million. That's surprising considering one is......

Photo by alistairmcmillan via Flickr In response to a comment in yesterday's piece, Train to LAX Getting Closer, Metro Doesn't Want It, Kymberliegh Richards writes a good history of what happened and why. Richards runs a website called the San Fernando Valley Transit Insider as well as a Metro San Fernando Valley Governance Council member and a board of directors member at the Southern California Transit Advocates. I always love seeing people who say......

One politician won't give up on his mission to get the Green Line moving directly to LAX. And Metro won't give up on saying "no" to that idea. It's not that Metro is trying to destroy any hopes of public transportation in Los Angeles, it's just the conservative and realistic tones they put out there when it comes future projects and funding. They say they want a connection to LAX and that possibility comes via......

Much to LA City Beat's dismay, the Metro board voted and passed a motion to "install barrier gates on the Metro Red Line, Metro Purple Line and selected light rail stations in efforts to prevent fare evasion, provide for seamless travel and improve transit station security," says a press release from the agency this afternoon. Expect to see the 379 fare gates within 18 to 24 months from now. The gates will integrate with those......

The Daily Breeze headed out to Wednesday's Crenshaw/Prairie Transit Corridor Study meeting (two more left) and found themselves in what we would consider a very disappointing night of transit development: The Crenshaw line would... pass within a mile of Los Angeles International Airport. This is starting to sound eerily familliar. However.........

The Metro's Gold Line Expansion project is causing the First Street Bridge near Downtown to close down for about a month while construction on the light-rail line moves forward. The bridge will be closed to all vehicle traffic starting at around 7:00 Sunday night, but will be open to pedestrian traffic on the south side. The First Street Bridge is between Mission Road and Vignes Street. KTLA reports the detours as follows:Westbound traffic on First......

Earlier this month, Metro announced the usual free rides on Christmas and New Year's Eve special that they do every year. Tonight, we received a short and brief, but extremely exciting e-mail: "On New Year's Eve Monday, December 31 (into Tuesday, January 1), all Metro Rail lines will run all night, every 20 minutes." Yes, that's all it said. No further details were mentioned (we're sure they are forthcoming, we are curious what "all night"......

Starting Sunday, Metro is changing up the Gold Line schedule a little. No, unfortunately, there will not be trains running later at night. No, no earlier trains in the morning either. This change affects those who travel during peak hours giving those commuters 7-8 minute headways instead of 10 minute ones. But there is a trade for this few minute increase in waiting time between trains and that comes in form of the discontinuation......

A new blog has appeared on the blogLAsphere called ditch the car, take the metro and blogger, John, has created, revised and tweaked his idea on LA's future subway transit. "My LA subway plan is based upon latent but unrealized relationships that organize Los Angeles," he explains in an early post. "The core of the system is built upon two parallel corridors (the Red and the Purple Lines) connecting three central business districts (Downtown,......

Once again, MySpace is copying the people who copied them copying Friendster better. Seeing the success of Facebook's ability to have widgets, MySpace and Google are teaming up to do something similar. More fire likely. Just like in 2003 where the wildfires struck, had a week lull and hit hard again the first week of November, firefighters are currently preparing for the return of the Santa Anas, expected to start tomorrow night. High heels......

Imagine a day when the Purple Line "subway to the sea" and Expo Line to Culver City (and eventually to Santa Monica) are a reality. Two rail lines running parallel from Downtown to the ocean -- are we mad men or what? But what about traveling north-south? Enter the Crenshaw/Prairie Transit Corridor:The Crenshaw/Prairie Transit Corridor extends approximately 10 miles north from Wilshire Boulevard, south to El Segundo Boulevard, east to Arlington Avenue and west to......

Maybe you want the 'Subway to the Sea' to go to WeHo instead of down Wilshire Blvd. through Beverly Hills. Perhaps you are evil and think nothing should be done at all letting traffic roll as it sort of doesn't do anyway. No matter what vision, now is the time to chime in like the backseat driver you are at some public meetings or via the written word. Wad at MetroRiderLA has the low-down:By......

Many are aware of Damien Goodmon's inspirational transit project, Get LA Moving. Now, with the advent of the Google 'My Maps' Feature, anybody can dream up their Los Angeles transit plan. And that's what Chris Gerstle has done by creating the Dodger Blue Line:My conceptual subway line: "The Traffic Dodger; Dodger Blue Line.". Features access to many popular attractions, notably: Dodger Stadium, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, Hollywood, L.A. Live, Staples Center, Convention Center, Union......

An Antelope Valley resident once told me that the slogan of Palmdale was "Why throw it in the trash when you can throw it in the front yard?" It was so rude. I loved it. Palmdale and Lancaster always feels worlds away. Many of the thoroughfares have names like Avenue R-12 or Avenue P-8. Only a select few are lucky enough to live on Avenue Q (who doesn't like puppets singing about STDs and......

To be exact, the number is $39,404,362 and it comes from the Department of Water and Power for overcharging utility costs according to a press release from Metro. Metro along with several other governmental agencies have won a joint lawsuit against DWP, charging that the DWP was over billing the agency for utility services over an eight year period. DWP is to pay back approximately $225 million in overcharges to several government agencies that......

Andrew at Here in Van Nuys takes a look at the bridge over the wash at Coldwater and Chandler where the Orange Line runs through: In a neighborhood of "exclusive" homes, many selling for at least $900,000. This is the same area where one sees many pedestrians. Loud protests a few years back greeted MTA plans to build a light rail here. "It would ruin the neighborhood..." Now the bus slowly meanders down the middle.......

By now, everybody knows that the magical culinary wonderland that is Surfas will be closing its doors at its current location on July 1, no thanks to Culver City and one of the lamest enactments of eminent domain in Westside history. The latest news update on their website states that they will be moving to a nearby warehouse on July 1st and continuing to serve their customers, but hope to continue fighting the city......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-i-verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an......

We didn't say it. Tony Bell said it to the LA Times' Steve Hymon. Who is Bell? Bell is the communications director for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. And to be fair, Bell thinks "light rail down one of the major east-west streets on the Westside might be the better solution." So trains are not totally out. Here's another Bell quote: "The supervisor understands — as do most county residents — that we......

"I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis." - Bill Maher, today on Salon.com "You're wankers, but really important wankers. Even you, Robert Joseph at Earthlink, who has sent me consistent hatemail for two years straight. You, sir, have been impressive." - Jessica Coen......

"The Coalition works to develop a safe, integrated, cost effective and environmentally sound public transportation system for the greater Los Angeles Region." The Transit Coalition's Weekly Transit eNewsletter is like putting a vegetarian in a tofu festival (err, a kid in a candy store). The eNewsletter, written like a blog with links throughout, feels interminable, yet exciting if you actually are a transit nerd. Highlights from yesterday's e-mail include Councilman Bernard Parks' fight to......

The MTA has bumped into a gravesite of Chinese immigrants in construction of the Gold Line in Boyle Heights. It dates back to the late 1800s, when the Chinese in California had no rights — they were even charged to be buried in their own Potter's Field, while poor whites were buried for free. This isn't the first time relics of Chinese history have been unearthed by the MTA. When subway and light rail......

In a major step toward creating a light rail line to connect Culver City with downtown, yesterday the MTA approved $640 million to fully fund the project. We don't quite get all the back and forth about money contributed by state, federal and municipal governments, but the gist is that an above-ground rail line may extend from downtown's 7th street subway station to the intersection of Washington and National as early as 2010. After......

Neighborhood activists have succeeded in forcing the MTA to tone down the warning bells at crossings along the Gold Line route through South Pasadena. Their win in administrative court means the MTA must cut decibel levels on the electronic bell simulators (that's right, fake bells) from their current level of between 85 and 90 (about as loud as a garbage disposal) to somewhere around 75 dbs (an older window A/C unit). We wish the......

The MTA has done a lot of bonehead things, and in this space we have enumerated many of them (but not all, not by a longshot), perhaps to the point of losing sight of those things the MTA gets right. One of those things is the MTA's decision 11 years ago to shift to buying only Alternative Fuel Vehicles for their bus fleet. That decision has, according to the MTA, paid off in removing......

The battle over the Orange Line continues unabated, as Valley NIMBY's have now accused the MTA of cooking the numbers in their court-ordered EIR on potential Orange Line alternatives. The study, which Citzens Organized for Smart Transit (COST) forced upon the MTA after getting a sympathetic judge to block construction on the nearly completed line last summer, unsurprisingly (and to the great chagrin of NIMBY's) shows the Orange Line to be a more effective......

Few people in Los Angeles are as plugged into the urban and cultural planning scenes and other fascinating areas of overlap as James Rojas. In addition to his 9-to-5 as a project manager at the MTA, James's irons in the fire include helming the Latino Urban Forum and lecturing on various planning and cultural issues at venues that range from the university to the community grass roots level. He's also co-owner of the Gallery......