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Should Metro Extend the Red/Purple Lines to Downtown's Arts District?
L.A. City Councilmember Tom LaBonge certainly thinks so. At yesterday's Metro Board Meeting, which he is temporarily appointed to, LaBonge entered a verbal motion in an effort to extend rail service on already existing track to 6th Street in the Arts District. “This is a no-brainer,” he said in a statement. “The track is already there. It would help bring people to the lofts, galleries and restaurants in the Arts District and connect SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) to the rest of the city.”
Specifically, LaBonge's motion drects Metro to report back in 90 days the feasibility, ridership and cost of extending Red and Pruple Line service from its current terminus at Union Station to the Arts District, where a station would be built on 6th Street. The track leads to a maintenance yard.
Currently, a Gold Line station sits at the edge of the Arts District and Little Tokyo at 1st and Alameda.