The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority hosted a series of meetings this September to discuss alternative options for improving public transportation in Los Angeles County.
Two alternatives ““ both of which include a stop in Westwood ““ have been chosen to present to the Metro Board of Directors as a result of the Westside Extension Alternatives Analysis Study.
“We’re going to the Metro board of directors this fall, probably October to November time frame, and they will decide whether we should move forward,” David Sotero, a Metro senior public information officer, has said.
Community meetings have been held since fall 2007 to receive public input on the various options, all of which reviewed a 38-mile study area in West Los Angeles.
The study area includes Westwood, Santa Monica and Culver City, and it extends north to Vermont Avenue and South to Exposition Park.
Study recommendations
There are currently two Metro Westside extension alternatives in preparation for presentation to the Metro Board, created to serve the 310,000 people who travel to the Westside of Los Angeles County every day, said Jodi Litvak, the Metro operations community relations manager.
The first alternative is the Wilshire subway line, extending from Koreatown to Santa Monica, and it includes a stop in Westwood. The Wilshire subway line would travel along Wilshire Boulevard, crossing the intersections of Crenshaw, La Cienega and Beverly, among others.
The second is a combined Wilshire/West Hollywood subway, combining two rail lines that extend from West Hollywood and Koreatown to Santa Monica.
The Wilshire/West Hollywood alternative also includes a stop in Westwood. It combines the Wilshire subway stops with a line beginning at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, and traveling along Santa Monica Boulevard.
The alternatives were determined based on several factors, including cost effectiveness, project feasibility, environmental considerations and public acceptance.
They were presented to the public at Westwood Presbyterian Church for a Sept. 10 community meeting and at other meetings throughout the month.
The next step in determining a final alternative to present to the Board is choosing the “best” Wilshire alternative, with the goal of saving travelers the most amount of time, Litvak said.
The trip from Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles to Westwood, for instance, could be cut from 54 minutes, as it is with the current system, to 23 minutes, according to the Metro presentation.
Public response
The Wilshire subway alignment is the most favored route by Los Angeles citizens, Litvak said.
Nearly 1,100 people who attended the first three rounds of community meetings expressed their support, concerns and questions regarding the extension project, Litvak said.
Los Angeles residents who attended the meetings gave support for a transit improvement, though many attendees varied on what portions of the study they found most important.
Jason Warsuma, a Los Angeles resident who travels only with public transportation, said he thinks it is important not only to extend subway lines to the Westside, but from all parts of Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.
Other attendees asked for clarification of the Westwood stop, saying it is unclear whether the stop in Westwood would be located at the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood or closer to the campus.
Students are beginning to mobilize and notice the importance of the issue of public transportation in Los Angeles, said Mikhail Silin, the external president of Bruins for Traffic Relief, a new student group hoping to inform UCLA students about public transportation.
“One hundred years ago, when they were building all these rail lines, they didn’t have as much to worry about; they didn’t have to worry about the environment, fair labor costs, et cetera,” Silin said. “But now, even planning this is going to take five to 10 years, and it’s questionable whether they can speed it up.”
Silin said he would like to see Metro take action more immediately, though first more efforts should be put into attaining funding.
Funding for the plans
Though many Los Angeles residents support an improved public transportation system in Los Angeles, a lack of funding may slow down the process.
The Westside Extension Corridor project is currently unfunded, Litvak said.
Implementation of the Wilshire line, for instance, would cost $6.1 billion without consideration of inflation, according to the presentation. The Wilshire/West Hollywood line would cost $9 billion.
And neither project would be completed until 2030, assuming there are no delays in construction or problems with funding. The earliest construction of the subway could begin in 2013, according to a Metro statement.
In July, the Metro Board of Directors took a step in placing a half-cent sales tax measure in Los Angeles on the November ballot, according to a Metro statement.
The measure would potentially finance transportation projects, buy clean-fueled buses and help to build the new rail lines throughout the county, according to the statement.
Metro directors have approved an ordinance including an expenditure plan that spells out in detail how the sales tax, which is estimated to generate $40 billion over 30 years, would be spent.
It would have to garner at least a two -thirds vote in the election, and it would become a law in January, according to the statement, pending the passage of state legislations that would give Los Angeles County authority to levy the tax if voters approve it.
A portion of the funds would be allocated toward the “Metro Westside Subway Extension,” Litvak said, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must sign the bill before it can be passed.
Though he has not signed, Metro officials have been assured that he will, Litvak said.
Failure of the sales tax would require Metro to seek other funding sources, she said, and time delays increase project costs.
What’s to come?
Now that Metro officials have narrowed down the Westside Extension options, they must report to the Metro Board of Directors with their recommended alternative.
The Wilshire subway alternative and the Wilshire/West Hollywood alternative will next be recommended to the Board for an environmental impact report and study, according to a Metro representative.
The recommendations for review will include general alignments and station areas. In the future, further analysis must be completed on North/South connections to other corridors, according to the presentation.
Other issues that must be studied and resolved include details of station locations, project cost and planning, cost effectiveness and application for federal funding.
“There are a lot of specifics that still need to be decided,” Litvak said.