From Los Angeles Downtown News; Update on Gold Line; still scheduled to open by September.

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Waiting for Gold

Metro is employing ambassadors such as Francis M. James (left) and Walter Shelby to answer questions about rail safety and other issues regarding the Gold Line Eastside Extension. The line, which will connect Downtown with East Los Angeles, is scheduled to open by September. Photo by Gary Leonard.


Little Tokyo and the Arts District Prepare for the Metro’s Eastside Extension
by Ryan Vaillancourt

Published: Friday, June 19, 2009 4:32 PM PDT

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - As Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers continue to test the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, the agency’s top official is banking that Downtown’s newest transit link will open this summer.

Currently, the six-mile rail project that will connect East Los Angeles to Downtown and, via the existing Gold Line, to Pasadena, is undergoing safety tests and equipment evaluations, said Art Leahy, the recently appointed Metro CEO.

“It’s basically a de-bugging stage,” Leahy said during a June 16 talk at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel organized by Town Hall Los Angeles. “There’s still some construction work going on out there. The stations have not been cleaned up. We’re trying to get all the construction equipment out and get the last cosmetic things done and [make] sure all the equipment works.”

The agency is not contractually obligated to open the line until December, but Leahy said he expects passengers to climb aboard “before September.” Metro anticipates that at the opening 13,000 passengers will use the line every day.

Among other evaluations, workers are testing the ventilation system in the two tunnels that are part of the line (east and westbound tunnels run under Boyle Heights). The checks are part of a final phase before the agency conducts simulated daily operations, leaving out only the passengers, Leahy said.

“When we open a line, we have to be able to respond to a major emergency on minute one,” Leahy said. “What if one minute after we open, a 7.0 earthquake hits with people in the tunnel? We’ve got to be prepared to evacuate them.”

Safety First


As Metro workers wrap up construction on the $899 million extension, agency staffers are fanning out in communities the line will serve, including Little Tokyo and the Arts District, to conduct pedestrian and vehicle safety workshops. A safety-related meeting is scheduled for noon on Tuesday, June 23, at the Little Tokyo Arts Council’s regular meeting at the Japanese American National Museum.

The agency is also employing safety ambassadors, who wear yellow Metro vests and stand near the new stations — in Downtown, they are at First and Alameda and at Temple and Alameda streets — and answer questions, said Metro spokesman Jose Ubaldo. They will remain there for three months after the line opens, Ubaldo added.

For those not getting the agency’s message to “stop, look and listen” around the line’s eight new stations, the LAPD is cracking down on jaywalking across the rail lines. Most of the focus has been in Boyle Heights “because that community hasn’t seen trains in 50 years,” Ubaldo said.

The agency is also installing photo enforcement cameras at 14 intersections along the line that will identify drivers turning from left-turn lanes across the tracks when it is prohibited, Ubaldo said. Offenders will receive tickets in the mail.

“We need to change peoples’ behavior,” he said.

None of those new cameras are slated for Downtown, Ubaldo said, since no Downtown intersections between Alameda Street and the Los Angeles River include a left-turn lane. The only four-way lighted intersection along that stretch is at First and Vignes streets. Once the Gold Line opens, the traffic signal will turn red in all directions when trains approach, he said.

If the agency is intent on changing pedestrian and driving behavior, the communities in Little Tokyo and the Arts District seem mostly excited to change, or at least augment, their public transit habits.

“As a resident of the Arts District, I can say we’re pretty excited about it,” artist Qathryn Brehm said. “We’re excited to be able to go to Pasadena, the art walk and galleries there, and to Boyle Heights and points beyond.”

While the portion of the Gold Line that opened in 2003 gave Downtown access to Pasadena, it was only via Union Station or the Chinatown Metro station. Soon, Arts District residents will be able to walk to the station at First and Alameda streets.

Estela Lopez, executive director of the Central City East Association, which manages the Arts District Business Improvement District, expects the new line to spur economic development in the area.

“I think we have an exciting opportunity to talk about the lifestyle in the Arts District and the restaurants in the Arts District,” Lopez said. “I’ll be looking to work with [Metro] to market those destination locations.”

Beyond safety concerns, some area residents are leery about an influx of traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, at the Little Tokyo/Arts District station.

“I think that’s the only kind of thing that’s a little worrisome,” Brehm said. “Other than that, people are pretty excited.”

Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.