How about a Rail Line All the Way to LAX in 2010? MOVING LA

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How about a Rail Line All the Way to LAX in 2010?
MOVING LA
By Ken Alpern

Active ImageSo it’s a brand new decade, a brand new (well, sorta brand new) President and certainly a brand new paradigm of building improved transportation infrastructure in this city, county, state and country, so let’s finally get a rail line to LAX, shall we? We could go on and on forever about why the Green Line never made it to LAX: the greater costs, the turf wars between Metro (county-run, and formerly known as MTA and other titles) and LA World Airports (or LAWA), the demands of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to place the rail line in an underground trench as it intersects the runways, etc.

However, we’ve got a new plan that will get Green Line trains from the Expo to the Green Line, and perhaps someday from the Wilshire Corridor to the South Bay—and that’s the Crenshaw Light Rail Line just approved by the Metro Board last month.

Below is an old Transit Coalition map from several years ago that might be our reality circa 2040-50, reflecting an Expo Line that goes to Santa Monica, a Wilshire Subway that goes to the 405 freeway, and rail lines that goes up the Lincoln and Sepulveda/405 corridors. It also has a Crenshaw Line that goes from the Wilshire Corridor to the South Bay Galleria.

A few points need to be emphasized:

1) Note how “X Marks The Spot”, by and not to, LAX. Green Line trains and Crenshaw Line trains might share tracks between the current Aviation/Imperial Green Line station (at Continental City, located at the southeast corner of LAX) and a future Century/Aviation station to the east of LAX (at Manchester Square).

However, Green Line trains would likely proceed from Century/Aviation to at least the southeast corner of Sepulveda/Lincoln by Parking Lot C, and Crenshaw Line trains would go from the northeast (the Expo and Wilshire/Purple Lines) to the southwest (South Bay Galleria, and thereby converting the South Bay Green Line stub to the Crenshaw Line).

2) To a cynic, this just means a rail line that makes it closer to LAX (Century/Aviation), then it does now at Aviation/Imperial, but it still misses LAX—but that cynic would lose sight of two critical points:

First, are we really going to ask every commuter traveling BY the airport to go into and stop at every terminal IN the airport? Don’t folks from the South Bay want to proceed to Wilshire Blvd. without that long, scenic 7-stop or so diversion?

Second, aren’t there both security and operational issues that necessitate a transfer from the regional light rail lines to the Automated People Mover that would bring passengers, luggage and workers through screening on their way to the airport terminals?

3) In answer to the BIG question, “getting a rail line to LAX” means getting it to Century/Aviation (Manchester Square) and then a transfer to an Automated People Mover (currently planned to be a type of monorail) that will proceed to the individual airline terminals and a consolidated rental car facility.

Manchester Square might just be one of the future hot spots of commercial real estate and an economic sparkplug to the entire region, where Green Line and Crenshaw Line and People Mover trains all converge to provide one of the most job-creating transit-oriented developments in the nation.

It is also hoped that Green Line and Automated People Mover trains whisk hotel and job-bound commuters along the Century Blvd. Corridor to enhance economic development that rivals current and future venues of the Wilshire Blvd. Corridor and Downtown Los Angeles.

Enter the Green Line Interagency Task Force, to whom I will be forever grateful to Bill Rosendahl and the CD11 office for establishing shortly after Councilmember Rosendahl was elected. Among the list of maps/plans the task force (comprised of representatives and planners from LAWA, Metro, the FAA and LADOT) explored is the one below:

What the final LAX reconstruction looks like after the economic downturn resolves is anyone’s guess, but the above map is as good a rough guess as any.

With the passage of the Crenshaw Light Rail Line EIR in 2009, however, the time to revisit a plan for the LAX Automated People Mover, Green Line to Sepulveda/Lincoln and other on-hold features of LAX Reconfiguration is needed in 2010.

Although the Crenshaw Line and other projects get first dibs from Measure R funds, a Green Line to LAX is also included for future funding. It is necessary to remember that LA World Airports (including LAX) is owned by the City of Los Angeles, not the other way around, so that figuring out how to start funding and planning the LAX People Mover is within our grasp.

Similarly, LAX Reconfiguration (if done right) can be a major source of revitalization for the economies of L.A. City and County—that, too, is within our grasp. I think that if Mr. Rosendahl, Mr. Villaraigosa and our other City leaders are willing to lead, they will find a lot of commuters who will support them in this major endeavor.

(Ken Alpern is a Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) and is both co-chair of the MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee and past co-chair of the MVCC Planning Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and also chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at Alpern@MarVista.org.This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) -cw