Los Angeles Downtown News and Information - LA Downtown News Online > News > LaBonge Calls for Arts District Rail Spur
LaBonge Calls for Arts District Rail Spur
Proposal Would Extend Red and Purple Lines to Sixth Street
by Ryan Vaillancourt
Published: Friday, March 5, 2010 5:32 PM PST
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - City Councilman Tom LaBonge has had an idea kicking around his head for a while: He thinks that an existing rail line that goes between Union Station and a Metro maintenance yard near the Southern California Institute of Architecture (and then continues running south) should be used for passenger transit.
He floated it years ago when he sat on Metro’s board, but it didn’t gain much support. So when LaBonge was asked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to sit in on the Feb. 25 Metro board meeting in the place of Councilman and Metro board member José Huizar, LaBonge made his pitch again.
Labonge directed Metro staff to study the feasibility of adding a passenger car that would extend Metro Red and Purple Line service to a new station at Sixth Street near Santa Fe Avenue. He noted that no new track would have to be laid and a platform could either be erected there or near Third Street. A report is due back in 90 days, Metro spokesman Dave Sotero said.
“Right now, me and all the readers of the Downtown News, with the help of a concrete company, could go out this weekend, form and pour a platform to get a station stop,” LaBonge said. “It’s not that difficult when you look at the area.”
LaBonge envisions the line extension as a way for people to get to and from SCI-Arc and the Arts and Industrial districts, and possibly as an opportunity to reduce congestion at Union Station’s Patsaouras Transit Plaza.
“If I can use a baseball analogy, a lot of times you try to get a hit and maybe you get a hit to the outfield but you don’t score,” LaBonge said. “I didn’t hit this one out of the park, but we’re at least in play to get around the bases.”
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
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