Expo Line Construction Authority responds to lawsuit (Source: thesource.metro.ne)

Link: The Source » Expo Line Construction Authority responds to lawsuit

Expo Line Construction Authority responds to lawsuit

As expected and as was widely reported yesterday, the group Neighbors for Smart Rail has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the second phase of the Expo Line, which will run from Culver City to Santa Monica. The project, which was part of the Measure R package approved by voters, is scheduled to open in 2015.

Streetsblog Los Angeles has posted a copy of the lawsuit. The gist of it is that the group alleges that the final environmental impact study of the 6.6-mile line — which was adopted by the Expo Line Construction Authority Board of Directors last month — was flawed and that the train’s impacts were not adequately studied. The group has been particularly opposed to the train crossing three streets at gravel level — Overland, Westwood and Sepulveda.

Here is the response from the Expo Line Construction Authority:

Expo Authority Statement Regarding Litigation

The February 4, 2010 approval of the Phase 2 extension of the Expo Light Rail Line from Culver City to Santa Monica culminated decades of planning, including extensive environmental studies, to provide modern transit service connecting the Westside with Downtown L.A.

Given the long and careful planning history, and the urgent need for traffic relief, we are extremely disappointed that a small faction of the community seeks to delay the extension of a project that has the overwhelming support of the communities on the Westside.

The Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority (Expo Authority) is confident that the Phase 2 project complies fully with the California Environmental Quality Act and the Authority intends to defend the project vigorously. The Authority conducted many large-scale community meetings and well over one hundred additional key stakeholder briefings to discuss the alternatives that were studied and to obtain feedback from the public. The selected project alternative reflects the consensus of the communities served by the project and incorporates the highest standards for design, public safety and environmental protection.
In February, the Expo Authority certified the project’s Phase 2 Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act and approved the preferred alternative alignment extending the Phase 1 project from Culver City to Santa Monica. At their March meeting, the Authority Board also authorized the CEO to negotiate and award contracts for preliminary engineering work, which will commence as soon as negotiations are complete.

Communities on the Westside of Los Angeles are among the most traffic-congested in the nation and have long been underserved when it comes to options for public transportation. We look forward to starting preliminary engineering work which will be the first milestone in bringing increased mobility and enhancing the quality of life for thousands of commuters throughout the Southland.

As part of the lawsuit, and as is typical of such suits, Neighbors for Smart Rail has asked for an injunction to halt construction. Of course, how any of this plays out in court remains to be seen. It should be noted that Metro is named as a defendant in the suit.

-- Steve Hymon

It’s On! Neighbors for Smart Rail File Suit Against Expo Construction Authority (Source: Streetsblog)

Link: Streetsblog Los Angeles » It’s On! Neighbors for Smart Rail File Suit Against Expo Construction Authority

It’s On! Neighbors for Smart Rail File Suit Against Expo Construction Authority

by Damien Newton on March 11, 2010

As predicted, the Westside Coalition of homeowners and businesses opposed to the construction of Phase II of the Expo Line at-grade through portions of the Westside have filed a petition to have the certification of the FEIR for the project overturned. You can read the full, twenty-six page, petition exclusively at Streetsblog, here, but the rationale for the challenge can be found on page three of the document:

This petition challenges the Expo Authority'S February 4, 2010 approvals for the Expo Phase 2 project, as well as the Expo Authority and FTA's omissions in connection therewith. This petition seeks to ensure that the Expo Authority and FTA fully comply with the requirements of CEQA and NEPA prior to initiating construction of the Expo Phase 2 project. NFSR does not oppose the Expo Line per se, but opposes construction of the project without the opportunity for the public, the Expo Authority, and the FTA to have a proper and legally valid environmental study which, inter alia, factually discusses and considers a reasonable range of alternatives as required, including grade separations at key intersections.

Hearing the case will be Judge David Jaffey, who has previously ruled on transparency issues, and more notably ruled against opponents of the Orange Line in 2004.

Hatoyama dons tech salesman hat (Source: Japan Times Online)

Link: Hatoyama dons tech salesman hat | The Japan Times Online

Friday, March 12, 2010

Hatoyama dons tech salesman hat
Recall woes, loss of overseas contracts prompt calls for public-private cooperation

By SACHIKO SAKAMAKI and TAKASHI HIROKAWA

The late French President Charles de Gaulle once labeled a Japanese prime minister a "transistor salesman." Now Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is hawking bullet trains and nuclear plants after Toyota Motor Corp.'s recalls hurt the country's image as a top manufacturer.

Hatoyama is promoting Japan's expertise in nuclear power and high-speed railways overseas. He has some work to do: A group including Hitachi Ltd. in December lost a $20 billion bid to build nuclear plants in the United Arab Emirates to South Korea, after its president helped clinch the deal.

The Hatoyama government is struggling to sustain an economic recovery hampered by a rising currency and falling prices, and has come under criticism from the corporate community for pushing labor-friendly policies. Toyota's global recall topping 8 million vehicles over unintended acceleration threatens to curb exports.

"It's about time," said Kazutaka Kirishima, an economics professor at Josai University near Tokyo. "Toyota's problem made the government realize they must cooperate with the business sector, which considers Asia and other rising countries as the engines for growth more than domestic demand."

Increased exports, which account for about 14 percent of the economy, helped boost gross domestic product to an annualized 4.6 percent pace in the last quarter of 2009. Consumer prices fell for an 11th month in January, and wages rose 0.1 percent for the first time in 20 months. The yen is up almost 10 percent against the dollar in the past year.

Hatoyama wrote a letter last week to Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung to solicit an $11 billion nuclear plant project and is supporting a Japanese group bidding to build an $18 billion high-speed rail line in Brazil.

Tokyo-based Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., and Toshiba Corp., which mounted a joint bid for the project, reportedly lost the Vietnam order to Russia's state-run OAO Rosatom in Moscow. Spokesmen from the companies declined comment.

Hatoyama told the Diet he would strive to work harder in promoting Japan, the world's third-biggest nuclear power generator, and said the Vietnamese bid wasn't lost.

"I think there's still a good chance with the second phase" of the project, Hatoyama said in the Diet on March 3. "I regret the government's sales efforts haven't been good enough compared with other countries. I'll work hard to be a top seller from now on."

Seoul-based Korea Electric Power Corp. won the $20 billion U.A.E. contract a day after President Lee Myung Bak visited the Middle Eastern country. While Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano last week denied Hatoyama's decision to write an appeal to Vietnam was an effort to duplicate Lee's personal touch, administration officials emphasized the need to step up their efforts.

"There are several things we regret about the U.A.E. nuclear bid," trade minister Masayuki Naoshima said March 3. "Japan is good at exporting plants, but in addition to facilities clients also want knowhow on safety management and staff supply."

Hatoyama, 63, came into office pledging to raise the minimum wage and has proposed new restrictions on the hiring of temporary workers by manufacturers. The limits are opposed by the Tokyo-based Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), the country's biggest business lobby. Polls show his administration is weighed down by scandals involving him and the party's No. 2 official, Ichiro Ozawa.

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide for flaws linked to unintended acceleration and brake woes. Hatoyama on Monday met with Toyota President Akio Toyoda, 53, saying afterward that he had told Toyoda "I hope you make every effort to regain the trust of your customers."

Hatoyama is also putting his weight behind a group seeking to win a ¥1.7 trillion rapid train project in Brazil, competing against French, Chinese and South Korean companies.

The government is reportedly considering providing financial assistance to the group, which may include Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Heavy, and Tokyo-based Mitsui & Co. Ltd.

East Japan Railway Co., the nation's largest railway, may join in the bid, JR East President Satoshi Seino said earlier this month. Tokyo-based JR East's bullet trains can run at 300 kph.

Vietnam may choose a group of Sumitomo Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy, or Itochu Corp. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. for a $56 billion project to build Southeast Asia's first bullet train, Nguyen Huu Bang, chairman and chief executive officer of Vietnam Railways Corp., said in February.

The prime minister also offered to assist Kenya's nuclear power development in a meeting with Prime Minister Raila Odinga last month.

"Japan has the world's top nuclear power technology, and the world's best bullet train," said Kiyoshi Ishigane, a strategist in Tokyo at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., which oversees about $65 billion.

"The government is doing what it should for Japan's national interest."

Will Washington fund a Los Angeles subway expansion? (Source: Christian Science Monitor)

Will Washington fund a Los Angeles subway expansion? / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Will Washington fund a Los Angeles subway expansion?

A planned Los Angeles subway expansion could cut traffic and greenhouse emissions and give jobs a boost, but Mayor Villaraigosa wants it now, instead of waiting 30 years. He is in Washington Thursday seeking funds to accelerate construction of the 'Subway to the Sea.'

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talks about the city's budget on Feb. 19. The mayor's plan to accelerate construction of rail lines to reduce Los Angeles traffic and greenhouse emissions needs a federal loan to advance.

Damian Dovarganes/AP

By Daniel B. Wood Staff writer / March 11, 2010
Los Angeles

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa heads to Capitol Hill Thursday in search of federal transportation funds that, some say, could profoundly change the nature of America’s most air-polluted and car-dependent city. With L.A. facing $250 million in red ink, any success could also help produce jobs to revive the local economy and, eventually, reduce greenhouse gases that will help the state cut its carbon emissions.

Voters approved Measure R here in 2008, accepting a half-cent sales tax increase for 30 years. It will generate $40 billion for 12 projects that will add rail lines north-south, east, and west, connecting neighborhoods heretofore linked only by freeways.

“The public clearly wants our transportation system fixed,” says Robert Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies (CGS). “Surprisingly, over two thirds of L.A. voters voted to increase their sales tax to pay to end gridlock.”

Mayor Villaraigosa is now trying to accelerate the timeline for such projects from 30 years to 10 by asking the federal government for a bridge loan to get started. He's set to speak before a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Thursday. Besides accelerating the start and finish dates of several projects, the loan would save millions and create between 150,000 to 200,000 jobs, according to Richard Katz, board member of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“This is a visionary idea that plays directly into the hands of what Congress needs right now,” says Mr. Katz. “The US can’t pull itself out of recession without California, and California can’t pull itself out without Los Angeles.” He notes that unemployment in the city is between 15 and 20 percent, and possibly much higher.

“The multiplier effect of over 150,000 men and women working on all these projects would have a major impact on L.A. County and the whole state,” he says.

Critics say Congress should be asking tough questions.

“Why should Los Angeles … get a lavish loan on a mass transit system that most Americans will never use?” asks Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. “If the government is going to be handing out loans, why not make loans to school districts so they don’t have to increase class size? Outside the L.A. metro area, are there lawmakers who have any incentive to support this plan? All over the country, states and localities are facing tight budgets and making painful cuts.”

But proponents say they are not asking for funds outright.

“We are not looking for a federal handout, but rather just ways to maximize what our voters have already approved,” says Katz.

Some independent analysts applaud the effort.

“I think this falls under the category of, 'it is worth a try," says Jessica Levinson, Director of Political Reform at CGS. “Even if we get a portion of what the mayor is asking for, it could help Los Angeles start on this important transportation project. The money could provide a much needed infusion of capital for a vital public works project.“

She and others note that quality-of-life surveys in Los Angeles find that the public perceives a need to alleviate traffic.

Moreover, the state’s dirty air cost $193 million in hospital and emergency room visits between 2005 and 2007, according to a recent RAND Corp. report. These data also reinforce what the American Lung Association has found since it began grading air quality in all US counties in 1999, and will likely be shown in this year’s State of the Air Report, to be released April 28: California continues to struggle with a serious pollution problem, harming the health and well-being of citizens, and costing the state millions.

“California needs to focus on cleaning up pollution sources like motor vehicle engines and fuels, especially dirty diesel engines, to meet clean air standards, improve health of our citizens, and reduce healthcare costs,” says Jane Warner of the American Lung Association.

Unlike in cities such as Chicago or New York, where public transportation is easily accessible and reliable, in Los Angeles it is primarily the poor who use buses and subway lines, sociologists say. More rail interconnectivity could help break down the walls that separate many of the city’s disparate communities from the affluent West side to the gangland regions of South Central to Korea town.

In his daily blog, Villarairgosa claims his ideas are being well-received from Capitol Hill to the White House.

“Members of Congress showed encouragement and great interest,” he wrote Feb. 26 of his last trip. “They understand what 30/10 means for local jobs – 166,000 of them – local air quality and mobility throughout the county.”

Downtown Streetcar Non-Profit Readying to Rally the Public (Source: LAist)

Link: Downtown Streetcar Non-Profit Readying to Rally the Public - LAist

Downtown Streetcar Non-Profit Readying to Rally the Public

The non-profit charged with bringing Los Angeles' revitalized downtown its first streetcar by 2014 released a short and simple one-year progress report today.

In it are the accomplishments over the last year, including the formation of the non-profit, grants awarded and applied for and public meetings, such as the one about possible routes.

They also tease their new marketing and advertising campaign called "It's on track." The ads demonstrate how the streetcar can connect people in downtown such as eating dinner at L.A. Live and then heading to a show at Walt Disney Concert Hall. "The success of the Downtown Los Angeles Streetcar project depends on widespread support from community stakeholders, business leaders, property owners, and the public at large," notes the report.
By Zach Behrens in News on March 9, 2010 5:29 PM

Santa Monica needs a monorail (Source: www.smdp.com)

Link: Santa Monica needs a monorail

Santa Monica needs a monorail

March 10, 2010
Santa Monica is known for thinking in ways other cities don't. So where's that thinking as it relates to mass transit? Have you seen any city or area transit authority study comparing different methods of transport and the short- and long-term costs? No? That's because they didn't create one. Is light rail the best plan for Santa Monica? Will it make a profit?

One of our most recent investments in mass transit was the L.A. downtown Metro. Why did the Metro go underground? We have some of the best weather in the world, with only nine rainy days a year and no snow. Why build underground in earthquake country? The reason is simple: $5.6 billion went into a great number of people's pockets so that question did not get asked. Are we suffering the same fate today in Santa Monica?

Local transportation officials keep making the same mistakes when it comes to public transit. Face it, we live in an earthquake zone. The last place anyone wants to be is underground during a quake. Yet we wasted $5.6 billion to build the subway to nowhere. Did anyone notice a drop in traffic when the subway started running?

So how is a ground-level train any better then an underground train? Above ground trains either crowd out our already crowded streets by reducing the number of lanes available to vehicles, or they require a 20-yard path of home demolition right through your neighborhood. They cause delays as they cross busy intersections, making traffic worse. Trains also hit people and vehicles, costing the taxpayers a great deal of money in repairs and lawsuits. To prevent those lawsuits, a massive network of loud-ringing bells must be erected to prevent idiots from parking on the train tracks. Those bells have to be loud enough to be heard by someone in a BMW on the cell phone. That means if you live within a mile of the track, you will hear those bells.

The next problem with ground-level trains is the cost. Trains are expensive to maintain and that means more money for the company selling us that train. That may be good for the train business, but it's bad for the people who pay the bill. Since the 1950s, there's been a long-term campaign to make money off the people of the Los Angeles area. It started with the demolition of the "red cars," an efficient working rail system that was in place before the city grew. That system still has the right of way, but it's been quickly used for other purposes.

Open corruption is what Los Angeles mass transit is about. I had the pleasure of asking former L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn in a town hall meeting, "Who took the bribe to terminate the Green Line two miles from the airport? He replied that he'd look into this. Now, six years later, the train is still no closer to the airport. The city of Los Angeles is one of the only cities to host the Olympics and make a profit. So why hasn't someone asked the obvious question: How do you make mass transit profitable in Los Angeles?

The reason no one asks how to make a train profitable is because they don't want it to be profitable. If you care about profit, then you have to care about costs. The people that sell and maintain the trains don't care if it costs too much. The elected officials obviously don't care or they would be asking that question.

According to the Federal Transit Administration, the Seattle monorail is the only profitable train system in the United States. If you want a system to work, connect people from where they are to where they want to go. Connect large malls first. Imagine spending a day shopping going from the Third Street Promenade to Century City, to the Beverly Center and never having to drive. Connect airports down the middle of freeways. We have massive rideshare parking lots right off the freeways. Imagine how many people would use the monorail if it went down the center of all of the freeways? What if you could take a monorail to the airport from Santa Monica, Century City or the San Fernando Valley? Why is it that the largest monorail in the United States is owned by a private, for-profit company called Disney? That's an example of how a profitable route can grow without taxpayer money.

So why is a monorail not even being talked about? Anyone who has gone to Disneyland knows that a monorail is fun, quiet and a safe way to travel. Monorails are above the road and run on rubber tires over dedicated concrete which make them whisper quiet. They are reliable and run on time. They don't hit cars or children and offer a great view of the city. The fact is for the first time in almost 50 years, the Seattle monorail is having to refurbish its monorail trains. The track is still in good shape and has not been replaced. Santa Monica, demand the best mass transit.

David Alsabery is a high-performance driving instructor, a Republican and an all around nice guy. He can be reached at alsabery@gmail.com.

Soil testing to begin on Crenshaw Line (Source: thesource.metro.net)

Link: The Source » Soil testing to begin on Crenshaw Line

Soil testing to begin on Crenshaw Line

The Crenshaw Line light rail project isn’t scheduled to open until 2018 but the project is taking a small step forward today with the beginning of soil testing along the route. A fair amount of earth has to be moved as part of the project and, henceforth, Metro officials must find out what’s in the soil as part of the project’s environmental study phase.

A few more details from Metro CEO Art Leahy’s daily email to staff:

Tomorrow [Tuesday], our contractors will begin conducting exploratory drilling as part of the environmental analysis currently underway for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Project. This work will occur over the next five weeks at approximately 57 sites throughout the study area. Soil removed from the sites will be sent to a lab for analysis for assessment. Work at each site will occur during daytime hours and will take place over a period of one to three days, and has received all necessary permits.An ongoing outreach effort is underway to ensure that those closest to the drilling locations are informed when the work is coming to their area.

The rail line will run between Exposition and Crenshaw boulevards in the north and the Green Line/Aviation Boulevard in the south

Rebuilding America From Ore to Assembly (Source: Huffington Post)

Link: Joel Epstein: Rebuilding America From Ore to Assembly

Joel Epstein

Corporate and philanthropic giving and strategic communications professional
Posted: March 5, 2010 01:59 PM
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Rebuilding America From Ore to Assembly



On Thursday, within earshot of a big noisy rally against education cuts at California's public universities getting underway outside, I found myself inside the UCLA School of Public Affairs. What brought me to the leafy Westwood campus was a talk by Metro Manager of Community Relations Jody Litvak and Metro Executive Officer/LA City Planning Commissioner Diego Cardoso. Litvak and Cardoso's presentation to a group of urban and environmental planning graduate students and the lively conversation that followed focused on Measure R (the recently approved 1/2 cent transit tax) and the future of mass transit in Los Angeles.

Now both because education matters and as a parent who hopes his hard-working LAUSD-educated kids have the chops to get into a University of California school in just a few short years, I guess I should have been out there protesting too, but I wanted to hear the talk I'd come to Westwood for.

Nonetheless, as I listened to the interesting presentations mingled with the sounds of protest coming through the open window, I found my mind drifting back to my days at the University of Michigan, protesting cuts to the University's undergraduate program and smaller departments like Geography. Indeed, as a student I once had my head handed to me while testifying on behalf of the Geography department. You see, though I'm pretty good in the subject I'd never actually taken a college Geography course and a professor representing the University lost no time in discrediting me for as much and for taking too long to find the Cape Breton Islands on a map.

Though I didn't much like being made to look like a fool or reading about it the next day in the Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor was a great place for me to go to college. Not only did I love classes and all of the extra curricular activities, but it was also a chance to learn about Detroit and the rest of the so-called rust belt. My best classes were in urban history and politics. It was there that I came to the correct conclusion, subsequently disavowed for law school, that I should go to graduate school in urban policy or planning.

I'll never forget exploring Motown and southeastern Michigan, which in many ways still hasn't fully recovered from the 1967 riots and the multi-generational contraction in the auto industry. Most striking then (and now) was the perpetually sad state of the economy. For a while I worked as an after-school tutor in Ypsilanti, a nearby depressed and somewhat depressing city then with its own Ford plant. Some of the parents of the kids I tutored were even lucky enough to work off and on at Ypsilanti Ford, which I understand later became a Visteon plant and then an ACH factory before shutting down for good in 2008.

Even today, when people talk about Detroit, it's usually about the riots, its unparalleled musical heritage, the massive Ford plant at River Rouge in its varied incarnations since opening in 1917 as an automotive "ore to assembly" complex; or maybe Eminem and 8 Mile.

But Detroit says a lot more about this country's decline as an industrial powerhouse than just the closed auto plants like Ypsilanti that litter the landscape and the stunted careers that are the result of Motown's main industry's bad business decisions. It must have been the last gubernatorial election cycle when Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm called me in my role as a local political director. As we made polite chit chat about her upcoming race I couldn't help going off script and asking the Governor what she was doing to goose the auto executives into doing more about emissions and building more fuel-efficient vehicles. As Granholm launched into an unconvincing spiel about how she had just returned from an industry conference in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where they had discussed just that, all I could think about was the depressed cities and ruined lives I saw in southeastern Michigan that the misguided industry had left in its wake. Sure, for generations Detroit had offered a high wage long-term career, but for too many today that dream is just a Motown memory.

All those thoughts of Detroit, and the decline in the country's industrial might, have me thinking about Tom Friedman and how he got to be so good at what he does. I guess the answer is sort of like the punch line to the old Borsch Belt joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" This week Friedman's captured my imagination with this statement, "We are the United States of Deferred Maintenance," in an opinion piece entitled A Word From the Wise. The op ed, which goes on to talk about America's anemic investment in infrastructure, education and innovation and the consequences for the country's competitiveness, is must-reading for everyone in Los Angeles City Hall and in cities like Detroit. We all need to start thinking and acting differently if we want to extricate ourselves from the economic and educational malaise that ails us.

A public works project here in Los Angeles, as outlined in LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's 30/10 plan to build three decades' worth of mass transit projects in a decade, and smaller projects in the 80 other cities across the country looking to expand their light rail, subway, and bus systems, is an excellent start. And along the way perhaps Los Angeles and the other cities can learn a thing or two from United Streetcar, a subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works in Portland.

With cities across the country poised to construct or add trolleys to their mass transit systems, United Streetcar is building for the domestic market a product that many cities would otherwise have to import from Europe. And these are expensive babies, selling for over $3 million each, and requiring proud, skilled workers. Portland knows a good opportunity when it sees one.

One can only hope that going forward Los Angeles companies will be as successful as United Streetcar in leveraging the resources provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With a new deputy mayor focused on jobs and investment we are at least moving in a good direction.

As anyone who has tried to navigate Congress or City Hall knows, the sausage making of government and applied public policy isn't always a pretty business. But like becoming a great musician (or getting great at anything else) you have to practice to get to Carnegie Hall. This politically and economically divided country is out of practice and the signs of this are everywhere.

Don't think I miss the irony in calling for new investment as the states and cities further slash their budgets and payrolls and thousands protest deep cuts to education in California. So be it. Finding the money to proceed with job-creating infrastructure projects, like Mayor Villaraigosa's 30/10 mass transit building plan, and a renewed investment in public education, can get this city and country back on the right track.

With No News of a Lawsuit, Expo Authority Shops for Contractors (Source: Curbed LA)

Link: Curbed LA: With No News of a Lawsuit, Expo Authority Shops for Contractors

With No News of a Lawsuit, Expo Authority Shops for Contractors

Friday, March 5, 2010, by Neal Broverman

Westside homeowners adamantly against Expo Phase II—they say because it runs above-ground—have until March 6th to file suit against the recently certified environmental impact report. That's tomorrow, and no news yet. Hmmm. The Expo Authority yesterday told Metro's Board of Directors that they're beginning the process of hiring a contractor to conduct engineering work on the Culver City to Santa Monica line. "This action represents the first step toward hiring a design-build contractor to construct the long-awaited light rail extension to Santa Monica," Expo says on its Facebook page. "Upon completion of successful negotiations, [preliminary engineering] contracts will be awarded to both firms and PE work will continue for six months. In November 2010, the Authority will select one of these PE firms as the design-build contractor to complete the design work and construct this vital mass transit link, which is scheduled to be completed in 2015." Could the Westside homeowners leading the charge againt Expo II, a group called Neighbors for Smart Rail, pull a last minute surprise on Oscar weekend? Anything's possible.

Villaraigosa to ask Feds for $30 Billion in Transit Money (Source: LAist)

Link: Villaraigosa to ask Feds for $30 Billion in Transit Money - LAist

Villaraigosa to ask Feds for $30 Billion in Transit Money

Even though the Mayor was just in Washington D.C., he's going back this week to ask for an advance on money. A lot of it. Thanks to Measure R, the voter-approved sales tax hike, L.A. County is looking at some $30 billion in dedicated transit funds over the next 30 years. So why not ask the feds for a loan upfront so we can start now? Other city issues will also be worked on. This is part of the annual Access D.C. trip where 200 business leaders and several city councilmembers head to the capitol.

LaBonge Calls for Arts District Rail Spur (Source: Los Angeles Downtown News)

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.