County plans to seismically reinforce planned Gold Line bridge

County plans to seismically reinforce planned Gold Line bridge - Pasadena Star-News

County plans to seismically reinforce planned Gold Line bridge
Posted: 12/02/2009 09:52:35 AM PST

County authorities approved $205,000 Tuesday to go for seismic retrofits for a Gold Line bridge that will cross Colorado Boulevard in Arcadia. The 739-foot bridge will stretch diagonally across the freeway from Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia, and will be crossed by Gold Line light rail cars once the foothill extension project to Glendora is built. It will cost $20 to $25 million to build. The bridge project is slated to begin in March 2010 and be completed in May 2010. Local authorities are planning to complete the foothill extension by 2013.

The Eastside's new Gold Line (Souce: latimes.com)

Link: The Eastside's new Gold Line -- latimes.com

Editorial
The Eastside's new Gold Line
After 22 years and $900 million, light rail comes to L.A.'s Eastside.

November 13, 2009

It's hard to build public transit projects in Los Angeles under the best of circumstances, but the Gold Line light-rail spur from Union Station to Atlantic Boulevard in East L.A., which opens Sunday, has a long and bruising history that seems to have left at least one key backer permanently scarred.

County Supervisor Gloria Molina last month called the line "substandard" and worried that it would be unsafe for drivers and pedestrians, despite the fact that it has been vetted and approved by safety experts. "We all struggled so hard to get this into our community," she said. "Now, at the end of the day, I feel like I'm being shortchanged on the issues of integrity, safety and confidence."

On the surface, it was a surprising reaction from Molina, a tireless advocate for her Eastside district who is about to see the opening of a perfectly safe, six-mile light-rail line, a $900-million project that took 22 years from planning to completion. Yet she has never recovered from a process in which what was originally envisioned as a spur of the Red Line subway ended up with only 1.7 miles underground. The subway plans were derailed both because of the enormous price tag and because of public anger over cost overruns and sinkholes during the construction of the Red Line to North Hollywood, which prompted Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to sponsor a successful ballot initiative in 1998 that forbade using county sales tax funds for further subway projects. Molina is still upset that after getting a subway built in his Westside district, Yaroslavsky saw to it that none would be built in hers.

Fortunately, Molina's bitterness doesn't appear to be shared by her constituents, who mostly seem thrilled about Sunday's debut. They should be; the Eastside has a large transit- dependent population, and by the end of its first year, the Gold Line is expected to attract 13,000 daily boardings.

Of course, this doesn't mean the sniping over subways has ended. Not satisfied by a recommendation from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority staff that an eight-mile project along Crenshaw Boulevard should be a light-rail line rather than a less expensive dedicated busway, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas hopes to drum up hundreds of millions more dollars to make it a subway. Meanwhile, the so-called subway to the sea along Wilshire Boulevard -- one of the only parts of L.A. with the density to justify the expense of subway construction -- is constantly under threat from politicians who want to seize its funding for their own projects.

But those are fights for another day. On Sunday, there will be such a thing as a free ride, with the new Gold Line operating all day with no charge. All aboard.

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Getting bullet train, Gold Line on track (Source: DailyBulletin.com)

Link: Getting bullet train, Gold Line on track - DailyBulletin.com

Getting bullet train, Gold Line on track

David Allen, Staff Writer
Created: 11/07/2009 06:06:59 AM PST

HIGH-SPEED RAIL may one day travel through the Inland Valley, although the process itself is moving at low speed.

By late 2012, a precise route with station locations may be decided upon, with environmental review wrapping up the next year. Construction from L.A. to San Diego could begin in 2015 and end in 2020, with the route to San Francisco done by 2025.

So I wouldn't pack my bags and head down to one of those undecided stations just yet. Still, an 800-mile bullet train linking Northern and Southern California is a neat idea, one voters backed with nearly $10 billion in bonds in 2008.

A session last week in an obscure corner of Ontario International Airport was held to show off various maps and renderings and solicit opinion.

(If you could find the meeting, held off of Avion Drive, you were officially a public transit nerd. They should have given out certificates at the door.)

The rail route is expected to jog east from L.A. to Ontario, and possibly San Bernardino, before heading south toward San Diego.

Where would the local stations be? ONT is almost certain to get one. A San Gabriel Valley station could be built in El Monte, West Covina, Industry, Cal Poly Pomona or downtown Pomona, according to a map display.

If Pomona's got two chances out of five, that's not bad.

But I think the 25 mph Gold Line to Claremont will arrive faster than high-speed rail.

Map: How to Connect to the New Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension (Source: LAist)

Map: How to Connect to the New Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension - LAist

Map: How to Connect to the New Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension

The Gold Line's Eastside Extension is opening on November 15th, but how does one get to the light rail line? Other than the big connections at Union Station (Red Line, etc), what other bus lines connect to it?

According to a new map by Metro, some 35 bus lines will connect to the extension's eight stations. Two of them are DASH buses, seven are from Montebello's bus system and the rest are Metro-run buses. You can download a larger version of the map here (.pdf)

Our View: Metro should heed advice (Source: SGVTribune.com)

Our View: Metro should heed advice - SGVTribune.com

Our View: Metro should heed advice

Posted: 10/21/2009 05:37:03 PM PDT

IT'S not often that Southern California's congressional delegation comes together on an issue in a truly bipartisan way.

But
a letter sent Tuesday (see Guest View) to the Metro board urging that
the Gold Line Foothill Extension and two other projects be added to its
long-range transportation plan was signed by everyone from Republican
Reps. David Dreier and Gary Miller to Democratic Reps. Grace Napolitano
and Maxine Waters.

Fourteen Congress members in all signed the
letter, led by Dreier, Napolitano, Adam Schiff (who authored
legislation when serving in Sacramento that created the existing Gold
Line)and Judy Chu.

When this many Congress members speak - from
Jerry Lewis and Mary Bono Mack on the right in the Inland Empire to
Diane Watson and Jane Harman on the left and in Los Angeles - it would
behoove Metro, also known as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, to listen.

The members asked the Metro
board to put the Foothill Extension, the Gold Line Eastside Extension
Phase II (through South El Monte and Whittier) and the Crenshaw/South
Bay Transit Corridor to LAX on its New Starts funding priority list
when the board meets today in L.A.

The L.A.-centric Metro board,
led by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has favored the Westside
subway-to-the-sea project over the two Gold Line extensions.

"In order to maximize federal funding we strongly urge you to broaden the County's federal strategy,"

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the Congress
members wrote. They pointed out that the subway and another heavy-rail
project favored by Metro were unlikely to gain funding from the federal
New Starts process in as little as three years, which would be possible
for the shovel-ready Gold Line light-rail projects.

"If the
board does not include these projects, we leave hundreds of millions of
federal dollars on the table that will be directed elsewhere in the
country," said Schiff, adding that Metro cannot afford to miss the
chance to bring dollars and jobs to the region.

Dreier
emphasized the broad, bipartisan group of Congress members wanting to
prioritize the entire region's needs and to "help secure the federal
resources needed to create jobs and invest in an infrastructure that
works for all Southern Californians."

Of particular interest to
San Gabriel Valley as well as Inland Empire residents, the letter
stated in part: "The Gold Line Foothill Extension project, Azusa to
Montclair, is developed enough to be ready for Federal New Starts funds
in the years before the Westside Subway Extension and the Regional
Connector Transit Corridor."

The letter ends by emphasizing the
imperative to have a strategy that brings as much federal funding as
possible to complement the $30 billion in Measure R sales taxes that
Metro will spend over the next 30 years.

"We would like to work
together as a team as we pursue New Starts funding for Southern
California's priorities on the federal level," ends the letter, also
signed by Reps. Joe Baca, Ken Calvert, Lucille Roybal-Allard and Linda
Sanchez.

That's a heck of an offer of assistance from some very
powerful people who seldom agree on anything. If the Metro board
members turn it down, they're nuts.

Little Tokyo Sounds Off About Metro’s Expansion Plans (Source: API Movement)

Little Tokyo Sounds Off About Metro’s Expansion Plans | API Movement

Little Tokyo Sounds Off About Metro’s Expansion Plans

Michael - Posted on 19 October 2009

Community leaders continue to meet with Metro officials to emphasize the area’s historical and cultural significance.

By Nalea J. Ko, Reporter
Pacific Citizen
Published October 16, 2009

Little Tokyo stakeholders are expressing concerns over Metro’s plans to expand the city’s mass transit system in the area.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, has been collecting community input about its 1.8-mile-long Regional Connector Transit Corridor project. It is a plan that would run through Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, connecting the Metro Gold, Blue and Expo Lines, and possible future transit projects.

Little Tokyo is one of the last three Japantowns left in the nation including one in San Francisco and one in San Jose.

Most residents and employees say they are in favor of improving the transportation in the area, but they are also concerned about how Metro will mitigate negative impacts during the construction phase.

“The Metro has to find ways which will in effect guarantee that businesses and institutions that reflect our ethnic heritage will not be destroyed or impacted to ruination through their proposed construction … and work with the Little Tokyo community after construction is done to help ensure that the ethnic flavor of the community can continue and not be swallowed up by big-money interests,” said Bill Watanabe, executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC).

Watanabe said his opinions are personal and do not necessarily reflect of the feelings of LTSC.
Construction on the regional connector could take as long as four years, depending on which project option is pursued.

Metro officials have not broken ground yet. An 18-month environmental impact statement/environmental impact report is currently underway. It is expected to be complete by the summer of 2010.

In the interim, Metro officials are exploring four different options for constructing the regional connector: a no build alternative, a transportation system management alternative, an at-grade light rail transit alternative and an underground light rail transit alternative.

Metro officials will determine which option to proceed with depending on community input, Metro procedures and the Federal Transit Administration’s guidelines.

The regional connector is intended to provide those who live and work in downtown with “more access to the light rail system.” Little Tokyo is one of the communities that would be included in the project area. Others include Bunker Hill, the Jewelry District, the Civic Center, the Toy District, the Historic Core, the Arts District, the Financial District and the Jewelry District.

Constructing the regional connector would allow passengers to travel through the downtown area without having to transfer, said Dolores Roybal Saltarelli, Metro project manager.

“The elimination of these transfers would save passengers between 12 and 20 minutes of travel time per average trip, and would reduce the need for casual passengers — those without monthly transit passes who pay for each trip individually — to pay additional fares.” Saltarelli wrote in an e-mail to the Pacific Citizen.

“In order for the Metro system to accommodate the anticipated population growth and increases in transit users through the year 2035 and beyond, it will be important to address crowding at these stations.”

Each proposed regional connector option has varying price tags. The transportation system management alternative would have an estimated capital cost of $63 million and an operating cost of $13.6 million. That option would provide bus or shuttle service between the 7th Street Metro Station and Union Station.

The at-grade light rail transit alternative would be $796 million with an operating cost of $9.8 million. This option would go west along Main and Los Angeles Street and north along Temple Street. And the final option, the underground light rail alternative, is estimated to be $910 million, costing $5.2 to operate. Its route would run along Second Street, crossing into Little Tokyo.

“No option is really acceptable to us,” said Craig Ishii, JACL PSW regional director.

“Little Tokyo — this is the whole community — the whole community for the most part is not opposed to the idea of public transit and is not opposed to Metro. It is only opposed to these options that are being presented. The idea is that Little Tokyo should have been involved in the process where they went from 30 [project options] to four.”

Ishii said they oppose the underground light rail transit alternative because of the possible traffic congestion and loss of business during construction. The at-grade light rail transit alternative is also problematic because it sequesters Little Tokyo, said Ishii.

The JACL PSW regional board passed an Oct. 5 resolution, saying they are against all options presented by Metro, unless proper mitigations are implemented.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, also submitted a letter to Metro Chairman Ara Najarian urging him to be mindful of the regional connector’s possible impact on the Japanese American National Museum, which has “unique characteristics and compelling historic significance.”

Saltarelli said they are working with the community before finalizing their decision.

“The project team is conducting extensive outreach in the community to identify the best possible alternative,” Saltarelli said. “We are hopeful that we can identify an alternative that minimizes the impacts on the downtown community, and provides great benefits to businesses, residents, and visitors in downtown Los Angeles and regionally for the long-term.”

The next downtown-based Metro community meeting is Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. at the Wurlitzer Building.
Stakeholders hope Metro officials will consider the historical and cultural significance of Little Tokyo.

“If the Little Tokyo community can plan and coalesce in effective ways to ensure that the community will not be destroyed in the future, then perhaps there is hope for change that results in positive ends for the city and for the Little Tokyo community,” Watanabe said. “Without these guarantees and assurances, many in the community will be unsupportive of these changes.”

One Step Closer: Metro Releases Final(?) Draft 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan (Source: I Will Ride Blog)

One Step Closer: Metro Releases Final(?) Draft 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan « I Will Ride Blog

One Step Closer: Metro Releases Final(?) Draft 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan
Posted by Albert


Metro kid: We did it!
San Gabriel Valley: Not so fast Metro kid.

You’ve seen these four words tossed around quite a bit: Long Range Transportation Plan, or LRTP for short. It is the grand-daddy of transportation plans in Los Angeles County. It sets on paper what, how, and when transit projects can be funded – of which the Metro Board can change with a majority vote. This lone document has fueled more articles on this blog than any other transit topic or issue (federal funding will take the crown after a few more months). With the exception of the Bus Riders Union and bike advocates, probably no other group has agonized more over the details of the LRTP than the supporters of the Foothill Extension – and for good reason.

9 Months Ago

Since the draft LRTP was reintroduced into the transit news circles by Metro staff in January, many things have changed for the better for the San Gabriel Valley in this plan. However, the path wasn’t without a few heartaches in the beginning and along the way.

That LRTP in January was a carryover from 2008 – when the Metro Board held off on a vote to approve the plan to give Los Angeles County voters a chance to pass the half-cent sales tax increase that was Measure R last November. Measure R passed (look no further for proof than the sales tax on your receipt), and when the LRTP was given an “update” in a January Metro staff report, it still excluded the Foothill Extension (to Azusa) from initial funding despite it being the only proposed Measure R light-rail project that was ready for construction. The Foothill Extension Construction Authority, San Gabriel Valley residents, businesses, elected officials, newspapers, students, and everyone else in between took issue with it – also giving birth to this blog. To make a long story short, through a combined effort on all levels from the San Gabriel Valley, Metro revised the LRTP to include $875 million for the first phase of the Foothill Extension to Azusa. Yay?

Hold Off That Celebration

Metro recently released their final draft of the 2009 LRTP, and, besides the new plan shaving off $24 million for the Extension (bringing funding to $851 million), not much has changed since the Extension was included for funding back in June. The operations date for the Foothill Extension to Azusa is still set for 2017 in the plan. With the groundbreaking most likely happening next year, the construction of the first phase can be finished and the line can be ready in 2013. Let’s not wait 4 years after the line has been completed to operate the thing.

Looking past the stop at Azusa, many other cities are still waiting for their portion of the Foothill Extension to be funded. The recent debate over federal funding has become a big issue because of Metro’s decision to back only two projects for federal money: the Subway to the Sea and Regional Connector. Now let us repeat that these are two very important transit projects that should receive help from Washington. However, like we have pointed out before, our county stands to lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars because of an unrealistic (most likely unachievable) timeframe Metro has put in place for the Subway and Regional Connector to qualify for federal money. And like Congresswoman Judy Chu’s office has pointed out, the second phase of the Foothill Extension to Montclair is in a much better position to receive federal funding much sooner – without impacting the Subway and Regional Connector’s chances at federal funding when these two projects finally do qualify.

Like Metro Board Chair Ara Najarian stated, we need to be unified in order to sell our transit projects to Washington. In order for our delegation to the federal government to become unified, we cannot close the doors on projects that are eligible for federal funding.

What’s Next?

The Metro Board Planning and Programming Committee will meet on Wednesday, October 14, 1:00 PM at the Metro building to consider the LRTP. Then, assuming nothing out of the ordinary happens at the meeting, the LRTP moves to the Metro Board of Directors for a final vote. Yes, after a few false jump-the-gun moments in the past months, the Metro Board of Directors (we’re assuming) will finally vote on the 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan – 3 months after Measure R’s half-cent sales tax increase had kicked in.

For more information on the meeting, and if you’d like to attend, visit our Act Now page.

Update: though we were able to obtain the LRTP documents ourselves, the direct link on Metro’s website don’t seem to be working. If you think you might have better luck, you can check out the Planning and Programming Committee agenda and click on the links in Item 10 for the LRTP.

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Tags: funding, measure r, metro, residents
2 Responses to “One Step Closer: Metro Releases Final(?) Draft 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan”

Pasadena Star-News Editorial Board Shares Frustration, Repeats Battle Cry (Source: I Will Ride Blog)

Link: Pasadena Star-News Editorial Board Shares Frustration, Repeats Battle Cry « I Will Ride Blog

Pasadena Star-News Editorial Board Shares Frustration, Repeats Battle Cry
Posted by Albert

Fresh off of last month’s Metro Board meeting and last week’s public-private industry workshop, the Pasadena Star-News’ editorial board took the time to weigh in on the recent developments surrounding the Foothill Extension. The piece vents a similar frustration about Metro and the County potentially losing out on federal funds in the next cycle by excluding the extension. For the entire editorial, click on the link below.

Again, without arguing the merits of those two projects, it’s clear that they are not nearly as far along in terms of planning, engineering and land acquisition as the Gold Line Foothill. The two will only be available for federal funding five to eight years down the line, while the Gold Line is ready now. Would the MTA risk missing out entirely on upcoming federal New Start funding just to push two pet projects that are not yet qualified?…

… We reiterate that the project needs Metro’s support. Which is why we are once again urging the Metro board to place the project in the agency’s Long Range Transportation Plan, and commit the $875 million from the half-cent sales tax San Gabriel Valley residents are currently paying.

Our View: Gold Line taking bidders (Source: SGVTribune.com)

Link: Our View: Gold Line taking bidders - SGVTribune.com

Our View: Gold Line taking bidders
Posted: 10/04/2009 06:14:39 PM PDT

The old adage "if you want something done right, do it yourself" could be the new philosophy of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority.

And that can be both bad and good.

It is still waiting for the shovel-ready project - a 24-mile extension from east Pasadena to Claremont - to be funded at least for the first half to the Azusa/Glendora border. Despite promises from Metro that they will be partners, there has been no sealed commitment.

On Tuesday, it asked for private contractors to provide $150 million in seed money to fast-track the extension's first leg.

It's good that the agency is not sitting on its hands. The interest it generated from top-notch engineering firms such as Parsons and Jacobs speaks highly of the project. It also sends a message to the balky Metropolitan Transportation Authority that real firms are looking to spend real dollars and create thousands of real jobs if it would just do as it promised last year and commit the Measure R sales tax dollars for construction of the Gold Line foothill extension's first leg.

While we share in the agency's frustration, we are concerned that this go-it-alone attitude could backfire. We reiterate that the project needs Metro's support. Which is why we are once again urging the Metro board to place the project in the agency's Long Range Transportation Plan, and commit the $875 million from the half-cent sales tax San Gabriel Valley residents are currently paying.

We would take this concern further and say the Metro board's decision last month doesn't make supporters of this project breathe any easier. That is, the board moved to place the Westside subway (the "Subway to the Sea") and the Downtown Regional Connector projects on the federal New Starts funding list. Note the absence of the Gold Line, which would need federal dollars for completion of the second phase to Claremont, possibly to Montclair and eventually to Ontario International Airport. Again, without arguing the merits of those two projects, it's clear that they are not nearly as far along in terms of planning, engineering and land acquisition as the Gold Line Foothill. The two will only be available for federal funding five to eight years down the line, while the Gold Line is ready now. Would the MTA risk missing out entirely on upcoming federal New Start funding just to push two pet projects that are not yet qualified?

Those are real concerns of the San Gabriel Valley cities, the regional chambers of commerce and the local construction unions who want to see the project funded starting in 2010, and not by 2019 as the MTA has suggested.

Again, we share the construction authority's frustration with Metro. We see its attempts to secure some private dollars - if only as a loan - as an indication of the project's viability. It is also a reminder of the Gold Line's past: It took break-away legislation by then state Sen. Adam Schiff to create the funding for the existing Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Gold Line. If it did it once on its own, it could do it again.

Gold Line officials seeking over $100 million in private financing (Source: Pasadena Star-News)

Gold Line officials seeking over $100 million in private financing - Pasadena Star-News

Gold Line officials seeking over $100 million in private financing
Posted: 09/29/2009 11:33:44 AM PDT

Gold Line authorities are looking for a contractor to put up $100 million to $150 million to expedite the start of construction on the first segment of its 24-mile extension to Claremont.

The Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority, the agency responsible for building the line, has set the completion date for 2013, but lacks the funding to get the project done on that time line.

To get the line going, the authority wants to commit to a firm that can afford to finance the project itself at first, and get paid back over time.

The authority has a commitment of up to $875 million from Measure R funds, but will likely receive the allotments on an annual basis until 2019.

The Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which is tasked with distributing the funds, has the completion date for the first phase of the Gold Line, to the Azusa/Glendora border, as 2017.

The Foothill Extension authority drew a crowd of about 200, many representing engineering firms, on Tuesday at an event devoted to explaining the bidding process to get the job.

The line's cost will be $320 million, and the authority will also be awarding a $30 million contract for bridgework. It is asking for an upfront commitment of $5 million from the contractor doing that project.

The authority would pay back the $100 million to $150 million as it gets its allotment of Measure R funds. Interest on the loan would ultimately cost the authority $30 million, officials say.

How to Sound Like an Expert on All Things Gold Line Foothill Extension (Source: I Will Ride Blog)

Link: How to Sound Like an Expert on All Things Gold Line Foothill Extension « I Will Ride Blog

How to Sound Like an Expert on All Things Gold Line Foothill Extension
Posted by Albert

Instead of commemorating the recent launch of our Facebook fan page (and it’s safe to assume that if you’re reading this and you’re on Facebook, you’re either already a fan or will be one soon – all paths lead to you being a fan), it’s probably better to use today’s blog post to explain the various ways you can be the Foothill Extension’s biggest fan (minus yours truly).

Become a fan on Facebook (click here)


Follow our tweets on Twitter @iwillride (click here)


Watch us on YouTube (click here)


Subscribe to our blog entries via your RSS reader (Google Reader, NewsGator, etc) or via e-mail


By combining the use of all these tools, you’ll be able to:

* Read and share our latest blog entries
* See pictures and videos of our latest efforts to get the Foothill Extension up and running to Azusa in 2013 and Montclair in 2017
* RSVP to our rallies and our meet-ups at Metro Board meetings
* Sound like an expert on all things Foothill Extension and impress people with your knowledge of trendy topics like congestion relief, transit-oriented development, pollution reduction, and clean transit alternatives

Monrovia looks to get rail yard (Source: Pasadena Star-News)

Link: Monrovia looks to get rail yard - Pasadena Star-News

Monrovia looks to get rail yard
By Nathan McIntire, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/08/2009 08:23:27 PM PDT

MONROVIA - Plans to put a Foothill Gold Line Extension rail yard in Irwindale near the Duarte border have met with opposition from residents who worry the yard would be too noisy and unsightly.

But a new proposal to put the maintenance yard in Monrovia could quell those concerns and speed up construction of the eastward expansion, Monrovia city officials said.

A site in Monrovia now slated to be part of the 80-acre Station Square mixed-use project could provide the solution, City Manager Scott Ochoa said.

"Metro has decreed the Gold Line cannot move forward until there is a rail yard along this alignment," Ochoa said. "We're looking at locating this site in Monrovia if it means the Gold Line will move forward expeditiously."

Duarte residents have sought to block a proposal to put the yard just east of the 605 Freeway on property owned by Mt. Olive Storage, saying it would be a blight to the community and decrease property values.

Henry Baltazar, who lives in the 500 block of Elkhorn Drive in Duarte, said his residents' group opposed the Irwindale site but welcomed Monrovia's idea.

"We're gung-ho," Baltazar said. "We hope Monrovia takes it, and we're more than happy to give it to them."

Over the next few months, Monrovia city staff will study whether city-owned property at the northeast corner of California Avenue and Duarte Road could work as the rail yard needed for the light-rail system planned to stretch
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from Pasadena to Claremont.

The 15-acre site, south of the 210 Freeway near Home Depot, is already in an industrial part of town. However, building the rail yard there would require the purchase of more property by the city to meet the MTA's goal of 20 to 25 acres of space, Ochoa said.

He was confident the city could do it.

"We've talked to every property owner on that block over the last 3 to 4 years" about buying their property, Ochoa said.

Duarte Mayor John Fasana said the Monrovia location would give easier access than its Irwindale counterpart because of its proximity to train tracks. But any decision about the site must wait for detailed environmental impact reports.

"We don't prefer a site," Fasana said. "We just want to make sure we don't lose the line because we haven't identified a site."

Construction on the rail yard at any location would likely start at the same time Gold Line construction begins, Ochoa said.

nathan.mcintire@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300 ext. 4475

Monterey Park gets Gold Line extension (Source: Whittier Daily News)

Monterey Park gets Gold Line extension - Whittier Daily News

Monterey Park gets Gold Line extension
By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/27/2009 07:19:48 PM PDT

A $899 million, six-mile light rail extension from Downtown Los Angeles to Monterey Park is nearing completion, officials said Thursday.

The project, originally scheduled to be completed this summer, is now expected to be finished before the end of the year, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Jose Ubaldo.

"We're doing some safety tests and fixing a few problems," said Ubaldo.

The project is under budget and the completion date should be announced within the next few weeks, he said.

The MTA is running trains to test the line, he said.

Officials hoped to open the line this summer, but a contractual deadline gives the agency until December.

Michael Cano, the transportation deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, said the summer deadline was always overly optimistic.

"The timeline was always kind of for December, and at some point they moved it up," said Cano. "They've had some issues, but nothing serious."

The six-mile extension will run from Union Station through Boyle Heights and to Monterey Park, ending at 3rd Street and Atlantic Boulevard, just south of the 10 Freeway. At Union Station it will connect with the Gold Line Foothill track that runs to Pasadena.

Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, the head of the Assembly's Transportation Committee, said he expected the line to have a big impact on his district.

"It's taken a long time to go six miles, but we are very grateful this is going to get done," said Eng. "It's going to connect us to our jobs and our schools."

Eng is also hoping that the line will eventually run further through his district along the 60 Freeway, through Monterey Park, Rosemead and South El Monte, and out to the edge of Industry. Routes through Whittier also are being considered.

There is funding for a project extending the line further in Measure R, the half-cent sales tax passed by county voters in November, though the project is not scheduled to be completed until 2037.

dan.abendschein@sgvn.com

(626) 962-8811, Ext. 4451

Stimulus… More Like Stymied (Source: I Will Ride Blog)

I Will Ride Blog

Stimulus… More Like Stymied
Posted by Albert

Three articles in Friday’s editions of the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News focused on the the Subway to the Sea and its federal funding status (status: unknown). Now we support the Subway to the Sea as much as your average West LA folk, so there’s no issue with the project itself. Mass transit options, whatever and wherever they are, are good. The whole county is in dire need of a legitimate public transit alternative to the congested freeways as well as freedom from the polluted air that comes with traffic snarls.

In one Los Angeles Times report, it was revealed that much of the federal stimulus money that California had received for transportation was going to “routine” projects – not toward projects that President Obama had hoped “would both be built quickly and achieve long-term goals such as reducing pollution and congestion.” Now if you’re a Foothill Extension supporter, you can’t help but read this and scream: Oh come on! The explanation for perhaps why the ready-to-go Foothill Extension was stymied and not put up for federal stimulus money can be found in this excerpt:

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority thought about applying for stimulus funds to stretch the Red Line light rail to the sea but scrapped the idea when officials realized the project couldn’t be completed in the timeline the president outlined, said David Yale, MTA’s deputy executive officer of regional programming.
“The president’s charge was to get the economy jolted, so we needed to identify projects that could move quickly and get out to bid quickly,” Yale said.

Source: Stimulus funds in California mostly go to routine projects, study says, Los Angeles Times

The Foothill Extension seems to fit that “charge,” seeing as how with the help of federal funding, the entire line to Montclair can be finished and operating by 2017. Not to mention the thousands of construction jobs that would come with it, the billions of dollars that would jolt the San Gabriel Valley economies, the reduction in congestion on the 210, and the improvements in air quality for millions of residents.

However, all is not lost, as a group of the Subway’s biggest supporters –including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky – are urging “local governments to put aside their differences over planned transportation projects and launch a coordinated effort to secure enough federal stimulus dollars and matching funds to expedite the subway extension as well as other much-anticipated projects to be financed by Measure R, the county’s new transportation sales tax.” The list of projects they want to come along with the ride to the federal government?

Those include the Expo Line light-rail route from downtown to Santa Monica with a completion date in 2015, the Gold Line’s Foothill extension to perhaps Azusa by 2017 and a downtown light-rail line to connect the Blue, Gold and Expo lines by 2025.

Source: L.A. mayor wants to speed up work on Subway to the Sea, Los Angeles Times

Though we’re currently emphasizing the use of federal funds to build out these projects, remember that the revenue from Measure R’s half-cent sales tax increase is still slated to pay for the majority, but not all, of the cost of these lines. And with the Subway to the Sea doing its best roommate-who-raids-your-part-of-the-fridge-without-paying-their-fair-share impression, Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s office seems to be having none of it:

Tony Bell, spokesman for county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said the subway extension will only serve three of the county’s 88 cities, all of which will be required to “foot the bill.”

“The residents of the San Fernando, San Gabriel, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys will all be paying for a gold-plated, multi-billion dollar underground subway that will have no impact on our regional transportation crisis,” Bell said. “In fact, it will funnel money away from projects that will improve mobility on a regional basis.”

Source: Subway to sea gains footing, Los Angeles Daily News

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