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.

L.A. Metro to test turnstile-gate waters at four subway stations (Souce: /www.progressiverailroading.com)

Link: L.A. Metro to test turnstile-gate waters at four subway stations

L.A. Metro to test turnstile-gate waters at four subway stations

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) recently began installing turnstile gates at four Metro Red Line subway stations to determine if the equipment helps prevent fare evasion and boosts station security.

By the month’s end, the gates will be operational at the Normandie, Union, Westlake and Pershing Square stations. Metro is the only U.S. subway operator with a barrier-free “proof-of-payment” system through which fares are randomly checked by civilian fare inspectors and sheriff’s officers, according to LACMTA. The agency estimates it loses about $5 million annually to fare evasion, and its fare evasion rate on rail lines stands at 6 percent.

The turnstile gates are a key component of Metro’s Transit Access Pass (TAP) program, which calls for implementing an automated regional fare collection system to provide county transit riders more seamless travel among modes. In addition to installing the gates, Metro plans to install more video surveillance cameras at all gate entrances and assign more security personnel to key stations.

Metro officials will monitor operations at the four gate-equipped stations. If “all goes well,” the agency will install a total of 379 fare gates at all subway stations — as well as all Metro Green Line, and key Metro Blue and Gold line light-rail stations — by early 2010, LACMTA officials said in a prepared statement.

Purple Line in puberty (Source: MetroRiderLA)

Link: Purple Line in puberty | MetroRiderLA

Purple Line in puberty

Contributed by Wad on July 13th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

Solair at Wilshire/Western Station

Images are by Yours Truly, shot for the anniversary. They can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.

It was today — July 13, 1996 — when the subway had been extended to Wilshire/Vermont, Wilshire/Normandie and Wilshire/Western stations. Back then, it had been known as the Red Line. Today, it is the same service but known as the Purple Line.

Koreatown has now had subway service for 13 years now. The definitive subway birthday story is my MetroRiderLA piece from 2006, its 10th birthday.

As the subway grew, so has the city. The Solair complex has finished construction atop the Wilshire/Western station, and the Wilshire/Vermont complex has a bustling retail hub around the subway station. The Summit on Sixth, a converted office building, is also open. The Wilshire/Normandie station remains mostly the same, though pretty much all trace of the Ambassador Hotel is now gone.

The best news, though, was from last November, with the passage of Measure R. It would reduce the importance of Koreatown as merely a branch of the busier Red Line, and raise it to the Wilshire trunk line it was meant to be.

Mid-July is also the birthday for the Green Line, which would now be 14, and the oldest of the siblings, the Blue Line, is 19 years young.

Two-car Purple Line train

Metro only ran two-car trains to Wilshire/Western during the midday on July 13.

Fare Gates for Metro Trains Are Coming, But Slowly (Source: Streetsblog Los Angeles)

Link: Streetsblog Los Angeles » Fare Gates for Metro Trains Are Coming, But Slowly

Fare Gates for Metro Trains Are Coming, But Slowly

by Damien Newton on July 13, 2009


Photo of PATH Station in Newark, NJ: Ho0n/Flickr
Despite a Board Report available on Metro's website that states that fare gates will be installed on all Metro rail lines by the end of the year (look on page 16 of this link); Meto staff reports that gates aren't going to be up and running anytime soon. Installation of gates has just begun at the Wilshire/Normandie Purple Line Station, but we're not at the point where we can even see the gates yet, they should start physically being installed by the end of the week or early next week.

Once the Wilshire/Normandie installation is completed, Metro will continue along the Red and Purple Lines, a process that Rick Jager estimates could take up to six months before moving on to the Green Line, then the Blue Line and finally, the Gold Line. Metro hasn't yet completed installation for the pilot program at certain Gold Line stations that was, according to the schedule linked to above, supposed to be completed by the end of June. A start date for the turnstiles to be operational hasn't been announced, nor whether they will begin operation "piecemeal" or wait until the system is installed at every rail stop.

While I still roll my eyes at the thought that these gates will Keep Us Safe From Terrorists, my real concerns are whether or not the gates will be a burden to those using the rails who are bringing extra baggage, baby strollers, bicycles or whatever onto the trains and whether or not the gates will cause a backup and make people miss their trains.

I'm going to be out of town at the end of this week and start of next, so if any Streetsblogger wants to take some pictures of the turnstiles as they're installed and describe how easy they are to use, there is a Streetfilms T-shirt in it for you.  Email me at damien@streetsblog.org.