Results tagged “transportation”

In an attempt to attract the thousands of USC students ready to spend money in downtown, AEG is funding a free weekend shuttle between the campus and the entertainment complex.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tomorrow is expected to announce his plans in building support for something he calls the "30/10" push to accelerate Measure R transit projects--the voted in half cent sales tax increase--from being completed in 30 years to 10 years.

The Amtrak Surfliner departed San Diego 10:35 a.m. last Saturday -- right on time. But Train 571, a weekend-only train filled with families and weekend adventurers, never made it to its final destination -- Union Station, LA.

In a unanimous vote, the Metro Board approved the Long Range Transportation Plan this afternoon. The document will guide transit planning in Los Angeles County for the next 30 years. One amendment was introduced and ultimately approved as well. Among a number of changes it brought, the most notable is a commitment to try to open the Gold Line Foothill Extension from Pasadena to Azusa before 2017.

It's very common for reporters to cross the line and become communicators for agencies they once reported on and investigated. Today comes the news that Metro is launching their blog (finally!) with two notable names behind it. From the LA Times is Steve Hymon, the paper's former transit reporter. And from the blogLAsphere is Fred Camino, the downtown resident who created the blog MetroRiderLA. It's called The Source and Metro says it "is your window into what's happening at" the agency. "We'll be writing about agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles."

This week, the Metro Transportation Library debuted an impressive set of historical maps depicting transit lines and proposals for routes and systems. Among the multiple versions of our current subway system and systems long come and gone is a proposed monorail from 1960, the transit vision for LA in 1974, the map produced based on the Kelker-Deleuw study of 1925 (when the city's first subway was built), and a map from the time when the Red Line was called the Orange Line.

A warning, of sorts, came from a delegation of local members of congress today. Two mainstream media headlines begin to the tell the story. From this morning, the Pasadena Star News: 14 SoCal congressional leaders call for prioritizing Gold Line And this afternoon from the LA Times: Mayor's effort to fast-track Westside subway faces challenge

LAX officials yesterday finalized plans for the fourth FlyAway route that will take passengers to and from Irvine. Beginning November 16th, the one-way 50-mile trip will cost $25 for adults (they won't accept cash, credit or debit only). Each fare allows for two students 8th grade and under to ride for free. Children under five also ride free.

If Metro's regional connector project is built, passengers will be able to commute between Pasadena and Long Beach without transferring from the Gold Line to the Red Line, then the Blue Line. Likewise, those traveling between East LA and Culver City (and maybe someday Santa Monica) will be able to skip a similar transfer process. That means faster travel times and more accessibility car-free.

To celebrate USC Thornton School of Music’s 125th anniversary, Michael Tilson Thomas conductor and music director of the San Francisco Symphony, returns to his alma mater for a concert with the USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra tonight at 7 pm at Bovard Auditorium. The multimedia presentation includes historic photos of him with some of his mentors and fellow students while he conducts Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Tickets are $18; seniors, USC alumni and non-USC students are $12; current USC students, staff and faculty are free with valid ID.

Has the world gone topsy turvy? The city's Department of Transportation is finally using Twitter for real-time updates to their DASH service. That's a great first step as there have been many times we've waited for the Studio City/Van Nuys DASH thinking, "it'd be nice to know if it's ever coming..." You can follow the transit service here and more specifically, the downtown DASH here. Mobility Maven is the department's General Manager, Rita Robinson.

But don't get too excited as it's just one step in a long process that's almost completed. Although the timetable (.pdf) for the Gold Line now include eastside extension stations, they've been left blank. What a tease!

If you see the Gold Line running through the Eastside and East L.A. on a regular basis next week, don't think you can hop on board at the nearest station. Metro officials announced today that pre-revenue light rail train testing will begin Sunday, lasting at least a month before opening to the public.

The Metro board yesterday directed staff to apply for federal grants in hopes of capturing start-up money for the a subway to UCLA and a the regional connector in downtown.

With the feds yearning to give away $8 billion in Recovery Act money to states for high-speed train development, California officials today prepared to submit an application asking for more than half of that.

The Mobility 21 transportation summit (.pdf) is wrapping up for the day, but earlier a list was released, featuring 21 "Critical Transportation Projects 'In My Backyard' to Improve Mobility throughout Southern California." The same-named six-county coalition included sexy public transit projects like subway to Westwood and high speed rail between San Diego and San Francisco, but also other important projects such as Positive Train Control for safety and added freeway lanes.

But don't get too excited, the money from the feds going to the transit line is not for extending it northbound towards Burbank airport or anything close to that. Today's announcement from is about reducing energy consumption. The White Explains in a press release:

After three decades of dreaming and planning, it looks like the federal government is finally paying attention to an expensive MagLev train line that would carry passengers between Las Vegas and Anaheim at speeds up to 300 miles per hour along the 270-mile route. The Federal Railroad Administration will give $45 million in congressional earmarked dollars to the first phase of the route, which will go from Las Vegas to the state border in Primm, NV, according to the LA Times.

Senator John McCain has his eye on several transit projects all over the nation that he is labeling "wasteful government spending," including two here in Los Angeles, explains StreetsblogLA. His target is the US Department of Transportation's 2010 spending bill, which comes up "for a vote this week in the upper chamber of Congress."

Next week, the first ever Los Angeles Bicycle and Pedestrian Count will take place all over the city in the hopes of gaining a better sense of the number of bike-riders and pedestrians who use the streets. With a better sense of who is out there on foot and two wheels, the city can take those numbers into account when planning for the future, explains the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC), who are running the count...

A straw poll posted within a Daily News story today is asking readers if they would use the "subway to the sea" of not. So far, with only around 200 votes as of this writing, it's a split vote. Earlier today, the poll indicated losing results for subway ridership. Posting to his Facebook page, former LA Times transportation reporter Steve Hymon notes that "if most of those readers are from the Valley (perhaps a dubious presumption), it's impressive that 48% would ride."

The current timetable has the first subway trains hitting the Westwood/UCLA area by 2036. Buy then, we might all be in flying cars, jet packs or just working from home instead of commuting. Frustrated with the timeline for a project that in theory could take five years if funded upfront, Villaraigosa called for the Westside Extension to be completed by the time he was 66, or 10 years from now, reports the LA Times. "I’m 56 now,” he said. “We are here today to make sure that it gets built before I am 66.” He wants local government agencies to put their aside and work together to get it expedited. He's been a staunch supporter of the Subway to the Sea concept, but that language has since been dropped. Still, he's fighting very hard to hit Westwood/UCLA in much speedier timeline than proposed.

Over the past few months, Metro has been drilling for soil samples throughout the Westside so below ground conditions could be analyzed as plans for the subway route and construction can be made. The Metro Board still has not voted on whether or not to move forward with a subway, but this information is part of the environmental research that must be done before such a decision can be made. Over 70 locations were drilled.

A series of innovative and futuristic type of lighted and magnetic studs will be placed along the 110 Freeway out of downtown to help ease traffic congestion on the the northbound 5 freeway later this year. Basically, "at peak hours, the 'smart studs' would illuminate to automatically open a second connector lane on the 110, easing the long lines," explains the LA Times. If you know anything about this particular connector, you know it can be traffic hell.

The Metro board today voted to approve a demonstration ExpressLanes project and to support high speed rail between Union Station and Anaheim, but they failed to take action on the Long-Range Transportation Plan, the guiding transit document for the next 20 to 25 years. The board also learned that the installation of fare gates, which began appearing last week, has been delayed systemwide. Damien Newton at StreetsblogLA explains from the meeting:

A budget deal was agreed on last night between top legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Part of that deal was cutting $8 million from the state parks system, saving the majority of parks from the original proposal to cut around $70 million forcing the closure of 80% of them.

As exploratory drilling for the possibility of a subway to the Westside continues to take place on city streets, Metro is gearing up for another set of community meetings for updates on the project (meeting info is below). Last Spring, public meetings gathered input on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report (DEIS/R) process that is currently underway. Next month, they will present a summary of what was heard at those meetings, provide updates to possible route alternatives and discuss the subway construction process if the project goes forward.

A survey conducted on behalf of Metro found that residents still support Measure R, which boosted LA County's sales tax up a half cent in order to raise $30 to $40 billion for transportation projects. However, it also found that people feel projects are moving too slowly to get the region out of gridlock. According to the LA Times, the poll of 605 registered county voters finds (with a plus or minus margin of 4%)...

Today a Metro committee on Measure R funds were to discuss the possibility of pushing up the opening dates of three rail projects in the county--the regional connector in downtown, the second eastside extension of the Gold Line and the Green Line to LAX. After the meeting, Foothill Gold Line Extension advocates (they want the line to run beyond Pasadena towards Ontario) announced that the acceleration of project timelines in the agenda were picked at random to study the feasibility of earlier than planned opening dates. Still, they contend that their project is shovel ready and Mayor Villaraigosa is behind the line opening as far as Azusa by 2013.

On July 1st, our taxes in LA County increased a half penny on the dollar to fund a mix of transportation projects, whether they be rail, highway or something else, thanks to Measure R, which was voted in by the public last November. This Thursday morning, Metro will hold a Measure R committee meeting (.pdf) to discuss aspects of that and part of that discussion will be the possibility of moving up the timelines of three projects.