Metro is working on creating a Rail-to-River pathway for bikes and pedestrians that would link up the Crenshaw Line to the LA River (eventually) and today they announced they've gotten a $15 million grant to get to work on the first part, building the project between the Blue, Silver, and Crenshaw Lines (but not all the way to the river yet). The project would turn a section of rarely-used train tracks called Harbor Subdivision into a new multi-modal corridor in a neighborhood that could really use it: more than a fifth of the households within a half-mile of the new path don't own a car and just under 17 percent of commuters in the area take public transit, a bike, or walk to work, The Source says.
The 6.4-mile-long Rail-to-Rail connection that just got funded will start at Slauson and Santa Fe Avenues and extend to Crenshaw and Sixth-Seventh Street, at which point it will continue toward the Crenshaw Line stop at Florence Avenue and West Bouelvard (Fairview Heights Station) via Sixty-Seventh Street and West. As it is now, not only is there no bike lane on Slauson, there isn't even a sidewalk on the north side of the street. The new pathway will have lighting, benches, and signage along the way.
The idea of turning this underused rail corridor into a link between the LA River and the Crenshaw Line came up a couple years ago, but back then it was just one of a couple ideas for revitalizing this section of Slauson Avenue.
One of the things Metro has to do before the project can be built is get the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, which has rights to run its freight trains on the tracks (but doesn't do so very often) "to formally abandon the rail right-of-way."
· Metro receives $15-million federal grant for Rail-to-River walk and bike path in South L.A. [The Source]
· Abandoned South LA Rail Tracks Could Become A Greenbelt [Curbed LA]