Metro is weighing options for a train that will extend the Crenshaw/LAX Line north to Hollywood, creating what agency officials predict will become one of the most ridden light rail lines in the nation.
A route for the northern portion of the project hasn’t yet been selected, but Metro staffers have narrowed down alternatives to five alignments that would link the soon-to-open train line to Hollywood and West Hollywood, linking up with the Purple and Red subway lines along the way.
Agency officials said Wednesday that each of the proposed routes would draw more than 75,000 daily riders, with two alignments serving more than 90,000 passengers per day.
Deputy project manager Alex Moosavi told reporters that the northern portion of the line, which would pass through some of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, could eventually see more per-mile boardings than Boston’s Green Line—the country’s oldest subway and its most heavily used light rail line.
But all those riders could have a long wait before they’ll be able to board the train’s northern leg.
Under a schedule attached to Measure M, the transit-funding sales tax measure that Los Angeles County voters approved in 2016, the upper portion of the line isn’t slated to begin construction until 2041.
Agency officials say they plan to begin environmental review of the project next year, which could help speed up that timeline. Meanwhile, elected leaders in West Hollywood are aggressively pursuing fundraising measures for the project, which Metro expects will cost between $3 billion and $4.7 billion to construct.
By early next year, the agency’s board of directors is likely to consider which of the five proposed project routes to move forward with. All five options would travel up Crenshaw Boulevard to the Mid-City area, at which point four of the routes would hook west along San Vicente Boulevard, eventually proceeding north through West Hollywood and linking up with the Hollywood and Highland subway station.
A fifth route would bypass West Hollywood and instead travel east to the Wilshire/Vermont Station in Koreatown, allowing riders to transfer to the Red or Purple lines at that point.
Estimated ride times for the four options running through West Hollywood range from 12.4 minutes to 19 minutes for the longest option, which would boomerang through the city, reaching as far west as the intersection of Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards, close to Robertson Boulevard, before continuing east along Santa Monica.
Metro will hold four upcoming community meetings, scheduled between March 21 and March 28, where residents can find out more about plans for the project.
Comments
Can a brother get a map?
By CaliSon on 03.20.19 12:35pm
A post from last year includes a map: https://la.curbed.com/2018/9/27/17911204/west-hollywood-light-rail-metro-train
By Urbancore on 03.20.19 12:41pm
Awesome, thanks. I didn’t understand the "boomerang back to Highland" part.
By CaliSon on 03.20.19 4:50pm
let a company sponsor the line for some extra cash to get it done. Its badly needed but I will be very old by the time it becomes a reality – IF ever.
By LAoneWay on 03.20.19 1:28pm
"Brought to you by Carl’s Jr."
By disqusted on 03.20.19 1:35pm
"Your kids are starving. Carl’s Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl’s Jr. Carl’s Jr. F*** you, I’m eating!"
By MMVic on 03.20.19 7:19pm
Carl’s management features bigoted politics similar to chick-fil-A. Beef or chicken?
By keenplanner on 03.21.19 9:43am
The way ridership across Metro has been trending of late, I think their ridership crystal ball needs recalibrating.
By Zzyxx on 03.20.19 1:42pm
rail’s resisted the droop: it’s bus ridership that’s falling
that’s because taking the bus competes with driving a car, while taking the train competes with surface transport in general
another factor is that except the Blue and Gold all the lines are only half-built: Metro and the contractors can be faulted to a proper degree, but Metro’s also faced decades of deep-pocketed NIMBYs ($10 mil embezzled at BHHS) with plenty of recourse to the courts and CPUC, Riordan handing control to a Marxist-Leninist cult for a decade, and the usual Parks and Rec-level clowning in council meetings
By Danny Beta on 03.21.19 12:04pm
Bus service is just too unreliable in LA… even on major lines. They need to beef up frequency, and the bus drivers should be more proactive in kicking off riders who are heckling others, or haven’t bathed in weeks.
By corner soul on 03.25.19 12:58pm
Someone please tell the slow children at Metro that by the time this comes out, self driving cars will be ubiquitous
By Renter's Rage on 03.20.19 2:05pm
Self-driving cars do not mean that mass transit is not still necessary.
By abcd12345 on 03.20.19 2:24pm
Self-driving cars will make mass transit obsolete.
Do you think the poors will sit idly by waiting for two and three transfers on slow trains and buses, instead of demanding equal access to uber- and lyft- pools?
(Santa Monica already contracted Lyft to replace local bus service.)
By smartalex on 03.20.19 4:41pm
there is no geometric way that self-driving cars make mass-transit obsolete.
By thisisbenphelps on 03.20.19 11:44pm
I have articles saved saying that transit will be obsolete within a decade because of self-driving cars, so don’t waste any money on building it
they’re from 2000
By Danny Beta on 03.21.19 11:57am
There are so many intractable engineering (and political) problems that would need to be solved to make self-driving cars remotely feasible in LA that we’re decades out at a minimum.
By disqusted on 03.21.19 3:36pm
the technology of ten years from now, every ten years
By Danny Beta on 03.22.19 11:25am
At this rate, it will happen at around the same time as we win the War on Terror…victory is right around the corner! Just need another troop surge and about six months…
By disqusted on 03.22.19 4:03pm
LOL: https://twitter.com/amir/status/1109103146964381696
By disqusted on 03.22.19 4:45pm
It’s about energy. Mass transit is much more energy efficient and easier to electrify. And in any case, safe self-driving cars are at least 15-20 years away.
By Partymuscles on 03.20.19 4:49pm
Many years before self driving cars are perfect, affordable and available, transit costs will fall by a factor of 10, because self driving buses and trains are technically easier to code, able to recoup investment faster, and on a vehicle where $100,000 a sensors doesn’t applicably increase the total vehicle cost.
That said, self driving anything is a long way off.
By RXBXUXNX on 03.21.19 8:25am
more to the point, airplanes have been (semi-) automated since the 1930s, with little to hit other than the ground itself
By Danny Beta on 03.21.19 12:10pm
"with little to hit other than the ground itself"
Boeing 737 Max 8: "Hold my beer…"
By disqusted on 03.21.19 7:36pm
I will enjoy my train ride while you are stuck in West Hollywood gridlock with all the other autonomous cars.
By Iwuvcapra on 03.22.19 8:03am
Wouldn’t self driving trains and buses be ubiquitous then too?
By corner soul on 03.25.19 12:59pm