Comments
ALPERN AT LARGE - Maybe some of those reading this remember the history of L.A. County’s 21st Century resurgence of rail construction, and maybe some are new to it. Maybe some are familiar with the subjects addressed below, and some are new to those as well.
But unless we want to relearn, repeat, and revisit lessons learned from the past several decades, and unless we want to let the out-of-touch conspiracy theorists and rail wonks/hobbyists suck up all the oxygen in the proverbial room (again!), there are a few straightforward facts about the recently-approved Metro Sepulveda Corridor Project:
1) While the Metro Blue and Green Lines, now called the Metro A Line and Metro C Lines, were primarily built by politicians who often meant well but often had private agendas, the subsequent Metro Exposition (Metro E Line) and Gold Lines (Metro L Line) light rails had much greater political/grassroots partnerships which greatly accelerated funding and construction.
2) At the risk of sounding unnecessarily gauche and combative against the better elements of the Metro Board and staff, I should remind EVERYONE that the grassroots relationship of communities to these rail lines were in part subverted by the insistence of rail nerds and wonks to use the alphabetical names that most riders don’t relate to.
3) For those that care, I am a physician and used to take leadership roles in many grassroots efforts in transportation, and I am remember well the brilliant but diverse educational backgrounds of those who gave up so much of their time to garner community support, consensus, and local/state/federal funding for their Expo Line, Green Line, Foothill and Eastside Gold Lines, and Blue Line.
We’re not stupid, but most mere mortals also don’t relate well to A, B, C, or whatever alphabet lines Metro wants to insist we call them. Metro absolutely MUST keep the colors in the names, or at the least use the “formerly known as” as often as possible.
This isn’t New York or Chicago…get over it!
4) The Wilshire Subway was formerly known as the Purple Line, but is now known as the D Line. The branch of that subway that goes to North Hollywood and Universal Studios, was formerly called the Red Line but is now called the B Line. Anyone reading this should openly use the “Purple/Red” or “Wilshire/Valley” Subway names if it’s easier to remember.
5) Enter the Sepulveda Subway, recently approved by the Metro Board of Directors (LINK: https://laist.com/transportation/metro-sepulveda-transit-corridor?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=LAist) . It’s a long train route that is meant to carry hundreds of thousands of riders a day (like a freeway, if you will). YES, it’s expensive, but it ALWAYS had to be a subway.
6) This subway is an arched tube, like the Wilshire and Valley Subways (Purple and Red Lines) that are as powerful and resistant against earthquakes as anything you'll find that isn't ground-level. Like freeways, they’re meant to go fast and carry six-digit figure ridership when completed to all passenger destinations.
7) However, elevated light rail or monorail, as with freeway overpasses and bridges, very much do have risks of falling over and breaking apart during earthquakes--hence they need thick, powerful columns for strength but still have greater risks than subways with respect to protection against seismic events.
8) I shan’t waste my time (yet again!) against those who think monorail is cheap and easy-peasy to build—particularly in regions where seismic events are a serious risk. Ride the Disneyland monorail, and then ride the nearest LA Metro train, and the issues of capacity and modernity make monorail a non-starter (cue the conspiracy theorists!).
9) The first modern light rail, the Blue Line, and the more recent light rail, the Expo Line, carry up to 65,000-70,000 riders a day and have limits on how many riders they can carry—not so much for subways. The fastest of our light rails, the Green Line in the middle of the I-105 freeway, only has ~22,000 riders/day, but will probably rise considerably when it connects with a completed LAX People Mover.
Accordingly, the Sepulveda Subway (“Valley/Westside Subway”), as with the Wilshire Subway, could NEVER have been a light rail. Ditto for a monorail! Metro was very generous exploring all options in their due diligence, but it’s time to get real.
10) But speaking of “getting real”, we got “real” soaked and misled by the California High-Speed Rail Line (CAHSR) hucksters, who sold it as a line meant to be as fast as a plane, and relatively cheap compared to the much slower line it will have to be (no trains will zoom through major metropolitan areas at 300 mph, and instead of $30 billion it will be tens of billions more to see much of any part of it become reality).
(We’ve already spent $15 billion or more on this project!).
Arguably, the CAHSR hucksters are the main reason we don’t have our Wilshire and Sepulveda Subways built faster and cheaper, to say nothing of other rail and road transportation projects.
I’m not the only previous advocate for the CAHSR project who immediately realized it was a lie shortly after it was voted in by an ultra-slim 51% majority…and, like issues of safety and security on our trains (don’t get me started for this particular column!), this gigantic gaslighting of the state’s voters probably did more damage to rapid transit than anything Washington, D.C. could do.
At this time, it is my own personal belief that L.A. and other California voters are very upset and burnt out on trains that are perceived as too expensive to build, and too unsafe (crime-ridden, homeless-overrun) to ride.
The CAHSR and Metro and Metrolink trains get mentally lumped together by Joe/Jane taxpayer, and so what affects one project affects them all.
In short, it’s great and long-overdue that this new Valley/Westside Subway project below the Sepulveda pass, with a straight shot from the Valley to UCLA, was approved by Metro.
Lots of discussions of a Van Nuys Blvd. connection, a Getty Center connection, and the need to connect this line sooner to LAX and the Valley Metrolink stations are in order...but perhaps have already been addressed in the minds of the Metro Board and Staff.
But “not to worry”…because the money pit that the CAHSR Project has caused taxpayers to be chained to will make a great number of issues surrounding the Sepulveda Corridor Subway moot, anyway!
(Sigh…)
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
