Subway to the sea, or the airport?
Readers offer their ideal L.A. transportation plans, plus our Letters Top Five.
Last week, we received a number of thoughtful notes about Thursday's Metropolitan Transportation Authority board meeting, at which a competition for funding for light rail service between the Westside (which wants the Exposition Line) and the San Gabriel Valley (which hopes for an extension to the Gold Line) was set to take place. The MTA voted to delay a decision on the matter before we were able to print these letters in the paper.
Richard Stanger, of Venice, put in a plug for the Westside:
Given that there is only so much federal transportation money to go around, we must spend what is available wisely. The high ridership projected for the Exposition Line clearly warrants that it be light rail. The low ridership projected for the Foothill Extension of the Gold Line only an additional 10,000 riders indicates it should not. It should be like the Orange Line or, better yet, like Escondido's Sprinter Line, both of which cost far less than light rail.Mike Bone, of Santa Monica, dared to imagine an LA where flyer might actually take a train to the airport:
The MTA should give the San Gabriel Valley a project suited to its needs. Proponents of the light rail extension argue that they have been left out. Yet the San Gabriel Valley got the first busway in the region in the early 1970s; in 1992, it got one of the first Metrolink Lines.
The Westside has so far received nothing.
In your editorial, you mentioned the possibility that the Gold Line might be connected to Ontario International Airport.Brendan Huffman, CEO of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, also wanted to see rail to the airport Burbank Airport, that is:
Wow! What a concept. A rail system that connects to an airport!
I wonder if the MTA ever considered connecting a rail line directly to Los Angeles International Airport, as they have in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, London, Amsterdam, Paris ...
The Times makes a good case for funds to extend both the Expo Line into Santa Monica and the Gold Line into Asuza.Wrote Steve Huffsteter of Altadena, who seems to have taken inspiration from Dubai's experimental, zero-emissions Masdar City:
While both these projects are worthy, the San Fernando Valley could also use a little stretch of light rail by extending the Red Line above ground from North Hollywood to Bob Hope Airport's Metrolink's station. The Red Line is already the county's most widely used line with 3.8 million boardings each month. The Gold Line, by comparison, just reached its all time high of only 600,000 boardings last month.
The Red Line already serves the county's most popular tourist destination, Hollywood, and the county's major job center, Downtown L.A. By extending the Red Line a little further even more people will leave their cars at home to take a proven mode of alternative transportation that serves the second largest airport in the county.
$152 billion! That's $152,000,000,000, folks, for a 19th century system that will service 62,000 commuters a day.And this, from reader Murry I. Rozansky, who channels his science fiction from the source, signing up for writer Ray Bradbury's monorail crusade:
For that kind of money, why not build a 21st century system that will utilize the 20th century improvements already in place? The system we have, for all its faults, is door to door and private. Having to take the time to go to a station and pay to sit with strangers on a conveyance that isn't going exactly where I want to end up isn't my idea of progress.
Progress would be an electric mini taxi, at my door in minutes from the neighborhood garage, where it was automatically cleaned and charged. I tell it where I want to go, it takes me there, guided by computer control. It finds the quickest route, utilizing Los Angeles' extensive grid of streets and freeways. All vehicles are similarly computer guided, eliminating both gridlock and accidents. Free from the stress of having to operate the vehicle, I have the perfect opportunity for private time or if a larger auto has been requested, for uninterrupted conversation.
It would be expensive, but would not require much new construction or disruption. The technology is either already available or on the drawing boards. $152 billion would go a long way, if not all the way, in building such a system.
Rail is 19th century, the private auto, a 20th century dinosaur that has become too expensive, both to the owner and to the environment. We need a 21st century system that would benefit everyone, not just a few thousand. Door to door, private, clean, safe, inexpensive in the long run. $152 billion! That kind of money ought to provide a cure, not a Band-Aid.
Alternatives to light rail that would work in Los Angeles have been available for years. The systems are called monorails. Their key feature is a compact, elevated guide way. No stopped traffic. Little chance of accidents. Wuppertal, Germany's S-Bahn is over 100 years old. Disneyland's monorail is about 50 years old.Minutes after the board vote on Thursday, we received this letter from K.C. Johnson, of La Verne, who lamented simply that something needed to happen, and soon:
I have read a proposal from 1954 to build a monorail system from the north San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. In 1964 the Alweg company, fresh from the experience of building and operating one of their systems for the World's Fair in Seattle (still in operation), offered to build a 40 mile system for Los Angeles at no cost to the taxpayers. Lost opportunities.
Hang the trolleys from their wires. I know it will be difficult if not impossible to change course, now that billions of taxpayer's money has been wasted on surface transit lines. This kind of reminds one of "The War on Drugs."
When it comes to fixing what is wrong with public projects the planners and politicians are always quick to push them into the future. Whether it is a new building, road or railway, expanded oil production, or just improvements in what we have, the powers say it can't be done for 10 to 20 years. Baloney! Remember the work needed to repair our damaged roads and freeways after the last big quake? Designed, engineered and built in months after they were destroyed.
Our over burdened transportation system could be eased literally overnight with a similar 24-7 attitude.
We need more capacity now, not in l0 or 20 years. We need an expanded Metro rail system now, not after some costly Mickey Mouse conversion of existing freeway lanes into toll roads.
LA, with its four votes on the MTA board, needs to share the wealth it enjoys thanks to all of us out here in the far reaches of the five-county megalopolis. There is more, much more, to this region than downtown Los Angeles and the Westside power elite. In the East we need the Gold Line extended to the Ontario Airport. In the West, an arm of the 105 extended to LAX. The San Fernando Valley would benefit from a wider use of express bus uses and light rail.
Additional subway construction will take far too long and cost to much. If we had opted for high speed elevated light rail decades ago we would have had a transit system covering all five counties for years.
No more delays. No more "long range" project promises. The problems will only get worse, the costs higher, the options fewer. Transit, now. It will bring jobs, stimulate the economy, save time and money, reduce fuel consumption, and benefit us all.
Each week, Letters to the Editor receives thousands of e-mails, dozens of letters through the mail, and even a few faxes here and there.
After we cut out spam, obscene mail, letters addressed to more than one recipient, letters that seem to be the fruit of letter-writing campaigns and letters with attachments (which gum up our computer systems,) we usually are left with several hundred eligible items, from which we select the somewhere around 100 that get published in the newspaper.
Last week, we received more than 500 usable letters, but relatively few in our Top Five Topics:
- The McCains: 57 letters, responding to four stories about presidential candidate John McCain, and one about his wife Cindy;
- The Obamas: 34 letters, responding to two stories about Barack Obama, and one about Michelle Obama;
- George Carlin: 32 letters, no explanation needed;
- Wiretaps: 24 letters, most scolding the Congressional compromise on FISA that gives telecom companies immunity for breaking the law;
- Doctrine: 21 letters, responding to the June 19 story questioning the role of Church Doctrine in the gay marriage dispute.
Dear Californians,Stay tuned for what should be an interesting week.
I have been praying for you. I have been praying for God's judgment upon the State of California for liberal activist judges legalizing gay marriage. Let's see, 8000 lightning strikes and 800 wildfires this past weekend. Could it be the answer to my prayers? This is only the beginning of what God has in store for California.