May the Blue Line Have a Wonderful Trip : But Safety First on the Region’s First Light Rail Since the Red Cars

A lot is riding on the gleaming trolleys of the Blue Line when they officially go into service between Los Angeles and Long Beach Monday--and not just all the opening-day commuters. For anticipation is high: Is the brave new world of non-auto mass transit finally upon us?

We certainly hope so: Another 130 or so miles of light rail are planned for Southern California over the next several years. What happens to the Blue Line will tell the region something about its high hopes that rail will make commuting easier, the air a little cleaner and access to jobs a bit smoother.

For now, the most important lesson the Blue Line can teach the region about light rail has to do with safety. Security forces deployed by the Sheriff’s Department must show that a Blue Line trolley is as trouble-free--maybe more so--as any place in Southern California. If that happens, the system has a fighting chance to live up to its promise as an important contributor to mobility in the region.

What makes the safety test so tough is that the riding public cannot be expected to make an unemotional, balanced judgment about the Blue Line based on some precise calculation of risk and benefit. What people want to know is whether it is reliable and safe. So a holdup here, or a mugging there during the early days of service could seriously damage the Blue Line’s future.

This makes it crucial that the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission watch the early phase of service closely and be prepared to call in reserves without hesitation--putting officers not just on every train but on every car, if necessary.

The commission must also be quick to monitor the safety systems that are designed to safeguard residents in the neighborhoods that the trolleys will roll through.

No one knows for sure how many Southern Californians will want to ride the new trolley. Estimates of the trolley’s ridership are all over the lot. But if the Blue Line is the big success that we are all hoping for, it could be the beginning of the end for Southern California’s environmental problems and transportation gridlock.