Politics Were Played With Metro Rail Route

I agree with West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman when he says that the Westside communities deserve a Metro Rail route that makes the most sense from a transportation standpoint (Letter, May 26).

In the May 5 article concerning the routing of the Metro Rail, Steve Lantz of the county Transportation Commission is quoted as saying “that the ridership along Santa Monica Boulevard was just over half that of Wilshire Boulevard.” Well, I seriously wonder if anyone even looked into the current utilization of mass transit on the Westside.

The RTD’s 24-hour service (Route 4) and rush-hour express (Route 304) along Santa Monica Boulevard are the Westside’s most heavily traveled routes. I learned this from the press reports about the tragic May 15 shooting aboard a Route 4 bus in Beverly Hills.

In order to have a successful mass transit route, the county must start with a solid core ridership base. The Route 4/304 corridor could have provided that base. The Transportation Commission has failed to give this adequate consideration.

As a weekday rider from my home in West Hollywood to my job in the county courthouse downtown, I can attest to the fact that the line generally operates beyond capacity during peak hours, passing bus stops filled with waiting commuters because the bus is already full.

It is unfortunate that politics had to be played and the Pico route had to be chosen just to “keep Congressman (Julian) Dixon happy.”

KEVIN NOTA

West Hollywood