Green Line Contract

Please keep running stories on the insanity that has become the Green Line. There is no justification for automating that project. The most economical thing that can be done now is to scrap the automation and build a conventional light rail system just like the Blue Line. Some people have forgotten that the Green Line cars have already been delivered. When the LACTC ordered the cars for the Blue Line, they also ordered equipment for the Green Line. The Blue Line maintenance facility in Long Beach was designed to also serve the Green Line. The decision to automate the Green Line requires building duplicate facilities and equipment.

This madness was what I feared when I wrote with Dr. Adrian Herzog our Op-Ed article published almost 10 years ago (“L.A. Rail-Transit Proposals Fail to Talk to Each Other,” Sept. 1, 1982). That article called for the standardization of rail transit systems in the area. Instead the political process is proposing at least three incompatible systems (Blue, Green, and whatever is proposed on the 405) as well as the Red Line, which is also incompatible with the other systems. The waste is enormous.

I am mad as hell. The political fun and games that have allowed the Green Line to get out of control shouldn’t be tolerated. The money that is wasted means the money is unavailable for other projects.

NOEL T. BRAYMER

Oceanside