Taking the Wrong Track on Rapid Transit
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* For lo these many years Los Angeles has needed a rapid transit system. When one is finally adopted, it is the worst system possible. Not only is it unwise to build an underground transit system in an area riddled with earthquake potential, but it is also the most expensive system that could be conceived.
Somebody is making a lot of money at the expense of taxpayers, and the final product is likely to be expensive in terms of ticket prices and further continual repairs. Not to mention danger to passengers with even fairly minor earthquakes.
When Disneyland opened in 1955, one was impressed by a transportation mode--the monorail--that was to be the safe, easy, cheap and stylish way to travel in the “future.” Apparently it was too cheap and easy to consider as a viable transportation system for Los Angeles. It could even have been built in the center dividers of the existing freeway system with overhead stairway “stops.”
As Hollywood symbolically sinks, one must pause and ask, “What’s going on here?”
JOHN C. AUSTIN
Valley Village
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