Build More Subway Lines, Not Fewer

Re: “Buses Are the Best Transit Alternative” (Letter to the Editor, Jan. 7).

The writer is correct that a “system that would require transfer to another vehicle at Lankershim Boulevard (the Red Line) would be useless.” For the system to work, the Red Line rider must not be forced off the train at the entrance to the Valley but rather be offered the opportunity to continue to travel west, without a transfer.

An “all-bus” solution seemed to work during the last oil crisis because the miles driven was drastically cut. The writer says that rail is “too rigid.” Are freeways now flexible? Is the air now breathable? The advantage of an extensive, grade-separated, high-speed rail system is that it provides an alternative to congestion and the internal combustion engine.

Since we are informed that electric cars are decades away from mass sales, we should think of building more subway lines, not fewer. I rode on the Red Line recently from Union Station to MacArthur Park. It took about four minutes. You can’t do that in a car at midnight on Sunday. That’s why the oil-slurping auto lobby has always been terrified of subways and rail. Rail is inherently better than the private automobile in crowded urban areas. Do we want to gamble that the Earth can take sustained abuse and not fail?

JON HARTMANN

Los Angeles