Keep Transit Progress on Track

Drive by the parking lot at the newly opened North Hollywood Metro Red Line station, even on a weekend, and you’ll see it’s far from empty. Ride the subway to Union Station on a Saturday night and you’ll find yourself part of a bustling--and surprisingly urban--scene.

Maybe it’s the novelty, but Metropolitan Transportation Authority schedule checkers reported that Red Line ridership nearly doubled in the first week after the subway opened to the San Fernando Valley, from 65,150 riders a day in May to 120,516 in early July. Close to half a million people turned out for the North Hollywood and Universal City stations’ opening weekend, which combined free rides with a NoHo Arts District festival.

Such an unexpectedly favorable reception is all the more reason to make the subway part of a broader transportation network, one that includes feeder routes such as the new rapid bus service along Ventura Boulevard. And the stage is set to do just that.

Gov. Gray Davis’ budget included $145 million for a long-sought east-west busway along the Burbank-Chandler railroad right of way. The route would connect Warner Center in the West Valley to the subway stations in the east.

The governor’s budget also contained $100 million for a relatively new proposal to build a dedicated north-south busway championed by state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who points out--correctly--that a great many people in the northeast Valley depend on public transportation.

Credit Alarcon’s lobbying, and that of Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), for jump-starting this effort to improve mass transit in the Valley. But although the initial funding hurdle has been cleared, more challenges remain--as does the need for continued strong leadership.

Transportation planning has stalled before when Valley leaders couldn’t agree on routes or on whether to push light rail or buses. Even with at least partial funding for both east-west and north-south routes in hand, the old question of buses versus light rail will have to be settled, more funding will have to be found and NIMBYs will have to be convinced of the projects’ merits.

State and local officeholders with a stake in the Valley--Alarcon, Hertzberg, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles City Councilman Alex Padilla--have worked hard to get this far. The economic boom the state now enjoys is the time to push such projects through. With the first step taken, the challenge is to keep up the momentum.