Put Green Line on Right Track

Re “MTA’s Green Line Is Ridden and Derided,” July 12: Even with close to 30,000 riders lacking bus connections, the Green Line is certainly fulfilling a promise that was given to voters 24 years ago, providing an alternative to the automobile.

With only a little more than six miles of extensions, the Green Line could provide connections at LAX, an intercity rail connection in Norwalk and service to a regional shopping center at the Galleria at South Bay. Its ridership could double or even triple with increased bus connections via the MTA or local transit services.

Also, the empty parcels and warehouse in the El Segundo area surrounding the Green Line stations provide perfect locales for green spaces and affordable housing, which are vital for our ever-increasing population. This provides the perfect opportunity for adaptive reuse around a fixed system such as rail.

Jerard Wright

Los Angeles

*

Those who deride the Green Line as “the train that goes from nowhere to nowhere” do not know it.

Outside of peak periods, the MTA should tweak Green Line schedules so that trains deposit passengers at Rosa Parks station in time for connecting Blue Line trains, and then lay over for a few minutes to allow transfers from the Blue Line to make it up the stairs.

This would shorten journey times for most travelers and eliminate from their daily lives the experience of waiting for a train at Rosa Parks, where freeway noise levels reach 90 decibels.

To its credit, the city of Redondo Beach has recently proposed a Beach Cities Transit System with connections to the Douglas and Marine stations. Securing funds for a system with timely connections to Green Line trains may be “swimming upstream” among local taxpayers but is the right thing to do.

Andrew Shaddock

Environmental Chair

Friends of the Green Line

Manhattan Beach

*

Mostly what is wrong with public transportation in Los Angeles today is highlighted in this article: the number of transfers required to get anywhere and the excessive waiting time at those transfer locations.

The Green Line is 2.5 miles short in serving the transit hub in Redondo Beach, and a 2.5-mile extension to LAX/Metro 96th Street Transit Center would save riders 15 minutes or more travel time to LAX. When the Green Line was built, El Segundo businesses promised to provide shuttles to service the route but never did.

Even with 7.5 miles of destination gaps, this rail line shows potential.

Robert Leabow

Rolling Hills Estates

*

The Green Line was always meant to connect to LAX. As The Times’ article indicates, at the line’s Aviation Boulevard station one can clearly see the cement abutments of the designed northward extension pointing to the airport.

None of the explanations put forth by either the airport or MTA authorities for the line’s failure to go all the way to the airport rings true.

Obviously, the line’s northward extension to LAX was planned from the start. If it had been allowed to enter LAX proper, and to also go all the way to the beach, the Green Line’s fate would have been radically different.

What amazes me is that despite the shortcomings of the line, it has still managed to draw a ridership that has doubled since 1995 with a growth rate that is comparable to that of the highly successful Blue Line.

Nancy R. Richards

Venice