Readers React: Finding a place to sit is more important than travel time on the Expo Line

To the editor: Having commuted multiple times on the Expo, Red and Gold lines from Culver City to Irwindale, a 90-minute trip, I can tell you that travel time is not the biggest concern of regular riders. (“Lessons from L.A.’s long haul to build the Expo Line to the beach,” editorial, May 20)

Any time not spent in a car fighting traffic is pleasant time, even if it takes longer to travel the same distance. When you’re not behind the wheel grinding your teeth, you are relaxing while reading or gazing out the window. The time passes painlessly.

Our biggest concern is inadequate capacity. Nothing makes an otherwise stress-free train ride unbearable more than standing-room only. On most of my rush-hour Expo Line return trips, the train, which never consists of more than two cars, is filled beyond capacity.

When Santa Monica commuters join us on Monday, there had better be more cars on every rush-hour train — or this rider will return to his vehicle.

David Kay, Playa Vista

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To the editor: As someone who spent nearly 40 years in the field of transit operations planning, I know that speed is also significant to the operator of the service.

Suppose the Expo Line has a round-trip time of 120 minutes and Metro desires to operate trains every 10 minutes. Operations planners know that 12 trains would be required. Had more judicious use of grade-separation on the Expo Line reduced the round-trip time to, say, 100 minutes, only 10 trains would be needed. There would also be a nearly 20% savings in operating costs.

While operating in mixed traffic saves Metro up-front capital costs because there is less need to build bridges or subways, the agency incurs an increase in operating costs that extend into perpetuity. This type of thinking needs to be reevaluated.

Lewis Polin, Laguna Woods

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To the editor: The front-page diagram comparing the Expo Line with the Red Line feels like a taunt to those of us living in the San Fernando Valley who dread the hellish drive to and from Santa Monica.

The gap pictured at the right side of the two lines (between Santa Monica and North Hollywood) illustrates, perhaps unwittingly, the desperate need for a rail line or monorail (or helicopter —anything but the 405 Freeway) from the Valley to the Westside. Widening the 405 did nothing to make that trip any faster.

Ellen Butterfield, Studio City

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