Rail line to "the sea" opening this month... (Highland: house, storage)

[Nightscape]

It works, but imagine something like that running above ground through beverly hills. It would never be approved. They're already throwing a huge fit over which direction an underground tunnel should go through, imagine what they would do with a proposal for ^

[Vinsanity]

People like/accept it in Chicago because it's been part of the city's character for a while now. People in Beverly Hills would flip if that showed up on their stretch of Wilshire.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Senshi

I am not even sold on the need of the regional connector. THAT, to me, seems like a waste when you realize we aren't getting the "Pink Line". That is WAY more needed.

The regional connector is already there. It's called Union Station and 7th/Metro! The regional connector just shaves minutes off a commute with transfers. If the trains ran more frequently that would do it.

Downtown already has enough transit. The rest of the city needs it more. West Hollywood has nothing.

There's been a lot of work about how the number of transfers makes the desire to use mass transit much lower--it's a pretty strong deterrent. More importantly though, the ability to through-run trains through the different lines means that any increase of frequency won't have to be met with building additional turnaround and storage tracks in the middle of downtown. Having to go to a terminus downtown and then turn the train around while avoiding the next ones coming in quickly enough to meet with the frequency of the train lines is a huge headache for a lot of systems. The regional connector helps avoid this for future buildout and greater frequency. And it shaves minutes off commutes.

[mayorhaggar]

Originally Posted by K 22

Not so sure about rail on freeway medians. They're much better than running at grade on the street but they can be REALLY noisy with all the passing traffic on both sides which makes for an unpleasant wait - also freeway-median placed stations can be a bit annoying to enter and exit if you don't have a second mode of transportation to get to and from the station.

I imagine the Green Line ones suck because you're in the middle of suburban nowhere and just come out under a giant ugly freeway overpass...I've been riding to LAX the last week for a job and it's like that. The best overpass stations I've seen are in the BART system, like at Rockridge--you exit the station and you're on College Ave where there's a ton of shops and restaurants a stone's throw away from the exit.

And yeah the highway noise and fumes are annoying but I'll accept it if it means the train is running quickly on an elevated track like the green line instead of crawling through stoplights like the blue line.

[Bruin Rick]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

They're going down very different corridors. The Subway to the Sea is going to go down the heavily trafficked Wilshire Corridor which has a lot of jobs, amenities, and residences so it has to be underground in order to be quick and separate from all traffic as Wilshire right now is really packed.

This new rail line also goes downtown, but hits the comparatively calmer areas passing through the USC campus and Culver City before hitting Santa Monica.

Basically, they're headed down two very different routes hitting different neighborhoods--it's not the destination, but the route that's important.

I agree. They are both badly needed and long overdue.

[Bruin Rick]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

This is good. E-W travel has always been a problem, with the 10 and 105 bottle necks.

It is not "a problem". It a damn DISASTER all day long over there! A problem is a wreck or bad weather. Not an everyday disaster.

[Bruin Rick]

Originally Posted by wrcousert

Why can't they build the Purple Line extension as an El? I remember reading a few years ago that El's can be built for a tenth the cost of a subway. Ten miles of El for the price of one mile of subway seems like the better choice to me.

You would never ever get that through Wilshire. The snobs would have a fit. The fit would hit the shan.

[Bruin Rick]

Originally Posted by wrcousert

It works in Chicago. People there love them.


This photo is from Wikipedia, so I'm assuming it's in the public domain.

Chicago has always had them. The trains have been in that city for longer than any resident living there (100+ years) so people just accept them and they know if they live around them they are going to hear 24/7 noise from them. Like that scene from the Blues Brothers with the trains running behind the room and Jake asked how often they come by the window and he says "so often you don't even notice". That is a little different then trying to run an elevated line through the Wilshire area.

[wrcousert]

Originally Posted by Bruin Rick

Chicago has always had them. The trains have been in that city for longer than any resident living there (100+ years) so people just accept them and they know if they live around them they are going to hear 24/7 noise from them. Like that scene from the Blues Brothers with the trains running behind the room and Jake asked how often they come by the window and he says "so often you don't even notice". That is a little different then trying to run an elevated line through the Wilshire area.

Would some sort of sound wall help?

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by wrcousert

Would some sort of sound wall help?

Not for the neighborhoods it would be running through. Any neighborhood west of Fairfax is not going to be ok with a giant El running down Wilshire - be it for noise, safety or eye-appeal reasons.

Other than the elevated sections of the Expo line and (maybe) the Crenshaw line, I wouldn't expect to see EL -style heavy rail in LA (except maybe in 30-40 years if/when they build heavy rail south down Vermont).