Subway to the sea. (Los Angeles, Malibu: train station, electric, health)

[majoun]

Originally Posted by greggd

I would much rather see a quiet and clean tram system. Digging a subway is too expensive and will take too long. A tram/rail system along existing freeways will significantly reduce costs and ease construction burdens. There are several areas along all the freeways where stations can be constructed as well.

The key is to do it all at the same time across the entire county.

Large parts of LA County - and large parts of the city of LA - are NOT near a freeway.

[Dennis P]

Originally Posted by Angel Bear

Excuse my ignorance, but I thought you guys couldn't have subways due to earthquake risks...Maybe I'm wrong LOL

I think public transportation is a good thing...We sure as heck could use it where I live. I guess it's been great training here though for when I move to So. Cal. I know what it's like for it to take 2 hrs. to go 15 miles in rush hour! LOL

This may be veering off-topic slightly, but if you're at all familiar with the Bay Area (San Francisco), they have BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). If I'm not mistaken, there is a train tunnel that runs underneath San Francisco Bay, linking the east Bay (Oakland) with San Francisco. That part of the state is prone to big earthquakes, too (e.g., 1906 San Francisco earthquake). (Perhaps someone who currently lives up in that area could confirm the existence of the aforementioned BART train tunnel.)

By the way, you never told me where you're coming from, but when you get to California and experience your first earthquake AND survive it, then consider yourself a native Californian. LOL

[greggd]

Originally Posted by majoun

Large parts of LA County - and large parts of the city of LA - are NOT near a freeway.

So you want to dig everything? Having a tram system is one aspect and a major one. Obviously a tram or any subway will need feeding lines. I cant lay out an entire transportation plan on this forum.

If there is going to be transporation from downtown La to santa monica, then I would much rather see it along, on the side, down the middle, of the 10 frwy than underground all the way. The money saved could develop many feeder lines of various sorts in a north west direction all along the way.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by greggd

So you want to dig everything? Having a tram system is one aspect and a major one. Obviously a tram or any subway will need feeding lines. I cant lay out an entire transportation plan on this forum.

If there is going to be transporation from downtown La to santa monica, then I would much rather see it along, on the side, down the middle, of the 10 frwy than underground all the way. The money saved could develop many feeder lines of various sorts in a north west direction all along the way.

I'd rather see it along the Exposition right of way (the downtown-Culver City section of the Expo Line will open in a few years, but who knows when it'll be extended to Santa Monica) and along Wilshire, as well as along Sunset (connecting with the Red Line at Hollywood/Highland and then going west to encompass the Strip, Beverly Hills, UCLA, Brentwood, and the Palisades).

[James T]

I associate areas with subways with having relatively high crime. A subway will bring dramatic crime increases to West L.A.

That's not really fair to us.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by James T

I associate areas with subways with having relatively high crime..

Those old anti-east coast prejudices typical of the old time Angeleno unfamiliar with anywhere outside of California?

The Red Line has made many of the neighborhoods near it better.

[califantastic]

Originally Posted by montevista1

If you owned a home for several million dollars you would fight your butt off to not have this subway!

Undesirables can use the bus to get to the same places. The subway won't change that.

[whitechocolate86]

How much progress has been made on LA's subway since 1993-94...the reason I ask is because it had a prominent role in the movie Speed...I know this movie is far from reality, but I assume the producers used an actual subway line and in the movie it appeared that there was construction going on...was that just the film or were they not actually expanding the train at that time...when did the LA subway first come into existence...is it just moronic politicians who have made the LA subway not able to properly serve the metropolis to help alleviate the freeways?

[amc760]

Originally Posted by whitechocolate86

How much progress has been made on LA's subway since 1993-94...the reason I ask is because it had a prominent role in the movie Speed...I know this movie is far from reality, but I assume the producers used an actual subway line and in the movie it appeared that there was construction going on...was that just the film or were they not actually expanding the train at that time...when did the LA subway first come into existence...is it just moronic politicians who have made the LA subway not able to properly serve the metropolis to help alleviate the freeways?

i think it's more cost and the fact that the rich folk don't want the commoners(low income mexicans/blacks) having access to the nicer parts of towns.
its gonna happen eventually though.
theyre hiring miners to dig the tunnels already. A friend of mine who does mining told me of a 7 year job digging tunnels for the subway, so im sure people are already trying to pick up the contract for it.

[Bert Green]

The trains in Los Angeles County carry close to 350,000 people a day, and the buses more than 1 million per day. Underground lines are SAFER in a earthquake than above-ground lines, because seismic energy is released at the surface, not below ground. The least safe place to be is on a freeway, especially an elevated viaduct or an overpass.

The idea that crime and subways are related is bizarre. Trains are transportation, nothing more. If someone wanted to steal from you, do you really think they would rather ride a train to your house and take your electronics? Then they would sit on a train platform and wait for a train back to the ghetto? Get real. Gangsters have cars. They can go right to your door today.

If trains were limited to freeway-only routes, who would ride them? What would you do when you got off a train in the middle of the 405? Get a coffee? No, you'd need a car to get where you are going. Trains need to be built where people can walk. Downtowns, employment centers, shopping areas.

What's happened in LA since the first 5 lines have been up and running is the emergence of a central city centered around Downtown, Hollywood, and Koreatown. Long Beach and Pasadena are linked to this. People have reoriented their lives and work around the convenience of train transit. In the next 20 years, as more lines are built (and a new line opens every 5 years or so), these areas will emerge as the core, and as gas climbs to $6 a gallon, everyone will demand more.

Try it sometime. Take the train. Even if you have to drive to it. It works, it's reliable, clean, safe, and cheap.