Why LA has Trains to Nowhere and Will We Ever Make Elusive MetroRail/LAX Connection

I recently had the privilege of speaking with Times journalist Laura Nelson to provide input for what is probably the most modern article to date on this topic. 

So if any interested party wants to be brought up to speed on where we've been, and where we're going, to reach this long-sought rail/airport connection, it's vital to read this article--although it's highly unfortunate that the wonderful maps don't appear to be included in the above link.  

But do read the article.  I'll wait. 

In short, there are three main reasons why we don't have this rail connection to LAX yet built, or even mapped out at this time.  The rail line is a victim of the map, a victim of a LA World Airports and Federal Aviation Administration "groupthink" that has a very low priority (if not contempt) for such a rail connection, and a victim of our local/state underfunding of major transportation/infrastructure projects. 

But the map issue must come first, because it really does explain the historical, present-day and future challenges of such a necessary MetroRail/LAX connection--once called "the Green Line to LAX" but which is now different because of the advent of the approved and funded $2 billion Crenshaw/LAX light rail line. 

The Metro Green Line was advanced decades-faster than originally planned in the 1980's and 1990's because of community mitigation for the I-105 (Century) freeway, and is the one major rail line that is NOT focused on a Downtown Los Angeles connection.  In other words, it truly addresses the needs of the outlying suburbs of LA County.  

Both the then-booming defense industry and the need for a rail maintenance yard in El Segundo led to the initial South Bay routing and western terminus. A North Coast Extension to and through LAX to Marina Del Rey was approved but lack of funding caused that extension to placed on indefinite hold.  An EIR of extending the Green Line eastern terminus to the Norwalk Metrolink station was also considered, but placed on hold. 

So we have three "Green Gaps" of the Metro Green Line:  the gap to LAX and the Westside, the gap to the South Bay Galleria and to the rest of the South Bay, and the gap to the countywide Metrolink system.  These "Green Gaps" all plague this so-called "rail to nowhere" yet boasts a 40,000 rider/day figure that is a result of its connection to regional bus routes and the Metro Blue Line, and its future potential is huge. 

In other words, the first step is often the most messy and painful, but the most vital in the long run.  But the Green Line is still somewhat of a "stand-alone" line and is both the victim of the map and of an as-of-yet incomplete system/grid that cries for multiple lines. 

Enter the Crenshaw/LAX line, which former Mayor Villaraigosa thought would do much to finish the LAX/Green Line conundrum.  Despite outcries of race-based and cultural issues surrounding this $2 billion line, it ultimately is a connecting north-south line between the east-west Expo Line (Expo/Crenshaw station) and the east-west Green Line (Aviation/Imperial station). 

But the gap filled by the Crenshaw/LAX line between the Expo and Green Lines does NOT answer the question of connecting MetroRail to the LAX central airline terminals some 1.5 miles to the west, does NOT answer the question of how Westsiders and Valley commuters will access LAX via MetroRail, and does NOT answer the question of whether there will be a direct Downtown/LAX line. 

When the former Green Line Interagency Task Force, created and funded by former CD11 LA Councilmember Bill Rosendahl, first met eight years ago, the first question to be asked was, "What and where is the LAX/MetroRail link?"  That question still remains a thorny one, with different answers coming from different people...and it's STILL without consensus as to what that link is. 

Please note that the Crenshaw/LAX light rail line, while an excellent step forward, does NOT (to repeat) connect to the central airline terminals, proceeds down a publicly-owned rail right of way (the Harbor Subdivision Right of Way) that crosses the incoming airplane flight paths (and must have a FAA-required trench along that right-of-way), and turns north in Inglewood up Crenshaw Blvd. and away from a direct route to Downtown. 

Lots of holes, lots of angry taxpayers and commuters, and lots of future needs to be filled.  So this is NOT an easy issue, but has two main approaches for Metro and LA World Airports and the City of Los Angeles to consider, both of which will require up to $1-1.5 billion that we don't now have assigned to connect MetroRail to the central airline terminals...which is the "true" LAX connection we all want and need: 

1) An indirect People Mover to serve both the hotels, Consolidated Rental Car Facility and airline terminals on, and west of, the vital Century Blvd. commercial corridor.  This would allow for a new rail line, a separation of regional north/south commuters from an unwanted detour to the west, and potential safety/security issues to be addressed. 

2) A direct rerouting of the planned MetroRail Crenshaw/Green Line trunk that would have the Crenshaw line proceed west to a station or two on the Century Blvd. commercial corridor, dive underground east of Terminal 1, have an underground station west of Sepulveda Blvd. to directly serve as a LAX central airline terminal link, and proceed back to the surface at Nash and the South Bay portion of the Green Line. 

Problems and potential benefits abound with both options, but that's our main challenge for the future. 

Another obstacle that the MetroRail/LAX link must overcome is resistance from LA World Airports and the FAA, which have little to no interest in prioritizing this rail/airport link.  

It is hoped that Mayor Garcetti's new Board of Airport Commissioners can demand that the northern runways and central terminals not be razed and reconstructed--in addition to the unnecessary expense, this would also complicate a future north-south rail line from LAX to the Westside and San Fernando Valley, to say nothing of risking the partial or complete shutdown of Lincoln and Sepulveda Blvds. 

Finally, there is the funding--this is very low in current Metro priorities, and the federal government is not too bullish about funding urban rail projects.  Whether it's the GOP who don't care much about blue-state California, or the Democrats who always want rail and transportation priorities AFTER social welfare programs and other bloated expenses, this critical project just doesn't have the support in Washington we all want. 

There will certainly be followup articles and opinions to the issues raised in Laura Nelson's article, but it's hoped that a resurgence of interest and focus on this vital rail project will perhaps be the final push needed to correct what is seen by many (perhaps most) as a long-overdue transportation gap, and an error in our long-range planning that should have been resolved decades ago.   

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) 

-cw

CityWatch

Vol 11 Issue 67

Pub: Aug 20, 2013