Light Rail Systems

As light-rail opponents geared up for a political fight, researchers at Cal State Fullerton predicted Thursday that a commuter train proposed for central Orange County will create more than 29,000 jobs and pump $3.2 billion into the local economy if it is built.

Here's what you need to know about the new Expo Line, the latest addition to L.A.'s patchy network of light-rail spurs: It's fast - for about three miles, then it gets pretty slow. It's so brand spanking new that the slimy stuff you feel on the stainless steel handrails is actually oil, not something more infectious left behind by passengers with bad colds. It's quiet as an elevator. And it's opening April 28. Here's what it isn't: The first rail line since the closing of the old Red Car network to connect the Westside to the rest of L.A., as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other leaders of L.A.'s transportation scene said repeatedly Friday during a media test ride.

The City Council heard residents' views Tuesday on a proposal to join Santa Ana and Costa Mesa in pushing for a light rail system through the three cities' business districts. Supporters said such a system would be good for students and seniors, but opponents said it would be a blight on neighborhoods. The CenterLine, envisioned as a 30-mile rail link between Irvine and Anaheim, was shelved earlier this year for lack of support from communities along the route.

There's an open secret about getting on the subway in Los Angeles — you don't really have to pay the fare. Turnstiles are unlocked, security is lax and commuters often hop over or pass through undetected. Citing millions of dollars in lost revenue, transportation officials have been wrestling with the issue for years. On Thursday, they made their most forceful push yet to lock the gates to anyone without a ticket at a swath of rail stations. The effort is the latest bid by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to fix a disjointed regional ticketing network that allows some a free ride while creating problems for others who choose to pay. "There are a lot of people who have been avoiding their fares," said Zev Yaroslavsky, a county supervisor and Metro board member.

City officials here gave a tentative thumbs up to the county's idea of building a light rail system through its northern cities. But the City Council this week also urged the Orange County Transportation Authority to use some tax money to improve the county's bus and freeway system. Residents and tourists in the city would not directly benefit from the rail system, which has been proposed to cope with an expected boom in county growth over the next 20 years.

In a bid to help plan a central Orange County light-rail transit system, the City Council voted this week to join a multi-city agency that will oversee the project. The council appointed Fullerton Mayor Chris Norby, Councilwoman Molly McClanahan and City Manager William C. Winter to serve as two-year representatives to the Central Orange County Fixed Guideway Agency.

Light-rail trains began carrying passengers in Minneapolis 50 years after streetcar service ended. The first of the sleek yellow-and-blue cars rolled out after a morning ceremony in the downtown Warehouse District. The trains run only from the Warehouse District to Fort Snelling. Full service, which will extend to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and on to the Mall of America in suburban Bloomington, is scheduled to begin in December.

A Times editorial of Feb. 15, "On Track With Light Rail," was timely and challenging. That is especially so if the proposed is approached with systems that solve problems and do not compound the congestion they seek to relieve. The proposed system should have no conflicts at all with the surface's present and projected activities. It should require no land acquisition. And, it should be routed in a way that benefits existing centers and is also adaptable to planned developments.

"Next stop, Irvine," may be heard by passengers aboard a future light rail system if city and some county officials have their way. But there is a disagreement about timing, with Irvine officials wanting their portion of the system built in the first phase of construction and not as an extension of the main line. Irvine has some bargaining chips. It already controls $125 million in state rail bond money earmarked for a rail project that would serve its residents.

The nation's fourth-largest city has at least one New Year's resolution: Take the train. Amid a festival-like atmosphere and thousands of people who waited hours in line for a ride, Houston's $324-million light rail system made its inaugural trips Thursday. The 7.5-mile starter line with 16 stations will offer service at $1 a ride from downtown south to Reliant Stadium, where the NFL's Houston Texans play.

The last battle line in the effort to build the Expo light-rail system has been drawn at Farmdale Avenue and Exposition Boulevard — a small intersection about 20 yards from Susan Miller Dorsey High School in central Los Angeles. If state regulators sign off on a grade crossing and station there, it will clear the way for completion of the first modern rail link between downtown Los Angeles and the bustling Westside. But the plan to lay track at street level by Dorsey has run into intense opposition from neighborhood associations, students, teachers, Dorsey alumni and community activists who have fought for almost four years to change the project's design.

Los Angeles transportation officials on Thursday took a major step in bringing commuter rail to the Westside, approving plans for a route linking downtown L.A. to Santa Monica. Officials hope to begin work later this year on phase two of the Expo Line, a nearly seven-mile link from downtown Culver City to the corner of 4th Street and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica's main business district. Phase one of Expo Line is already under construction from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City.

A new light-rail system through South Los Angeles and the South Bay was approved by transit officials Thursday, but some local politicians and residents worry that the rail line could pose similar problems that have hampered other projects. The 8 1/2 -mile line is the biggest beneficiary to date of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects that L.A. County voters approved last year. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said Measure R revenues would provide most of the estimated $1.7 billion needed for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Project, which would pay for a relatively bare-bones version of the line.

The Expo Line, the first rail project into the traffic-clogged Westside, is $220 million over its original budget and more than a year behind schedule, with officials saying additional delays and costs are possible. The line was supposed to open this summer, running from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City at a cost of $640 million. But the price tag has risen to $862 million, and transit officials say their goal for next year is to open just a portion of the route -- only as far west as Crenshaw Boulevard.

South Los Angeles has a won a significant victory as transportation officials recommended this week that a proposed transit corridor along Crenshaw Boulevard be a light-rail line rather than a less expensive dedicated busway. The recommendation, made by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority staff, gives a boost to the proposed project estimated at $1.7 billion, which would run from the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw area to just outside Los Angeles International Airport. Officials want to build the project with revenues from Measure R, the transportation sales tax that county voters approved last year.

If Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has his way, Los Angeles County will soon embark on a commuter rail building boom the likes of which the region has never seen. The mayor today will unveil an ambitious but politically risky transportation plan that fast-tracks several high-profile rail projects to be completed within the next decade. That's a big speed-up, because officials have generally been talking about completing them within 30 years. Villaraigosa has made building more rail a priority of his administration, though he's the first to admit it's going to take more than speeches and good intentions to get it done.

Anaheim and Fullerton city councils wrestled Tuesday night over plans for a light-rail system in Orange County, putting the troubled project's future further in doubt. In Anaheim, City Council members voted 3 to 2 to ask transportation officials to put off action on the project pending further study, especially of technology. The council's vote also prohibits city staff from spending any more time or money related to the project.

The Orange County Transportation Authority on Monday lowered its ridership forecast by almost 10% for the proposed CenterLine project, a billion-dollar light-rail system that would run from John Wayne Airport to downtown Santa Ana. OCTA officials revised their projections from 24,800 boardings per day by 2025 to 22,600, using tighter federal criteria for estimating the ridership for proposed light-rail lines.

The Westside L.A. subway expansion and a plan to build a light-rail link through downtown L.A. took a small step closer to reality this week when the MTA board agreed to submit the projects for federal funding. Officials for years have been planning a subway that would run from Koreatown to Santa Monica, probably along Wilshire Boulevard. The project, with an estimated price tag of $5 billion or more, is considered a top priority of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The "regional connector" in downtown L.A. would link the Blue and Gold rail lines and offer rail service through the city center.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board awarded a contract Thursday to the Italian firm AnsaldoBreda for 100 additional light-rail cars, clearing the way for a new rail manufacturing plant that the company has promised to build with union labor in downtown Los Angeles. The decision was a victory for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who said the manufacturing plant would be a catalyst for his plan to attract clean technology companies to a four-mile industrial corridor along the Los Angeles River.