Light Rail Systems

If enthusiasm can get a subway built, the long-sought underground rail line from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific gained a modicum of momentum Thursday after a day-long meeting of leaders focused on getting the $7-billion project built after decades of inaction, study and lots of, well, talk.

Is the MTA going to build a rail line to nowhere? That's what some critics are asking after transportation officials unveiled long-awaited plans for a light-rail system that would run through Southwest L.A. and to the South Bay. The proposed $1-billion line would start on Crenshaw Boulevard at Exposition Boulevard and end at the 105 Freeway in El Segundo.

One of the more intriguing mass transit projects that has been talked about for years -- they usually require decades of talk before actually getting built -- is the downtown connector, also known as the regional connector. It's a line that would connect present and future light-rail lines, the idea being to eliminate time-munching transfers.

For years, a homeowners association in Cheviot Hills has been able to derail plans to put modern-day streetcars on an old railroad line that skirts the upscale Westside neighborhood. But now, those residents' long opposition to mass transit in their backyard is encountering resistance from neighbors fed up with worsening congestion that has slowed traffic to a crawl.

High-speed train service was supposed to be the linchpin of one of Southern California's largest transit centers. But though proponents envisioned the sleek trains rolling into Anaheim, the governor's proposed 2007 budget has derailed those plans, at least for now. Yet Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle isn't conceding defeat.

Dorsey High School is the focal point of an increasingly heated fight between transit officials determined to build a light-rail line from downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, and Crenshaw District residents who fear that fast-moving trains will threaten the safety of students crossing the tracks. The first leg of the rail line, scheduled to open in 2010, will run near the 2,000-student high school where at 3:08 p.m. most weekdays, chaos reigns.

Transit officials said Thursday that they will need an additional $145 million to build the Exposition light rail line from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City, once again underscoring the huge financial stakes involved in constructing a rail system to the Westside. Rapid increases in construction costs have ballooned the project's original $640-million budget to $785 million, officials said, and threaten to shorten the line before it reaches Culver City. The project broke ground in August.

After trying for three decades to build a subway down Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles County transit officials are now considering a radically different route that would send the Westside rail line though Hollywood, West Hollywood and the Beverly Center area. The new proposed alignment for the "Subway to the Sea" would extend west from the Hollywood/Highland Red Line station, roughly following Santa Monica Boulevard through Beverly Hills.

The California Public Utilities Commission will closely scrutinize the safety of the planned Exposition light-rail line after South Los Angeles residents told officials they fear that running trains at street level would pose an unacceptable risk to the public.

Jake Varghese bought his $5 day pass yesterday even though he knows many of his fellow passengers take advantage of the honor code on Los Angeles' subway system and ride illegally for free. "I see it all the time. My thinking is they'll eventually get caught," said Varghese, 32, who commutes on the Red Line from his downtown home to his job in Hollywood several times a week. Varghese may soon have more company at the ticketing booth.