Metropolitan Transportation Authority

A controversial monthly fee tied to Los Angeles County's new toll lane system was suspended Thursday after a lengthy discussion and divided vote by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. For the next six months, Los Angeles County residents will not be charged a $3 monthly maintenance fee for their transponders - coaster-sized devices that track toll lane usage and fees. Some carpoolers and solo motorists who would use the lanes infrequently have said that the monthly charge discouraged them from buying the $40 transponder.

Two years ago, every one of the elected officials representing South Los Angeles - members of the City Council, the Legislature and Congress - joined in an unprecedented show of unity to call for the Crenshaw-to-LAX light-rail line to include a stop in Leimert Park Village. Hundreds of residents packed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearing room and urged the board to include this historic stop in what is the heart of the African American community and, increasingly, an important residential and business center for Latinos.

In the days remaining before the county's two feuding transit boards relinquish their power, officials are spending money and incurring obligations that could tie the hands of the new agency being formed to oversee the region's planned $183-billion rail and bus network. The county's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, under an interim arrangement, will begin functioning at the end of March.

A controversial monthly fee tied to Los Angeles County's new toll lane system was suspended Thursday after a lengthy discussion and divided vote by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. For the next six months, Los Angeles County residents will not be charged a $3 monthly maintenance fee for their transponders - coaster-sized devices that track toll lane usage and fees. Some carpoolers and solo motorists who would use the lanes infrequently have said that the monthly charge discouraged them from buying the $40 transponder.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have reorganized their security operations and given the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department the responsibility of supervising transit security guards, officials said Thursday. The move to transfer supervision of the security officers from MTA executives to the Sheriff's Department follows complaints that some guards have improperly detained, pushed or struck commuters. As a result of the reorganization, two MTA executives lost their jobs.

When Los Angeles County's inaugural toll lanes opened on the 110 Freeway late last year, Scott Sternad decided he could do without. "Nearly $1,000 a year?" said the 24-year-old engineering student, who commutes from Hermosa Beach to USC three times a week. "That's a lot of dinners and drinks. " But remaining in the free lanes has cost Sternad time. His commute now takes 15 minutes longer than it did before the carpool lanes were reconfigured, he says. That's not what was supposed to happen.

Two years ago, every one of the elected officials representing South Los Angeles - members of the City Council, the Legislature and Congress - joined in an unprecedented show of unity to call for the Crenshaw-to-LAX light-rail line to include a stop in Leimert Park Village. Hundreds of residents packed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearing room and urged the board to include this historic stop in what is the heart of the African American community and, increasingly, an important residential and business center for Latinos.

James W. Cragin, a longtime Gardena city councilman who served on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, died of cancer Sunday at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance. He was 82.

MTA train crash--A Dec. 11 headline incorrectly referred to a car crash with a Metrolink train. The train was operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is one step ahead of The Times in heeding the call for testing new ways of delivering Metro Bus service. In its Sept. 18 editorial ("Bus Solutions Are Needed Now"), The Times urged MTA to experiment with a rapid bus system used successfully in Curitiba, Brazil. In fact, MTA plans to launch a six-month rapid bus demonstration project on Ventura Boulevard in late May or early June next year.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Thursday named replacements for three transit department supervisors who were demoted in connection with an alleged cheating scandal. Sheriff Lee Baca appointed Ronene Anda, a 29-year Sheriff's Department veteran, as acting commander of the Transit Services Bureau. Anda replaces Cmdr. Pat Jordan. The sheriff also replaced two captains who reported to Jordon. “This happened fairly suddenly,” said Marc Littman, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which holds an $80-million contract with the transit bureau to protect county buses and rail.

Last year, carpool lanes on a portion of the 110 Freeway were converted to toll lanes. Preliminary data show average travel speeds have increased in the lanes formerly reserved for carpoolers, but traffic has slowed on the rest of the freeway. So for solo drivers paying up to $15.40 per trip, the new toll lanes are providing a faster commute. More than 135,000 motorists have purchased FasTrak transponders since the toll lanes opened. Officials have collected more than $3 million in tolls along an 11-mile stretch of the Harbor Freeway, south of downtown.

When Los Angeles County's inaugural toll lanes opened on the 110 Freeway late last year, Scott Sternad decided he could do without. "Nearly $1,000 a year?" said the 24-year-old engineering student, who commutes from Hermosa Beach to USC three times a week. "That's a lot of dinners and drinks. " But remaining in the free lanes has cost Sternad time. His commute now takes 15 minutes longer than it did before the carpool lanes were reconfigured, he says. That's not what was supposed to happen.

As the MTA moves closer to starting construction on a subway tunnel in downtown Los Angeles, some property owners have dug in for a fight. The big landlords fear that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plans to build a massive trench on Flower Street will disrupt their businesses for years, costing millions of dollars in lost revenue. The four-story-deep canyon planned by the MTA would travel through more than two busy city blocks of the financial district, which includes popular destinations such as the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, the Central Library and the City National Plaza office and retail complex.

Los Angeles County transit officials Thursday budgeted $6.78 million more for improvements on the Blue Line - one of the busiest light-rail lines in the nation, with 26 million riders annually and a history of accidents and fatalities. There have been eight deaths along the Blue Line so far this year, at least four of which were suicides, according to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials. The most recent fatality occurred Thursday about 12:45 a.m., when officials said a woman apparently tried to swerve her Hyundai around lowered gate arms at a crossing in Compton and was struck by a Blue Line train.

More than 200 protesters marched through Union Station on Thursday afternoon, banging drums as they passed train platforms, loudly demanding more community say in how the region's transit agency manages and develops property along its rapidly expanding rail network. The demonstration, which did not affect transit services, was held as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority continues its plan to aggressively pursue several new rail lines in various areas of Los Angeles County, as well as housing and other developments around them.

Would the Metropolitan Transportation Authority please explain two apparently contradictory stories in the Jan. 28 Times? In "MTA, Riders Union at Odds Over Funds to Boost Service," the MTA chief executive says his agency cannot afford to buy the hundreds of buses needed to comply with a federal court order. Yet, in the same issue, there is a story about the MTA selling $125 million in new bonds, and how coveted they are by higher-income Californians. If the MTA stopped fighting the riders in court, everybody would also save a huge amount of money in lawsuit fees and costs.

Doug Failing, the Caltrans district director overseeing Los Angeles and Ventura counties, announced Thursday that he is leaving to serve as executive director of highway programs for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Failing has been working at the agency since leaving college and has been District 7 director since 2002. In a letter to his staff, he said he was resigning for financial reasons. Failing said his salary at Caltrans was $136,500 a year, but with mandated furloughs it was roughly $116,000.

After considering a half-dozen teams of architects and engineers led by some of the biggest names in the profession -- Renzo Piano and Norman Foster among them -- the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is poised to hire a group led by L.A.'s Gruen Associates and London's Grimshaw Architects to produce a new master plan for Union Station. Metro purchased the 1939 landmark and about 40 acres surrounding it last year. In April, the agency, looking ahead to the day when the station might welcome high-speed trains from San Francisco, asked the six competing teams to produce "vision boards" imagining the site in 2050.

While many agencies are cutting back, Los Angeles' aggressive rail expansion is picking up steam. The county's Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled this month a record $4.15-billion budget that includes money for about a dozen rail lines that are either under construction or being planned. If all goes as anticipated, Metro in the next year would begin construction of a new rail line along Crenshaw Boulevard, complete the Expo Line to Culver City and continue work on an expansion of the Gold Line from Pasadena to Azusa.