Subway

Since the subway in Los Angeles is becoming popular to bash, I find it interesting that we have suddenly discovered all the answers to our transportation woes by simply adding more buses, carpool lanes and bringing the subway project aboveground. This strategy might make sense in some parts of the county, but certainly not in my place of residence, West Los Angeles. Our two freeways (the 10 and 405) are the busiest in the nation. It will be virtually impossible to expand the freeways for carpool and bus lanes because of land restrictions.

Transportation officials have shelved plans for a second entrance to a downtown subway station across from L.A. police headquarters and the Los Angeles Times because the newspaper's parent company says it may develop the site, according to Metro documents published Tuesday. The Tribune Co. property, a parking lot in downtown L.A.'s Historic Core, is the site of a future station along a $1.4-billion subway aimed at closing one of the most frustrating gaps in Los Angeles County's growing rail network.

Re "Video paints grim subway scenario," May 7 The video by activists opposed to tunneling under Beverly Hills High School for the Westside subway extension raises issues that do indeed need to be applied to the school. Abandoned oil wells are not exclusive to Beverly Hills; they litter Los Angeles. The existing subway lines and their tunneling avoided setting off an explosion, and it should be the same with the planned extension. The 1985 Ross Dress for Less store explosion occurred without subway tunneling.

After a spate of bad publicity over the use of an ingredient also used in the making of yoga mats, Subway confirmed that the chemical will be removed from all of its breads in a week. The sandwich chain earlier this year drew criticism after a food blogger launched a petition urging the company to remove azodicarbonamide, an ingredient used as a bleaching agent and dough conditioner. A spokeswoman confirmed an Associated Press report in which Subway's chief marketing officer Tony Pace said the chain will have phased out the ingredient from its bread in the next week.  Azodicarbonamide is found widely in other products, including foods served at McDonald's and Burger King.

Re "Subway extension runs into Westside roadblock," April 27 When I lived in Mexico City during the 1985 magnitude 8.0 earthquake, I witnessed epic destruction. Despite the severity of the damage inflicted by the temblor, the subway system was virtually unaffected. The trains resumed normal operations shortly after inspection. Beverly Hills leaders need to be fully informed by geological experts and transportation engineers as to any actual risks to the school buildings before taking a hard-line stand.

Re "Transit and the greater good," Column, June 8 Hector Tobar's one-sided view of Beverly Hills and the subway is unfair. The Beverly Hills City Council unanimously endorsed the Westside extension; that is, until the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority switched from a Century City station on Santa Monica Boulevard to Constellation Avenue. The Santa Monica station had been planned for years. Then Metro's switch of one block - catering to the wishes of Century City developers - shifted the route under a public high school, potentially jeopardizing the safety of 80-year-old buildings and more than 2,000 students and teachers.

ATHENS -- Greece's ruling coalition on Thursday issued an emergency order demanding that striking subway employees go back to work or face massive arrests and potential job losses in the latest labor showdown to grip the beleaguered government. It is the first time that the governing three-party coalition has invoked such an emergency measure in a bid to face down swelling social unrest since taking power seven months ago amid popular anger over additional austerity and fiscal reforms.

Whether talking about the Mexican toll roads (June 25) or the L.A. subway, it seems like a case of dumb and dumber. IRWIN SPECTOR Toluca Lake

Take a poll sometime. Which would Los Angelenos prefer--an overpriced and faulty subway system which serves no one or streets that are clean and pothole free? Tough choice. JONATHAN BOCK Los Angeles

Thomas Seehof (letter, July 2) complains about the high cost of parking at the downtown Central Library. He could park for free at the North Hollywood station and ride the subway to Pershing Square, just steps from the library. Perhaps more people would ride the subway if public and commercial facilities along the route would encourage it and indicate which subway stop they were close to. John Glass Studio City

A judge who sided with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week in a drawn-out battle over the seismic and environmental effects of the planned Westside subway "did not consider the facts," the superintendent of the Beverly Hills Unified School District told The Times on Thursday.  On Wednesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio ruled that Metro followed environmental law when assessing the possible risks of...

Knocking down one of the last hurdles for Los Angeles' long-awaited Westside subway extension, a judge ruled late Wednesday that transit officials followed environmental laws when they chose a route that would require tunneling under Beverly Hills High School. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's five-year, $13.8-million environmental review process was thorough and fair, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio wrote in a 15-page decision.

Knocking down one of the last hurdles for Los Angeles' long-awaited Westside subway extension, a judge ruled late Wednesday that transit officials followed environmental laws when choosing a route that will require tunneling under Beverly Hills High School. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's five-year, $13.8-million environmental review process was thorough and fair, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio wrote in a 15-page decision. The Beverly Hills School District and the city of Beverly Hills, which sued Metro two years ago claiming in part that risks of tunneling under the school were not adequately considered, can appeal the decision.

In the name of civic progress, the Crenshaw corridor has lost a lot of trees. First, to clear the way for the space shuttle Endeavour's trek to the California Science Center, 71 mature magnolias and pines were chopped down in 2012 along an almost two-mile stretch in South Los Angeles. Now, with the construction of the Crenshaw/LAX subway line, residents are bracing for more. About 175 trees - a third of those remaining - are expected to be cut down along Crenshaw Boulevard during the light-rail project, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

A man was in custody Friday in connection with the beating and alleged sexual assault of a Subway sandwich shop employee earlier this week in Sacramento. Kenneth Chandler Anderson, 22, was arrested by Sacramento County sheriff's deputies and booked on four felony charges in connection with the assault on the woman as she arrived to work early Tuesday, KTXL-TV in Sacramento reported . Anderson is a longtime employee of the sandwich shop, according to the Sacramento Bee. He was booked into jail Thursday.

No tunnel has yet been bored. No station has been built. Not a single track has been laid. But even the most preliminary work on the long-awaited Westside subway appears to be rousing the latent forces of Not in My Back Yard. In Windsor Village, a homeowner who lives next to a construction staging area awoke at 3 a.m. one morning to the yells of workers and the beep-beep-beep of backing trucks. Now his breakfast room looks out on a 2 1/2-story sound wall hastily erected to contain the noise.

The driver of a Chicago subway train that crashed at O'Hare International Airport told authorities that she fell asleep before the train entered the station, derailed and raced up an escalator, the NTSB announced Wednesday. She didn't wake up until the Blue Line train had nearly reached the bumper at the station, NTSB investigator-in-charge Ted Turpin said during a televised news conference Wednesday morning. The eight-car train eventually smashed into the bumper, apparently launching the train onto the platform.

A San Joaquin County community college student arrested near the Canadian border for allegedly attempting to travel to Syria to fight with al Qaeda had boasted of a plot to bomb the subway in Los Angeles, according to a federal affidavit. Nicholas Teausant, 20, of Acampo, near Lodi, Calif., was arrested early Monday as the bus he was on neared the U.S.-Canadian border in Blaine, Wash. He was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.