Transit Systems

Russia stepped up security in major cities, deploying thousands of extra police a day after officials warned of a possible terrorist threat against public transportation. In Moscow, officials ordered cellphone service shut off in the subway system. The measure appeared to be an effort to avert the possibility of explosives being detonated by the phones.

As he seeks to build a legacy as a big-project transportation mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday made gains at home and in Washington in his efforts to speed expansion of the Los Angeles region's transit system. Congress is expected as early as Friday to approve a long-awaited transportation bill that includes a measure sought by Villaraigosa during at least two years of lobbying federal officials. The bill would expand a federal loan program that could provide the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority with at least $350 million over the next two years and $3.3 billion more in the future for transit projects.

Re " 'Subway to Sea' timetable too long for Villaraigosa," Jan. 7 The need for a comprehensive subway system in Los Angeles far outweighs the legal requirement for community input and environmental impact analysis. Our city cannot afford to waste decades debating where to lay the tracks. We deserve to have transit projects started immediately and completed on the scale of years, not generations. The hardships endured by commuters here are enough to justify the declaration of a state of emergency, which will expedite the construction of projects paid for by Measure R funds.

Scene : The corner of Hollywood & Vine. Clumps of young women tumble out of the Metro Red Line subway station, all sequins and sparkle, their skirts as short as their heels are high. Someone tweets that Jamie Foxx is upstairs at Drai's glassed-in nightclub. A girl crouches at Latin pop singer Shakira's sidewalk star waiting for her friend to snap a picture. "See, the night is just getting started," Javier Romero says as the escalator drops us into the subway station, beneath a ceiling preposterously lined with faux film reels and supported by pillars shaped like palm trees.

State Sen. Quentin Kopp (Ind.-San Francisco) has scheduled public hearings in San Francisco and in Marin County next month on his proposal to merge two San Francisco Bay Area transit districts. Kopp, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, plans to introduce legislation next year to combine the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a rail-subway service, and AC Transit, which operates bus lines in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Re "Don't Let L.A. Be the GM of Cities," Commentary, June 14: I could not agree more with Rick Cole's comment that L.A. needs to get the planning and transportation departments working together on increasing transit use. This should always be a requirement for development approvals. Washington, New York and Chicago are rather efficient metro centers with their current transit systems. Transit provides greater efficiency for commuters and better economic opportunities for all, not to mention time saved from being stuck on the region's highways, including the dreaded 101 and 405 "parking lots."

The federal government on Thursday ordered local transit systems, commuter rail lines and Amtrak to beef up security, issuing directives requiring agencies to take a series of precautions and setting the stage for more extensive measures. The order -- the first to address passenger rail under a transportation security law passed after Sept. 11 -- is a significant extension of the Homeland Security Department's reach.

The Supreme Court, widening federal authority over the states, Tuesday reversed a landmark 1976 decision and ruled 5 to 4 that the federal government could impose minimum wage and overtime laws on transit systems operated by state and local agencies.

It's hard to envision if you're stuck in Southern California's weekday commuter crawl, but the land that gave freeway gridlock to the nation is poised to help unclog the freeways.

So you've turned your car into a sort of movable cocoon, with a sound system that's the next best thing to having the Tokyo String Quartet in the back seat and an air conditioner that can transport you, with the turn of a dial, from the late afternoon murk of the Long Beach Freeway to an autumn morning in Lausanne. And here come these people talking about the Blue Line. It's this new light-rail system, they say.

Even as city workers protested planned cuts outside, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa avoided talk of layoffs during his annual State of the City address Wednesday. He chose instead to cheerlead a proposed ballot measure that he said would allow the region to rapidly expand its transit system. The mayor devoted only five paragraphs in his seven-page speech to his proposed budget, which is due to be released Friday. He has previously said the budget will include "a large number" of layoffs.

Bill Fulton — urban planner, urbane public speaker and mayor of Ventura — was starting to stumble. In dim meeting rooms, he had trouble reading. At the civic events he attended almost nightly, he left some people puzzled — even angered — when they extended their hands and he failed to grasp them. "I can't always see it when someone wants to shake hands with me," he said. "When you're a politician, that's not good. " Fulton, a member of Ventura's City Council since 2003, will step down from office Monday and leave town next spring, largely as an adjustment to an eye disease that is slowly robbing him of his sight.

A transportation bill rolled out Thursday by the Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee offers a mixed bag for Los Angeles. On one hand, the proposal by Rep. John Mica of Florida would authorize $1 billion a year, up from the current $110 million, for a federal transportation loan program that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sees as critical to his efforts to speed expansion of Los Angeles' regional transportation system. Although the Republican-run House and Democratic-controlled Senate appear to be headed for a clash over the total spending level for transportation over the next few years, Mica joins Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

When the black-and-orange funicular cars of Angels Flight resumed rattling up and down Bunker Hill two months ago, they were justly hailed as a link to the city's past. After all, the 298-foot-long ride — dubbed "the smallest railway in the world" — dates to 1901. Don't expect comebacks, however, from some other past transit systems, such as the San Pedro-L.A. camel train, the Aerial Swallow monorail, the Pasadena Cycleway and L.A. River Cruises. Each flamed out. L.A.'s brief camel era began in 1863 after the city was given 28 of the creatures from the 1st U.S. Army Camel Corps.

I knew Tuesday's column on public transportation would get a big reaction from frustrated commuters. But I wasn't expecting the message that was waiting for me that afternoon on my voice mail: "The mayor is trying to reach you. He wants to speak with you." And that's how I found myself in City Hall the next day sitting at a big table opposite Jaime de la Vega, the deputy mayor for transportation. We spent nearly two hours discussing and arguing about ways to make public transit more attractive and practical for Los Angeles residents.

Public transit systems throughout Southern California are preparing to jack up fares this summer. They could use the extra money — the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority alone is facing a $181-million budget shortfall. But fare hikes aren't the whole solution to public transit's money woes. It's time that the dozens of city- and county-run systems that make up the region's transit network get together and hash out a plan to expand ridership, rather than repeatedly reaching deeper into the pockets of those who already ride the bus. "They need to entice people to leave their cars at home," said Esperanza Martinez, lead organizer for the Bus Riders Union, a public transit advocacy group.

Langley Powell is obsessed with graffiti. It is his enemy. He wants to see it eradicated forever, wiped from the part of the world he rules as general manager of the San Diego Trolley. If there is a quicker way to remove it, a better method of covering it, a more impregnable surface that can be applied to shelter walls and trolley cars, Powell will try it. At stake is the public image and ridership of a transit line that he claims is one of the cleanest in the country.

The Department of Transportation has issued a warning about possible attacks on rail and transit systems across the country, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The department's warning was based on unconfirmed and uncorroborated information, one law enforcement official said. "It involves rail and transit systems ... and is about possible attacks," he said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's bid to secure federal funds for fast-track expansion of the Los Angeles region's transit system is gaining support from Washington officials who say it could serve as a national model for speeding economic recovery and reducing pollution and traffic congestion. The Obama administration and influential members of Congress are exploring ways to aid the car-clogged city with a federal loan, economic stimulus funds or other assistance so it can build 12 transit lines in 10 years instead of 30. "Everyone who has ever driven in L.A. knows that more and better transit in that region is a must, and the sooner it's in place, the better," said Roy Kienitz, the undersecretary for policy in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Dubai, a Persian Gulf boomtown where Porsches share the road with truckloads of South Asian laborers, launches a mass transit rail system tonight in an effort to ease crippling traffic that costs the city-state an estimated $1.4 billion a year. Despite recent economic hardships, the railway in this city of superlatives -- home to palm-shaped artificial islands and the world's tallest building -- will retain a showy attitude. The system will include VIP cars with fares equivalent to $3.50 U.S., more than seven times the lowest cost ticket.