LACMTA Purple Line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Metro Purple Line.

The Metro Purple Line of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail is a heavy rail metro line in Los Angeles.

It is one of Los Angeles' two subway lines (along with the Red Line), and one of the five Metro Rail lines (three are light rail, largely surface lines). Although they separate in different directions west of downtown Los Angeles, the two subway lines (Purple and Red) were until recently considered two branches of one line, and are still marked this way in most stations, on schedules, and on older rail maps. As of March 2006, the combined Red and Purple lines averaged over 138,000 daily weekday boardings.

The Purple Line has two other official names: the A Line (which it shares with the Red Line), and Line 805. These are rarely used by residents, but occasionally appear on official documents.

[edit] History

The Purple Line is a vestige of Los Angeles' initial subway proposal, originally envisioned running from Union Station along Wilshire Boulevard to Santa Monica.

Due to political opposition from residents of Hancock Park and other Westside communities, the original Red Line project was rerouted a number of times. Following a methane explosion at a Ross Dress for Less near Fairfax and Third Street, Congressman Henry Waxman passed a ban on tunneling through the Mid-Wilshire area designated as a "methane zone" near Hancock Park. The line was rerouted to the South, around the "methane zone", and was eventually canceled.

20 years later, worsening traffic in the region and changes in public opinion on subway construction prompted Waxman and other politicians to reconsider their opposition to the Wilshire subway. Waxman proposed that should experts deem tunneling through the "methane zone" safe, he would reconsider his ban on tunneling through the area. On December 16, 2005, Congressman Waxman announced that he had reviewed an October 2005 report, which declared that tunneling in the "methane zone" was safe, and introduced legislation (H.R. 4653) to reverse the 20-year-old tunneling ban on December 22, 2005. The legislation was passed in the House of Representatives on September 20, 2006 but died in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in the last days of the 109th Congress. Waxman reintroduced the bill (H.R. 238) in the House on January 4, 2007, the first day of the 110th Congress and the bill was passed by a voice vote on February 7, 2007.^[1] Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced parallel legislation (S. 497) in the Senate the same week. The passage of the legislation has been hailed by transit advocates as the most important step to begin the process of constructing a Red Line extension. Even in the most optimistic scenarios, however, such a line would not be completed for at least a decade.

The introduction of legislation to repeal the tunneling ban coincided with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACTMA) Board's decision in July 2006 to approve staff and funding to initiate the major investment study for the extension of the Red Line to the Westside of Los Angeles ^[2] (such an expansion has been colloquially named the "Subway to the Sea") and its decision in August 2006 to designate the Wilshire/Western branch of the Red Line as the Purple Line. ^[3]

In addition to the methane zone tunneling ban is a ban on the use of Los Angeles County sales tax revenue for subway tunneling. The primary advocate of this ban, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, has stated that local money could be used to cover subway-related costs, as long as it was not used directly for tunneling. ^[4]

On August 24, 2006, LACMTA approved the designation of Purple Line for the Wilshire/Western branch of the Red Line. ^[3] The designation of the new color for the branch followed the LACMTA's approval in July 2006 of staff and funding to initiate the major investment study for the extension of the Red Line to the west side of Los Angeles, an expansion often referred to as the "Subway to the Sea." While both subway lines are still referred to as the Red Line on official Metro schedules and most maps available in subway stations, a new rail map available both on the official website and in some subway stations as of January 2007 shows separate Red and Purple Lines. All maps and signage will be updated eventually.^[5]

[edit] Potential future extensions

This article or section contains information about a planned or expected public transportation infrastructure. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available.

Metro rail lines on the Westside of Los Angeles including lines under construction and the Purple Line including extension to Fairfax Avenue

Given that planning for the extension is still in very preliminary stages, and there is no funding earmarked for such an expansion, the alignment of such an extension is still uncertain. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has suggested that the first phase of such an extension be along Wilshire Boulevard to Fairfax Avenue.

The Beverly Hills City Council, which had previously opposed the building of a subway line through the city, has convened a mass transit panel that as of November 2006 was ready to endorse subway construction, lobby for funding and to propose the location of two stations of the future Purple Line within their city boundaries. The committee has endorsed a Wilshire alignment which includes one station at the corner of Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards, and another on Wilshire Boulevard between Beverly and Rodeo drives. ^[6]

The Westside Cities Council of Governments has also endorsed the Purple Line extension and advocates for the inclusion of such an extension as a high priority project in Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan due to be published in the summer of 2007. ^[7] In September 2006, both the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles joined the Council's Mass Transit Committee to help advocate for the subway extension. ^[8]

The estimated cost of subway construction below Wilshire Boulevard is approximately $350 million per mile. It is expected that California State Propositions 1A and 1B, which were passed by voters on November 7, 2006 will make such an expensive infrastructure project feasible.

[edit] List of stations

Note: Listed from east to west

Note: * indicates commuter service that operates only during weekday rush hours.

[edit] References

• Christopher Hawthorne, "Finally, on the right track," Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2006.
• Jean Guccione, "Beverly Hills doesn't want to miss the subway," Los Angeles Times, November 27, 2006.
• Richard Simon, "House votes to repeal law blocking subway construction on L.A.'s Westside," Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2007