Light Rail Update 4/11/07
Important Expo Phase 2 Rail Information
The Cheviot Hills Homeowners’ Association light rail committee has spent 2 months researching, meeting with politicians, talking with transit authorities, and Friends4Expo members. We have met and formed a working coalition with area Homeowners’ Associations (Neighbors for Smart Rail), Expo Phase 1 residents, and Metro Gold Line residents. Here is what we’ve learned:
●The Expo Phase 1 project was given a “not recommended” rating by the Federal Transportation Administration for funding through the federal New Starts Program in 2003 due to a flawed funding plan. The following year MTA withdrew their requests for federal New Starts money for Expo Phase 1 when told by the FTA that the Expo Authority failed to prove that the project would improve traffic or mobility. The FTA determined that any benefit from the Expo line was due to the extensive bus feeder network needed to bring passengers back and forth to the train not from the train itself!
●The original Exposition LR line was conceived 20 years ago as a single project. It has now been tactically segmented into Phase 1 and 2, but, in fact, you had better take a keen interest in the design and construction of Phase 1. The materials, station designs, colors, safety features, and grade crossing designs are already contracted to be standardized throughout the line (Phase 1 and 2) regardless of whether the line goes through residential or commercial environments.
●The Expo Construction Authority (MTA) is trying to divide communities along the Exposition ROW but we all have the same interests and these are best promoted through a strong coalition. If the Expo Phase 1 project proceeds on the cheap with minimal mitigation and few grade separations, Phase 2 cannot reasonably fare any better and it shouldn’t. Funding will be restricted if Expo is found to discriminate or favor one community over another. Even if Cheviot Hills gets a below grade crossing at Overland Avenue and our neighbors to the west and east get minimal grade separations we will all suffer from the resulting traffic and safety impacts.
●The Expo Construction Authority (MTA) is currently drafting legislation to be presented to the California legislature that seeks to shorten the time the California Public Utilities Commission has to evaluate grade crossing applications. The CPUC is the state agency responsible for highway and railway safety in California! This action by the MTA does two things, it compromises safety by reducing the time the Commission can take to do the necessary traffic research and safety evaluation of applications, but also this legislation is a blatant and bad faith attempt to exclude community input in the grade crossing policy decisions.
●The Los Angeles Unified School District has complained to the CPUC about the lack of mitigation measures on Expo Phase 1 for noise, vibration and air contaminants for the 5 schools which (like Overland) are within 75 feet of the line. More than 20,000 students will have to walk across the double tracks of at-grade crossings to get back and forth to those schools each day. The school district environmental office went so far as to ask the PUC not to approve the Phase 1 light rail project until grade crossing issues satisfy their safety concerns.
●In terms of standard transportation protocol the MTA’s dangerous imperative to put as many at-grade crossings as possible through densely populated areas is criminal. They seem to operate on an “acceptable casualties” philosophy when it comes to safety on its trains. The Metro Blue Line, has contributed to 74 fatalities to date, almost 40 times the number of catastrophic events (1 per 10 years) the Federal Railway Administration says is predictable. Non-fatal injuries far exceed that number. The CPUC found the Metro Gold Line to be so dangerous, because of the number of at-grade crossings, that it has been slowed to a crawl. It is now faster to drive the length of the route and at some intersections train barrier arms are lowered for more than 40 minutes out of each hour.
●After indicating that the Phase 1 segment near USC/Exposition Park would be underground, the MTA is now attempting to renege on that commitment and put the train crossings at-grade in an area that is dense with vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Of course, if USC really wants it underground they can pay for it according to MTA. Culver City is also being asked to contribute money to the single station that touches the edge of their city if they want input as to the design and safety considerations. MTA will promise everything and then cry poor when it comes time to deliver!
Los Angeles is the largest economic center in the United States. Why is MTA building a long overdue public transportation system based on flawed planning, which circumvents public safety, and seeks to exclude meaningful input from the stakeholders who are going to live with their shortsighted blunders? Where are the public/private partnerships that support World Class transit systems in other cities? Where are the designs and the planning that can pass federal funding requirements? Why do we keep hearing that there is no money for grade separations that don’t blight neighborhoods? Why is it that the only traffic improvement that this train route offers is due to the feeder bus system? Why is cheap the only project advantage that everyone agrees on? Where are the politicians elected to think harder, dig deeper, and deliver excellence in our communities?
Please go to our coalition website, Smartrail.org, and take a few minutes to compose a single thoughtful letter of your concerns to send to all MTA, Expo, and California city, state, and local authorities and demand more from them. If they don’t hear from you cannot assume their best intentions on your behalf. You will be left as just one more NIMBY dangling in the wind.