Yesterday, I asked Metro a few questions regarding their new timetables for several projects, including the Subway to the Sea. Today, Rick Jager from their Media Relations department answered:

1. Besides funding issues, why is the completion of the Purple Line to Santa Monica expected to take so long?

The next steps before subway construction could start are estimated to take 2 to 3 years. This includes full environmental review, approvals, engineering and design. We then estimate that construction could take about 7 years (1) depending on what the final project ends up being & (2) if all funding is available.

The funding generated by Measure R will come in over a 30 year period and therefore the schedules are based on an allocation of these revenues to many projects over the life of the sales tax. The schedule for the Westside project which identifies completion to Westwood by 2032 is driven more by the availability of funding than the time needed to construct. The actual time needed to construct the Purple Line Extension to Westwood would be considerably less than 23 years.

2. Does the projected completion date of 2032 to Westwood include the Pink Line extension from Hollywood/Highland (Alternative 11)? If not, how would that affect the Westside timetable?

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There has been quite a reaction to yesterday’s news regarding Metro’s construction timetables for new rail lines in Los Angeles. One of the biggest outcries comes at word that the Subway to the Sea – the Purple Line that currently terminates at Wilshire & Western – won’t even reach Westwood until the year 2032. Naturally, a lot of us had questions.

Jody Litvak of the Metro Westside Extension Study Team joined in on the comment section to update us on the Subway to the Sea’s progess. I shot her an email with a few questions:

1. Besides funding issues, why is the completion of the Purple Line to Santa Monica expected to take so long?

2. Does the projected completion date of 2032 to Westwood include the Pink Line extension from Hollywood/Highland (Alternative 11)? If not, how would that affect the Westside timetable?

3. With the city’s population expected to increase dramatically in the next 30 years, why aren’t there more projects on the drawing board, such as a possible SGV-SFV line connecting Pasadena-Glendale-Burbank-Universal-Sherman Oaks to connect with the 405 corridor?

Jody responded by referring me to Rick Jager at Metro’s Media Relations Department. I repeated my questions to Rick, which elicited the following response at 2:39 this afternoon:

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Metro has released new timelines for several transit projects that could change the way you commute around Los Angeles. The problem is, there aren’t enough of them. And the ones they do have could take decades to finish.

Expo Line to Santa Monica? Not until 2015.

It could be 2018 before the Green Line reaches LAX.

The Purple Line won’t reach Westwood until 2032.

The Valley won’t be able to catch anything except the 405 to the Westside until 2038.

It is refreshing to see Metro putting everything on the table for us to see. But this sure isn’t going to feed the millions of people coming over for dinner. Shouldn’t someone start cooking a little faster?

Consider: Construction began on The New York City subway in 1900. Less than five years later, 21 miles of tunnels and 58 miles of track were completed.

Downtown blog Angelenic has posted a great list of places in L.A. to count down the final minutes of 2008, with people you may or may not know. Let’s face it, sometimes the latter is better. And since we’re in the throes of a Depression, these parties are all on the cheap, and all conveniently located within stumbling distance of a Metro Rail station. 24 hours of designated driver fun.

Check out Angelenic’s 12 Downtown NYE options under $50 here.

Happy New Year!

Your ATM does it. Your kid’s toys do it. Even Disneyland does it.

Now, Metro joins the club by tweeting in both English and Spanish. That’s very nice of them, unless you don’t want to read the exact same update twice. The tweet pictured above popped up this morning – four minutes after an identical update in English. Nobody likes a repeater. Nobody likes a repeater.

Maybe it’s time for Metro to run separate accounts?

Tal vez es hora de metro para ejecutar cuentas separadas?

Metro has sent out a system service alert that may affect your late-morning commute this Thursday, November 13.

Metro Rail will be participating in “The Great Southern California ShakeOut.” This is a region-wide multi-agency exercise simulating a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. At approximately 10:00am, trains will reduce speeds on all Metro Rail lines throughout the system so maintenance personnel can simulate inspections on track and other rail infrastructure.

It is anticipated that inspections of the entire Rail System should be completed by approximately 11:00am. Over the course of this one hour period, trains may run at minimum operating speeds, depending on the location of the train and the exact time. All passengers riding during this time period should expect delays and plan accordingly.

Metro apologizes for any inconvenience to our passengers during this exercise. For more information on “The Great Southern California ShakeOut”, visit the website at http://www.shakeout.org/

Thanks, Metro!

I almost spit out my cough drop when I read an entry by Steve Hymon on yesterday’s Bottleneck Blog:

During the news conference about Measure R’s passage, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Roger Snoble said it may now be possible to extend the line to Fairfax Avenue within six or seven years and the line could get to Westwood in 20 years. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa heard that, and super-super-quickly stepped to the mike and promised to be “aggressive” about securing federal dollars to speed that up.

By the time Snoble and the boys finishing tunneling down Wilshire, the Gold Line will have reached Phoenix.

Way to go.

Spotted this tweet from Metro. What did I miss?

Did the Red Line go dark? Is it because California is broke? Is it because we need more nucular power? Is it because one of them doggone mavericks tripped a breaker somewhere over there?

Explain.

So, some guy in Austin with a helluva lotta free time did some math on something called weighted density, and came up with the Five Densest Cities in America. Los Angeles came in at #3. Only New York and San Francisco have us beat.

Again… L.A. is the THIRD DENSEST CITY. In America.

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