Passenger Trains > House Lifts Tunneling Ban on West LA MTA Subway

Sweet! after a 47 year hiatus, rail may be back on track to the WestSide! Interesting how if the West L.A.-Wilshire Subway extension is a go ahead (watch out for that Methane gas!), it will be semi-competing against MTA's Aqua light rail line currently in the beginning phases of construction from along the old PE Exposition Line to Culver City/Venice.

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House Lifts Tunneling Ban on West LA Subway

http://kfwb.com/pages/86207.php?contentType=4&contentId=209139

WASHINGTON
The House voted Wednesday to lift a ban on tunneling through West Los Angeles, clearing one obstacle to extending a subway line from downtown Los Angeles to the beaches of Santa Monica.

The unanimous voice vote came on a bill by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, the same person who pushed through the 1986 federal prohibition in the first place.

Waxman at that time feared construction could cause explosions of naturally occurring methane gas, something that had happened the year before. But new research has convinced him it can be done safely, he said on the House floor.

"In recent years, experts have indicated that technologies have been developed that could make tunneling in this area safe," Waxman said.

Aides said they hope the bill can pass the Senate before Congress recesses at the end of this month to campaign for re-election.

Obstacles still would exist to building the 13.2 mile extension, a priority of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The cost is estimated at more than $4 billion.

But a Wilshire line could be a key link in the city's subway system _ known as the Red Line _ that now covers a meager 17 miles from downtown to the San Fernando Valley.

espeeboy Wrote:
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> Sweet! after a 47 year hiatus, rail may be back on
> track to the WestSide! Interesting how if the West
> L.A.-Wilshire Subway extension is a go ahead
> (watch out for that Methane gas!), it will be
> semi-competing against MTA's Aqua light rail line
> currently in the beginning phases of construction
> from along the old PE Exposition Line to Culver
> City/Venice.

Wilshire Blvd. is about three miles north of the Expo Line's "Phase 1" Wesley Street terminus (two blocks from Venice & Robertson in Culver City). If both lines are continued down their proposed rights-of-way to the beach (the Red Line down Wilshire, and the Expo Line along the former SP-former-PE Santa Monica Air Line along Exposition Blvd, then Olympic Blvd to 4th Street in Santa Monica), they will still be ending about a mile apart "at the beach". Especially considering the way the I-10 Freeway will "split the districts", I think it's clear that each line will be serving a completely different population base. Maybe just *maybe* they will compete with the Freeway... ;)

The Red Line is great. Sure makes it easy to get from Union Station over to L.Ron Hubbard way to take a look at the Sea Org and RPFers in their native habitat. Getting harassed by Scientology security for taking pictures is always a great way to pass time between trains.

espeeboy Wrote:
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> Obstacles still would exist to building the 13.2
> mile extension, a priority of Los Angeles Mayor
> Antonio Villaraigosa. The cost is estimated at
> more than $4 billion.

I wonder what the cost was estimated at before the Congressman delayed the project for twenty years? Time for some fresh blood (or brains) in DC?

well, seeing I lived for 18 years smack dab in the middle of these two parallel rail line corridors (exactly on the 1.5 mile centerline mark), I know that the two lines will serve two distinct large groups of Central and Westside people. Perhaps this is the reason why the one closer to the hills gets a more expensive-per-mile subway and he other gets cheaper-by-the-mile light rail. But in looking at he rest of the MTA rail system, it is very interesting to note just how far apart the lines go. If and when both the red line subway extension and "Aqua Line" light rail are completed, it will be the first real parallel MTA rail line in L.A. if you discount the short Wilshire to LAUPT portion of the Red Line and I-105 corridor Green Line separated by over 9 miles. Still, I'm juiced, this will be the first real active rail Iines to run through my old neighborhoods in L.A. since the the SP abandoned it's last local on the ex-PE "Airline" in the 80's!!!

bisbeekid Wrote:
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> The Red Line is great. Sure makes it easy to get
> from Union Station over to L.Ron Hubbard way to
> take a look at the Sea Org and RPFers in their
> native habitat. Getting harassed by Scientology
> security for taking pictures is always a great way
> to pass time between trains.


I've just added a new item to my list of things to do over winter break. Thanks.

How exactly was this a matter for Federal legislation in the first place? I would have thought the jurisdiction on local tunneling safety would be city-level or state-level, not national.

Ray

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> How exactly was this a matter for Federal
> legislation in the first place? I would have
> thought the jurisdiction on local tunneling safety
> would be city-level or state-level, not national.
>
> Ray


good question. I'm sure you know that L.A. Transit planning is always done in the slowest, most irrational, dumbest, corrupt and of course the most expensive way...

>How exactly was this a matter for Federal legislation in the first place?

After the Fairfax explosion in the mid-80's, Waxman got a bill passed forbidding federal funding of any tunnelling in the "risk zone".

Now theoretically, at least, LA could have built the tunnel with its own local funds. But in practice, that would have been too expensive.....

Thanks, cph - that explains it.

Ray

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
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> How exactly was this a matter for Federal
> legislation in the first place? I would have
> thought the jurisdiction on local tunneling safety
> would be city-level or state-level, not national.

When the federal camel pokes its nose under the tent flap, it often displaces other (state, local) camels. Also, Henry Waxman is the boy in Congress in whose district the tunnel lies. To me, he personifies top-down legislative policy making. If he were in rail management, bet your tushie he'd be castigated by ran-and-file for being out of touch...