[Music] The A / Blue line is the second busiest train
line in Los Angeles along with it being the longest light rail line in the world but it has a
problem it's slow as FU- The line is mostly gated and de-interlined from Washington to Long Beach
and after Pasadena but the middle part is where the problems arise. After Washington the line
runs on the street without signal priority which contributes to its 10 mph average *scheduled*
speed which is way lower if you also account for the fact th
at bunching is a major problem
here. At the time I'm writing this script two Long Beach bound trains and two APU bound trains
are bunched up here, the reason for the 2-minute difference is that trains WAIT 2 minutes at
stations to try to get them to un-bunch, but that only causes a domino effect and that's how we get
this. 20. minute. frequencies. To visualize this let's say you work in one of the many factories or
warehouses in Nevin or Vernon and live in Highland Park, unlikely but let's
see. Okay so 17 minutes
by car and OVER AN HOUR ON THE TRAIN. This is the same for Koreatown, Lincoln Heights, and Hollywood
it's a miracle people like me take the train still when the godamn bus is faster. You might
say it's unfair to do Nevin, but it's where the majority of commuters that use the A line use, but
at least that's is my reasoning. But anyway how do we fix this chaos so that the A line isn't this
shitty. Sometimes it feels hopeless that a fairly underfunded agency like Metro
will do an unfunded
capital project that won't be too attractive for federal and state grants but thankfully it's
already funded and planned just not for the right line. The West Santa Ano Branch light rail line
now known as the Southeast Gateway line is planned to go from cerritos to Union Station and will use
a new corridor on and will be as far as I know quad tracked in the area that connects so with the
A line along with a fly over or under at a newly reconstructed Slauson station, so h
ow could this
help fix the A line? Well what if we instead make the A line follow the newly constructed grade
separated and preempted Corridor via Alameda instead of the Southeast Gateway and instead send
the Southeast Gateway via the old A line corridor through downtown and the regional connector, the A
line is way more important and frequent so it the new infrastructure while the Gateway line will be
less important and have less ridership due to its semi-suburban nature. The new infrastru
cture on
the A line though will make sure bunching isn't as much of an issue and will massively speed
up trains and hopefully ridership you might say "but it goes around downtown instead of through."
Well this is true and one of the biggest problems but this could be somewhat solved by extending
the downtown streetcar to the Arts District via 7th Street and a pedestrianization of 7th st.
and Broadway, plus it's only one transfer at either Little Tokyo or any of the Gateway Line
stations. Y
ou can find a map of my proposal in the pinned comment below. So anyway what
real problems will arise from this? Well for one there will need to be a whole new station
under Alameda for the Gateway line along with two exits one for Olvera Street and another one for
the Union Station transfer and also the gateway line is still years in future and still not fully
funded so we would need to somehow get more money though it would again be less money than a full
reconfiguration of the wash-flowe
r junction. The final issue is an issue you can actually solve and
that's advocating for this to even be considered if you support this and live in LA take the A line
daily or live along the corridor of the Gateway or A line consider going to a Metro meeting and
submitting the info I've given in this video and your own opinion to your LA County supervisor
and Metro board in person you can do this by going to a Metro board meeting at One Gateway Plaza
which is tall building next to union sta
tion's bus plaza at the required time for the meeting on
the third floor, the next one is on February 22nd if you can't attend dial into 202 735 332 and
enter the code that will appear on the screen right now (5647249#) 5 minutes before the meeting
starts at 10:00 a.m. for any other meeting check the website here boardagendas.metro.net/events,
for a regular meeting after the 22nd it will be in the pinned comment along with more info that
is up to date. Again you attending and submitting a p
ublic comment is the biggest thing you can do
to make this or any other thing a reality if you really want to make sure you're heard by the
right people though check on the website for the planning committee and attend it it's normally
at 1 p.m. and info on public comments are on page four of all agendas (and the pinned comment)
and again don't forget to email your LA County Supervisors about this video and your opinions you
can find your supervisor here as I'm showing you and you can find
their email here, the website
is bos.lacounty.gov and it will again be in the pinned comment. Ok, that was a lot, anyways
if you don't agree with my opinions or want to express more support shoot me a comment below
and do the regular YouTube things. Now consider joining my patreon along with Alexis Geddes DJ
Petesake, and Geezer Windbag now bye! [Music]
Comments
Here's the info if you're interested in this project and want to make a difference: Project scope: not very in-depth but I made this map https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1qGbcy50Ng8BEEhmru5Yb_V_llwFL5oU&usp=sharing to visualize my concept, please use this in any emails or other public comments you might want to give, it should help grasp the concept better Metro Board Meeting: https://boardagendas.metro.net/events/ | The next board meeting is this Thursday February 22nd, please consider attending if you can but if you can't attend but still want to make a difference you can also dial-in to 202-735-3323 and then enter 5647249# as the code for the meeting. More info on the most recent meeting here along with public comment instructions https://boardagendas.metro.net/event/regular-board-meeting-edac8a0799b0/ also make sure to remember this if you want to submit a public comment in support: "The public may also address the Board on non - agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Board during the public comment period, which will be held at the beginning and / or end of each meeting . Each person will be allowed to speak for one (1 ) minute during this Public Comment period or at the discretion of the Chair. Speakers will be called according to the order in which their requests are submitted. Elected officials, not their staff or deputies, may be called out of order and prior to the Board’s consideration of the relevant item" LAC Supervisors: This is where you can also make a major difference, if you live in LA check https://bos.lacounty.gov/ and like I explained here at 4:13 check your supervisor, find their email and email them! If you want link this video but the important part is that they know how this could mean a better transit system and that their constituents want it.
I think the single biggest issue for the A line (and also the E line) is the Flower Washington junction. That 1 intersection causes so many issues for the entire system and its bonkers that rail doesn't have signal priority there
the washington/flower junction and pico station should be undergrounded, it's also gonna help the E line which is also crowded and slow. then the section on washington could be undergrounded as well, coming up after it passes washington station. and they can make vernon go down and grade separate that. then long beach blvd's section can be elevated until it passes anaheim, where it'll be underground throughout downtown long beach. and close some crossings north of union station. as for the E, it'll have to come back up immediately to cross the 110, and to fix that slow section they can completely remove the 28th and 30th bridges across the 110, then close the crossings right next to the expo park station, and halldale, raymond and denker. or just elevate it all the way until after crenshaw. it's entirely possible to just build the underground sections while the at grade is still running, then they can speedrun rerouting it to avoid service disruptions
This is the perspective from a foreigner: I was living and working in LA for the past 3 months and I was surprised to find a semi-functioning Metro in the city at all... I mean, most videos suggest the opposite. With that said, it's awful in regards of speed, frequency and security. Of the points you made in this video, I think the one with non priority traffic makes most sense. Didn't take the A line, but went on the E-Line on multiple occasions (I think that was the one from downtown to Santa Monica?)... And it was crawling the moment that it was facing all those junctions! So, either to put the lines underground, elevated above ground like Honolulu did (I hope they continue that project as well...)... Or you could try it with priority traffic, but I see that as impossible as sometimes traffic in LA is so stuck, that during rushhour it probably wouldn't mean a thing. I think LA would benefit greatly from a good public transportation system... I mean, it's so widespread, with so many people living in that area. Hope you guys continue fighting for a better infrastructure over there.
Holy shit yes!!! Thank you I was just thinking about how absolutely abismal the A lines speed really is. I work in Hawthorne and live in Pasadena, yesterday I checked how long my commute would be via train. 1:45 minutes...it was a 37 minute car ride (obviously it was a holiday but the point still stands) even during busy days my car commute is no more than 1:30. The blue line just needs to be faster idk how but it does you can expect people to want to be in the train for two hours
I’m not sure how this should be prioritised with ridership going between south/central, to Pasadena/san Gabriel, vs the gateway cities to Pasadena/san Gabriel. The gateway line will be a stub for a while (though i think it should eventually go to dodger stadium, then though the sunset/santa Monica corridor west) so I’m not sure which combo would yield higher ridership. Is it more important to get people from south LA to Union? Or from gateway to union more quickly? I don’t know the answer, but I do think the main issue is grade separating the flower junction/washington corridor. We need to get trains moving quickly.
Damn I'm from the UK and seeing this compared to London's transport systems, I'm so grateful I don't have to wait 20 minutes for a tube train as standard. You'd think a tourist city and the financial hub of the entertainment industry wouldn't have one of the poorest public transport infrastructures but I guess not
The first thing to advocate for is implementing signal prioritization across all light rail lines, or at least a version of it that can work well in LA. The other thing is fixing the wye at flower and Washington. Regardless of what other improvements are done in the future, those two projects will benefit the Metro system going forward. And, they can be done relatively quickly and not require billions in fubding. The Gateway Cities line is happening and the Southeast area of LA County has already waited too long for a light rail line. Its wholly underserved and using buses is not enough. Long Beach and South LA have had much more access to Metro rail system than many other areas. They have the A, C, and K lines. The C and K lines are getting updates and expansions, too. The A line is grade separated for much of its route. It's the older section in South LA and Long Beach that need the most help. Implement true signal prioritization on that line from LB to DTLA to start. And then study what intersections would benefit the most of being grade separated and put a plan in place to continually upgrade the line over time. The biggest issue with what you propose is that it can't happen because of the way these transit projects are funded. Many projects are already in line to receive fundind and have been approved. The SFV line, the 2nd phase Eastside E line, and the Gateway Citues line. These are all projects that extend service to areas that don't have Metro rail and deserve it. Why? Because these communities have been paying sales taxes for years that have gone to build the Metro in other parts of the city. Now it's their time. And, even so, these projects are not set to be completed until 2035 even though they have already been approved and funded in a phased plan. To be clear, the 2nd phase of the Eastside E line and the Gateway line will be done in phases. The preferred route for the Eastside extension will be furst completed to Greenwood in Montebello. And, the Gateway line 1st phase will go from Cerritos and connect to the A line Slauson station. The 2nd phase to Union Station hasn't been funded. I believe there are discussions of connecting the Gateway line terminus at the proposed B line extension station near the 6th street bridge. Yes, the B subway line is set to be extended to a station next door to the 6th street bridge. So, there might be sone kind of shared multi-level station there. I recently read that the B line might be finally extended to East LA under the river and running underneath Whittier Blvd. Hopefully, all the way to Atlantic where it could share a station with the E line that is set to have an underground station there too. That woukd fulfill a long-term priject proposed decades ago to extend the original Red subway line to East LA. That subway line was supposed to be started after the B line, but it never happened due to the 20 year prohibition of local funding for subway construction. East LA got screwed and ended up with a light rail along the 2nd busiest financial shopping district. Whittier Blvd is the busiest and more dense too.
Gonna make a announcement to city council for have a train going though Colorado st and hunt
I thought they fixed the signal priority when the freeway was closed. For now why don’t they at least add TSP or signal preemption to the A line?
The A Line suffers from having been planned and built in isolation. Yes, there were ideas about extending the line up to Pasadena in the early 1990s, but they had little substance. (The Regional Connector has almost noting to do with those plans.) As such, the plan that actually was constructed (as the original Blue Line) was a shortened compromise line to connect the downtowns of Long Beach and Los Angeles. There had been a longstanding rivalry between their respective municipal bus companies over this route, plus this was also the last of the old Pacific Electric Railway lines to be discontinued in 1961; thus the Blue Line was deeply symbolic, opening in 1990. That decision was also part of why the ends of the line (along Washington Boulevard in the north and Long Beach Boulevard in the south) were built as at-grade streetcars: to imitate the old Red Cars and try to revitalize rundown areas. This is why the A Line is a mess, its southern half was designed and built to link a few pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods together with a trunk-line with better speed, capacity, and frequency than a bus. It was not properly laid out to be a major heavy-rail transit link across the spine of a county of 10 million people. At minimum, Washington Boulevard (and to a lesser extent Flower Street) must be reconfigured to give rail absolute priority at all times. I'm supportive of building the line along Alameda, as you outline in the video, but it has to be done in a way that does not make the area between Little Tokyo and Union Station even more of a mess. (Oh, and the platform at Union Station used by the A Line has become woefully inadequate to the task of being the major interchange that it is now.)
"The A Line" (shows E Line train on screen)
Quite frankly they should just rebuild the line on Washington, especially near Flower. Shut it down for a year and fix it.
10mph average travel speed for a Metro system is pretty pathetic. I'm usually one to blame it entirely on grade mixed operation and light rail configuration over heavy rail, but the Calgary C-Train and Seattle Link Light Rail both achieve double the speed while also being mixed grade LRT systems. I think the difference is that Link and C-Train have longer station spacing with longer grade separated segments. Even the notorious street running Rainier Valley section of Link has a better design than what we see in LA. Making matters worse is the fact that a large amount of the at-grade ROW is along a street grid instead of an old railway or a highway medium with limited crossings. If you're building rapid transit, please elevate or burry over a grid. If you're not even going to have signal priority on your LRT, then call it a streetcar system - don't call it a metro.