Metro Purple Line (LACMTA)

Infobox rail line
name = color box|#LACMTA color|Purple Metro Purple Line


image_width = 200px
caption = Passengers at 7th/Metro Center
type = Rapid transit (Subway)
system = Los Angeles County Metro Rail
status =
locale = Los Angeles, CA
start = Union Station
end = Wilshire/Western
stations = 8
routes = A or 805
ridership = 153,928 (combined with Red Line) [http://metro.net/news_info/press/metro_122.htm]
open = January 30, 1993
close =
owner =
operator = Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA)
character =
stock = Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie A650
linelength =
tracklength =
notrack =
gauge = RailGauge|sg
(standard gauge)
el = Third rail
speed =
elevation =

infobox rdt|Metro Purple Line

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

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 the June 2008, the combined Red and Purple lines averaged a weekday ridership of 153,928,cite web
title=Metro Facts at a Glance
publisher=LACMTA
url=http://www.mta.net/news_info/facts.htm
accessdate=2008-07-25] which makes it the ninth busiest rapid transit system in the United States. Taking overall track length into consideration, Metro Rail's subway system transports 8,846 passengers per route mile, making it the sixth busiest, ahead of San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit and the Chicago 'L'.

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.

History

Tunneling Ban

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 in 1985 at a Ross Dress for Less clothing store near Fairfax and Third Street, Congressman Henry Waxman initiated 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.

Twenty years later, worsening traffic in the region and changes in public opinion on subway construction prompted Waxman and other elective officials 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, Waxman announced that he had reviewed an October 2005 report, which declared that tunneling in the "methane zone" was safe, and introduced legislation ( [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:h4653:: 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 and Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced parallel legislation ( [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.00497: S. 497] ) in the Senate the same week.

Revival of Project

The introduction of legislation to repeal the tunneling ban coincided with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) 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 [ [http://www.mta.net/board/minutes/2006/20060727RBMItem2_0629.pdf Minutes - Special Board Meeting] . Metro. June 29, 2006.] (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.Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. [http://www.metro.net/board/Items/2006/08_August/20060824RBMItem37.pdf "Color Designations"] . Regular Board Meeting. August 24, 2006.] On June 28, 2007, the LACMTA board approved a $3.6 million contract with PB Americas to provide an "alternatives" analysis, tunnel feasibility assessment and conceptual engineering with options for future preliminary engineering and environmental clearance for this extension. [LACMTA June 28, 2007 Board Meeting [http://www.metro.net/board/recap/2007/recap_062807rbm.pdf Recap of Proceedings] ]

The legislation to lift the tunneling ban was passed by the House and the Senate in July 2007 in each chamber's respective fiscal 2008 housing and transportation appropriations bills and was included as part of the 2008 Omnibus Spending Bill, [Library of Congress THOMAS [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp110:FLD010:@1(hr497) Legislative record for H.R. 2764] ] which was signed by President George W. Bush on December 26, 2007. The passage of the legislation has been hailed by transit advocates as the most important step in the process necessary to plan and build a westward extension of the Purple Line. Even in the most optimistic scenarios, however, such construction would not begin before 2010 and would not be completed for at least a decade.

Sales Tax Ban

While the methane zone tunneling ban has been repealed, the MTA Reform and Accountability Act of 1998 (Los Angeles County Proposition A) passed in 1998, bans 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. [Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. [http://www.westlachamber.org/page_graphics/newspaper/back_issues/Jan06-GWLABusMthly.pdf Business Monthly, January 2006] . Retrieved February 14, 2007.] However, Yaroslavsky's inaction about repealing the Measure A ban and absence from significant press conferences related to the revived subway project have cast doubts on his support for expansion of the Purple Line.

Potential future extensions

Potential Route

Given that planning for the extension is still in preliminary stages, and there is no funding earmarked for such an expansion, the alignment of such an extension is still uncertain. The routing of the subway has historically been envisioned following a Wilshire Boulevard route. In November 2007, LACMTA announced that it was considering an alternate and/or additional route for its Westside transit extension, which would extend the subway not from Wilshire & Western on the Purple Line, but from Hollywood & Highland station on the Red Line, heading southwest along a Santa Monica Boulevard alignment through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. [ [http://www.metro.net/projects_studies/westside/images/2008_01-02_presentation.pdf LACMTA Westside Extension Transit Corridor Study] (January 2008)] The motivation for this alternative route, nicknamed the "Pink Line" by many transit advocates, is grass roots support for increased public transit in this area, the possibility for an alternate method of transportation from the San Fernando Valley through Hollywood to the Westside, advocacy by the City of West Hollywood to be included in the Metro rail system, and the continued opposition to a subway line through Hancock Park by some of the neighborhood's residents. As of May 2008, both the Wilshire Blvd. and West Hollywood alignments are being considered, as well as a combination of both alignments. [ [http://www.metro.net/projects_studies/westside/images/2008_0505_presentation.pdf LACMTA Westside Extension Alternatives Analysis] (May 2008)]

Support for Extension

The Beverly Hills City Council, which had previously opposed the building of a subway line through the city, has now 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 the city's 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. [City of Beverly Hills Mass Transit Committee, "Final Recommendations-Press Release", January 10, 2007]

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. [Westside Cities Transportation Committee. [http://www.westsidecities.org/meetings/TransComm20061023-notes.pdf "Meeting Notes"] . October 23, 2006.] 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. [Westside Cities Transportation Committee. [http://www.westsidecities.org/meetings/m20060921.pdf "Meeting Notes"] September 21, 2006.]

Extension Funding

The estimated cost of subway construction below Wilshire Boulevard is approximately $350 million per mile. Funding for the project has not yet been identified, but the project was allocated approximately $4 billion by the LACMTA Board in July 2008 in the Outline of Expenditure Categories that was approved in conjunction with its decision to approve Proposition R for the November 2008 ballot. [cite web
title=Metro Board Acts to Put New Transportation Sales Tax on November Ballot
url=http://www.metro.net/news_info/press/Metro_129.htm
publisher=LACMTA
date=2008-07-24] Proposition R would increase sales taxes in Los Angeles County by 0.5% and raise approximately $30 billion over 30 years. Funding for the Purple Line from Proposition R money would initially become available in 2013 and the subway's construction is foreseen being doing in discreet segments through 2036.

List of stations, from East to West

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
* Ari Bloomenkatz, "'Subway to the Sea' plan still adrift", Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2007
* Rong-Gong Lin II, "L.A. subway plans take a radical shift", Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2007
* Alan MittelStaedt, "L.A. Sniper: Subway Fibs and Felonies," Los Angeles City Beat, December 27, 2007