LACMTA Regional Connector

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority Regional Connector project (also referred to as the Downtown Connector or Downtown Light-Rail Connector) is a proposed mass-transit rail project in Downtown Los Angeles, connecting the Blue and Expo Lines to the Gold and Eastside Lines and the Union Station.

Alignment

This light rail extension would begin at the 7th Street/Metro Center station, which is currently the northern terminus of the Blue Line and future terminus of the Expo Line and connect to the Gold Line Eastside Extension (currently under construction) on Alameda Street at either Aliso, Temple or 1st Streets. The operational intent is to allow through running of service between the four corridors (Blue, Gold, Expo and Eastside Extensions). The project is still at very preliminary stages of planning and thus no alignment has yet been determined, but a number of alignments have been identified for screening by an alternatives analysis.

As of May 2008, LACMTA has narrowed the alignment to two possible alternatives, one being an at-grade option and the other being a subway option [http://blogdowntown.com/2008/05/3297-regional-connector-down-to-two-alternatives] . Both alternatives include either two or three stations between the 7th Street/Metro Center station and the junction with the Gold Line.

The at-grade option (Alternative 3)

Flower to 2nd to Los Angeles (northbound track) or Main (southbound track) to Temple to Temple/Alameda junction with Gold Line.
*Stations at Flower between 3rd and 4th (at-grade), Bunker Hill/Disney Hall (underground) and at Main and Los Angeles and 1st (at-grade).

The subway option (Alternative 5)

All subterranean route Flower to 2nd to Central surfacing to 1st/Alameda junction with Gold Line.

"At 1st/Alameda intersection, Alameda Street will be separated from tracks with a short trench, First Street will stay an at-grade crossing but with train priority signalization. Pedestrians will be separated from train movements by strategically located pedwalks above the tracks. [http://blogdowntown.com/2008/05/3323-renders-show-reimagined-1st--alameda] "
*Stations at Flower between 4th and 5th (underground), Bunker Hill/Disney Hall (underground) and at Main and 2nd (underground).

History

The connector was envisioned as far back as 1984 when planning and building the Long Beach Blue Line and restudied with a through connection in the Pasadena Light Rail Corridor studies in 1990. LACMTA envisioned the Blue Line running through downtown to Union Station and onward to Pasadena with potential future lines (Burbank/Glendale to the northwest and Exposition Park/Santa Monica to the south and west). The connector was not completed due to lack of funds and realignment of the Red Line Eastside Extension which later became an extension of the Pasadena Gold Line.

The connector was formally studied for the first time as a stand alone project in a Major Investment Study in 1992–1993, in preparation of its Long Range Transportation Plan. The project was again revived in 2004, when LACMTA staff initiated a technical feasibility assessment for a potential regional connector. This study focused on conceptual methods to provide a regional connector and to alleviate potential operational constraints [http://www.metro.net/projects_programs/connector/Fact%20Sheet.pdf] .

The 2004 staff study looked at the potential alignments of the Downtown Connector that could not be done entirely underground due to funding constraints due from the voter approved 1998 Prop A ban on local county subway funding. Most of the alignments contained a partial underground alignment along Flower Street, surfacing somewhere between 5th Street and 3rd Street and then proceeding east to Alameda Street, where it would join the tracks of the Eastside Line, which continue northward to Union Station or eastward to Boyle Heights. There were conceptual stations at the following locations:

* Central Library.
* Bunker Hill.
*Los Angeles City Hall.
* Little Tokyo.

LACMTA staff analyzed a number of at-grade, street running couplets, transit mall, elevated and hybrid subway/at-grade/elevated alignments along various east-west streets such as; Temple Street, First Street, Second Street and Third Street and utilizing available grade-separated infrastructure such as the Second Street Tunnel through Bunker Hill (between Hill and Figueroa Streets) or the Third Street Tunnel (between Hill and Flower Streets) to minimize costs, improve operating times and improve the feasibility of constructing the project.

In July 2006, the LACMTA Board voted to approve funding and staff to initiate a Major Investment Study (MIS) for the Regional Connector in conjunction with approval of a similar study for the extension of the Red Line subway. In June 2007, the LACMTA Board approved the consultants to perform the Alternative Analysis and MIS and in November 2007, preliminary outreach meetings for the Alternative Analysis were held at Central Library and the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). The results from these meetings were presented to the public in February 2008, including the descriptions of the eight route alternatives identified for analysis. These eight alternatives have been narrowed down to two as of May 2008.

Those results will finally be shown to the general public and posted on the Metro Regional Connector webpage in October 2008.

References

*Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority [http://www.mta.net/board/Items/2005/09_September/20050914Rev.Item7P&P.pdf]
*City of Los Angeles Office of the Mayor [http://www.lacity.org/mayor/myrtran/mayormyrtran246438958_07052006.pdf]