Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Misses Airport by a Mile

Most significant air-ports in the US have or are about to have excellent track relationships. I acknowledge that Los Angeles is being very brief spotted in not preparing for a place beneath.

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(To Sprint34) Taking the traffic pressure off LAX would definitely help things. But I'm not sure where you would build a new airport up in Palmdale. (Edwards A.F.B seems to have the prime spot). Plus the cost of another rail system (besides Metrolink), and the commuting time to get folks up there looks pretty daunting.

(To all) I see now that the Crenshaw Line won't get a switch to merge with the new Expo Line on the north end. This would have made it a "non-stop" to Union Station. And there's no convenient hook up on the south end. Sending a track down the middle of West Century Blvd looks the most practical path to get a train closer to the terminals. (Ugly and expensive, yes. Those palm trees on West Century would have to go.)

In order for this route to succeed, individual drivers, taxis and shuttles would have to make big concessions.The alternative would be to abandon tracks altogether, and build some sort of specialized bus route, like the Orange Line.

Just my two cents.

RLC

Maybe there is a silver lining to some faraway cloud for travelers using LAX. Without the "missing link" in the public transit route to LAX, maybe vehicle congestion and delays will become so aggravating that enough momentum builds for a better solution.That solution is construction of a publicly funded high speed commuter line from Downtown LA through the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley continuing to LAWA's facility in Palmdale. They have the acreage, all they need are the customers. Then the vision for a world class airport facility could be realized - LAX/Palmdale.

Once that facility reaches full operational capacity - the next phase would be to close down the current LAX/ Westchester facility.

The City of Los Angeles could turn a nice bit of coin on long-term leaseholds for development on all of that beachfront property.

Getting rail to LAX seems to be a Quixotic venture. There seems to be no incentive for Meto and LAX to work together. And there seems to be no practical mechanism to motivate, or punish these people. (I've also heard stories that the parking lot companies, taxi and limo companies have petitioned on keeping a train out there, but I can't prove this.) Plus the FAA claims interference from the trains' overhead wires is a threat to the jets' avionics. This is if they use the old track bed next to Aviation Blvd. This all adds up to the same old LAX blues.

The costs of tunneling under West Century Blvd., or worse yet, tunneling under the runways would be monstrous. The Sepulveda Tunnel which passes under two of the runways has trouble with flooding and ventilation. That tunnel needs its own power plant just to function. Extra costs to keep in mind. A subway down to the terminals would be wonderful, but it might be cheaper just to rip up World Way and squeeze tracks in somehow. The Crenshaw Line off the new Expo Line might help, especially if it was a "non-stop" between LAX and Union Station to avoid changing trains. But that last mile or so, served by a "people-mover"... Maybe West Century and World Way do need to give up a couple lanes for train tracks.

Yes, the Flyaway bus works; but it is a hassle to get out to the bus stop with your baggage, and stand there in traffic and exhaust fumes. Then you still need a lift from Van Nuys or Union Station, etc. LAX was built for the car, back when the car was going to set everybody free.

So why isn't Metro spending the Crenshaw Line's hundreds of millions of dollars to build what everybody wants: a line that reaches LAXA simple question, "answered" here by a bunch of crap.

Governance of the city and county is a filthy, stinking, throbbing cesspool of corruption. The reason anything happens is because someone flushes large amounts of money into that cesspool.

Who benefits from the flaming stupidity exhibited here? Bonus question: Who benefits from the flaming stupidity of the Gold Line not going to Dodger Stadium?

Most major airports in the US have or are about to have good rail connections. I agree that Los Angeles is being very short sighted in not planning for a station underneath the LAX U. Any other solution will only frustrate passengers and cost more in the long run. Why not have it tunnel underneath the middle of the U with stops at Terminal 7 and 1, 3 and 4 and Bradley.

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Every time I land at LAX and go out to get picked up by one of the buses, I feel like I am arriving in a third-world country.

The lack of a decent rail public transit option at this, the flagship airport for the second-largest city in the richest country in the world, is simply disgraceful. I recently flew into and out of both Portland and SFO, both places that have rail connections to the airports. Coming back to LAX after those delightful experiences was an exercise in shame and anger.

It would be one thing if the bus system for LAX worked well. But it doesn't, and the design of LAX coupled with the sheer number of people using the airport convinces me that it never will. The Flyway buses suffer the same problem all bus-lines do when servicing LAX: picking up people from the airport is a mess.

----------------Bus scenario:

You get off your flight arriving at LAX and head down to street level to wait for your bus. After finding the right pickup point (different for flyaway, hotel shuttles, super shuttle, etc), you crowd onto the little island that is far too small for the amount of passengers waiting to be picked up, so the crowd overflows onto one of the street lanes where angry drivers honk and menace you (who can blame them for being frustrated with the obstacle course set before them). Then the buses from various companies fight it out to get to the pickup point without blocking an outer-entry lane or another lane of traffic, which they often do and then get forced to move by an LAX police/security officer, and then you've got to wait for the next bus. If you're lucky, the bus is not already full when it swings by your stop. (I have had several times when I had to wait for the 2nd or 3rd flyaway bus before one had enough room for me to get on.)

But let's say you actually find and get on your flyaway bus. Great! Now you just have to wait while the bus stops at EVERY OTHER TERMINAL, jamming more and more people into the standing room of the bus. Woe to you if you have arrived at terminal 1. You can expect to sit on the bus for at least another 20+ minutes before even departing the airport, as the bus stops at the other terminals.

Imagine being an out-of-towner and having this be your first experience in L.A..

--------------------------Subway/Rail scenario:

You get off your flight arriving at LAX and head down to the central rail station, ideally placed in the center of the LAX "U", equidistant from the terminals. In one fell swoop, the rail doors open and hundreds of passengers simultaneously board and disembark the train in under 20 seconds. (Compare that to the 20+ minutes the flyaway bus takes to do it's multi-terminal passenger exchange!) That's it. This is more or less how it works at SFO, Portland, and Reagan International Airport in D.C..

---------------------------Of course, even if they do connect the green line to LAX proper, it won't be useful to most people. To get to downtown you'd have to take the Green Line for 20+ minutes to the Blue Line, transfer with all your luggage (which involves an elevator or staircase at the transfer station), and then take the Blue line a good 35 minutes before arriving at downtown L.A.. The right solution is to build a spur off the Crenshaw line that goes inside the terminal U. They claim it's too expensive, so they instead will build something that almost nobody needs.

Dear Editor:

Isn't the BART extension to Millbrae and San Francisco (SFO) airport considered heavy rail also?

Living here in the Bay Area the SFO BART Station at the international terminal is beyond fabulous! No dealing with traffic and bridges etc... plus when you arrive to the airport and need to head to a different terminal no problem! Just go up the escalator to the people mover cars that kind of look like Mini BART cars... these people movers also take you out to the remote rental car facility. I believe the BART trains also take you to the nearby Millbrae Station where you can get on CalTrain should you need to head down the peninsula to Palo Alto and Mountain View and beyond.

Construction on a BART extension to Oakland Airport has already started and you can see the pillars in the parking lots that leads to the Oakland Coliseum BART Station. This eliminates us having to drive to Oakland Airport as well.

In downtown San Francisco construction has already started on the new TransBay Terminal, where BART, MUNI, CalTrain, and all of the bus lines converge. It is supposed to be the Grand Central Station of the west coast and looks fabulous on paper. Bullet trains are supposed to be able to end there should that ever get built. Height limits on skyscrapers for I believe four towers have been approved on the TransBay site itself. Some of the proposals are for 80-90+ story buildings... we shall see.

The creme de la creme for us is that funding has just been approved for a 16 mile BART extension to downtown San Jose and the San Jose Airport with connections to VLA light rail in Silicon Valley. I THINK there will be a station at or near the site where the new 49er's stadium is at in Santa Clara.

I realize this is a story about Los Angeles light rail and it's kinda connection to LAX and not about Bay Area transit projects. My point is that if the notorious fickle Bay Area with all of it's NIMBY's can pull this off why can't Los Angeles? The LA Metro area should have had New York style subways and BART type transit systems traversing it decades ago!

BTW... I took AMTRAK from San Diego to Union Station then hopped on the Metrolink to Simi Valley. It was a nice ride without hassles... My surprise was at the lack of riders for 5:00 in the afternoon...

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Your headline misses the real point. Even if a subway was built directly to the airport, it can't service all terminals. Passengers will still need to transfer to a bus or a people mover. It doesn't matter if the subway stop is a quarter-of-a-mile or two miles away. The real question is whether the Crenshaw Line is needed at all, not if needs to be built closer to the airport.

Yes, the Metro and LAWA boards are different. But the author fails to mention that the Mayor of Los Angeles serves on the board of Metro and can appoint 3 members. In fact, he is the current chair. I think this is an important distinction, and would change the tenor of the article if acknowledged.http://www.metro.net/about/boa...http://www.metro.net/news/simp... "In fact, Metro's 13-member board of directors, made up almost entirely of elected city and county officials with little education in engineering or mass transit, would have to persuade LAX officials — who come under jurisdiction of a different board, all political appointees of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — to construct it."

Am I the only one that has actually looked at the LA Metro website? There is a SEPARATE project to link both the green line and the Crenshaw/LAX line to LAX. It is called the "Metro Green Line to LAX". While no specifics are given of how that will happen, I imagine that the green line extension is preferred or some sort of people mover, which would also make sense. I do agree, though, that the Crenshaw/LAX project title is misleading, since a separate project exists to connect to the airport.

http://www.metro.net/projects/...

Yes, but the taxi lobby is in heaven. Difficult public transit means more customers looking for a taxi! Just follow who benefits from no light rail connection. Same at most major airports.

They don’t quiet have it right. First if the line goes directly into the airport where should it end in the airport? There are 20 plus terminals with circulating busses that go to outlining parking, rent-a-car lots, bus service to several cities downtowns, van service, taxi’s etc. There is the Green Line that goes east to Norwalk with a Los Angeles and Long Beach connection and south to Redondo Beach. The Crenshaw Line will run north. So just which line and how would it reach the airport and where? A off and on again people mover plan to circulate to all the terminals, the rent-a-car lots, major parking lots and the transit center which would have the LRT. Many of the bus service that now goes to the airport could also go to the transit center. There could even be porters to move luggage cross platforms between the LRT and the people mover.

I wrote a while ago about this issue in terms of getting conveniently from LAX to Downtown (or many other places via Metro). You can find the ideas here: https://stevemwhite.wordpress....

While I know there will be a people mover connection or something at the airport, I wish that it would be the only connection. As it is, riders need to make another 1-2 transfers to get to most destinations, and that won't change with the Crenshaw Line. They'll have another route to take, but not necessarily a better one.

Thanks for the correction Dan, we'll fix that today. If anyone would like to see how close the heavy rail goes to Dulles terminals, see the pdf at www.dullescorridorrail.com/pre.... It might make some of you want to cry. --Jill Stewart, LA Weekly managing editor

Just a minor correction: Chicago and DC have heavy rail, not light rail. LA's Red and Purple lines are also heavy rail, while the Blue, Gold, Green and Expo lines are light rail.

It's pathetic that Los Angeles has always been treated like a third-world city when it comes to public transit. If we truly want a respectable, competitive transit system, we should stop building lines TOWARDS a destination, but rather build it directly TO the destination! (duh!) And indeed, we should provide DIRECT, one-seat rides, as opposed to force people to make dozens of transfers! This is why it takes FOREVER to travel by public transit in L.A.I absolutely agree with the majority of the commenters: truly, the rail line should actually REACH the airport; if other cities (across the nation, and across the globe) can do it, so can Los Angeles Time to get serious about investing in our future, and provide mobility options to people!

All of the airports with direct rail access have a single terminal design (with multiple concourses). L.A. and New York have airports with multiple terminals. It is impossible to build a station to serve them all. Some kind of people mover would be necessary.

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That's why I fly Burbank whenever I can. There is a Metrolink stop right across the street from BUR where I catch the train to Union Station. Then the DASH bus or Red line to get downtown.

Follow the payoffs from the cab companies and shuttle operators. Only in LA could two rail projects miss the airport.....when an existing right-of-way is sitting there.

Even before I moved to CA last year, I knew the LA Metro rail is a joke. LA will never be a tourist mecca unless the Metro links everything DIRECTLY & QUICKLY. What is wrong with the govt officials of this city?! They cite cost of acquiring parcels, well, what do you think that cost will be in 10, 20, or 30 years, LOWER?! The time value of money, HELLOOOOOOOO. The last time I was walking out of LAX the hallway looked like a run-down shady place, so backwards... either lead LA to the future or get out, enough taxpayers money has been wasted