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ChinesePurple Line in puberty
Images are by Yours Truly, shot for the anniversary. They can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.
It was today — July 13, 1996 — when the subway had been extended to Wilshire/Vermont, Wilshire/Normandie and Wilshire/Western stations. Back then, it had been known as the Red Line. Today, it is the same service but known as the Purple Line.
Koreatown has now had subway service for 13 years now. The definitive subway birthday story is my MetroRiderLA piece from 2006, its 10th birthday.
As the subway grew, so has the city. The Solair complex has finished construction atop the Wilshire/Western station, and the Wilshire/Vermont complex has a bustling retail hub around the subway station. The Summit on Sixth, a converted office building, is also open. The Wilshire/Normandie station remains mostly the same, though pretty much all trace of the Ambassador Hotel is now gone.
The best news, though, was from last November, with the passage of Measure R. It would reduce the importance of Koreatown as merely a branch of the busier Red Line, and raise it to the Wilshire trunk line it was meant to be.
Mid-July is also the birthday for the Green Line, which would now be 14, and the oldest of the siblings, the Blue Line, is 19 years young.
Metro only ran two-car trains to Wilshire/Western during the midday on July 13.
Discussion
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Imagine where we’d be if tunneling didn’t stop at Fairfax and 3rd (Ross Dress For Less explosion site). Thanks for nothing Henry Waxman…
BTW, I assume the new EIR for purple line will look at feasibility of using the existing tunnel to speed up the project? Kind of pointless to dig a new tunnel all the way from Wilshire/Western to Westwood when there is already a partial tunnel (albeit one that is semi-abandon and sealed) from Beverly Hills to the Grove.
I had no idea there was an existing (abandoned) tunnel!
That’s great,
because tunneling costs are huge…
and – you’re right, we could definitely save quite a bit of money.
Let’s speed-up the project,
and build the darn subway!
No one I have talked with can confirm the existence of said tunnel, so I would ask that bzcat cite the source of his information on same.
The whole point of the Ross explosion was that it happened BEFORE any tunneling had even started, therefore, it was not too late for the route to be CHANGED, which it was. The Red Line was moved south, (south of the so-called “Methane Contamination Zone”) down to the Pico/LaBrea area, where it would terminate near the former Pacific Electric Vineyard railyard and LA Railway streetcar terminal (fondly nicknamed “Crackton Turnaround” thanks to an episode of The Simpsons). BUT, fortunately for us, that phase of the line was cancelled completely due to…wait for it…NO MONEY AVAILABLE.
There was never any digging under Wilshire past Western Avenue.
Is the EIS/EIR the period when station locations are researched and clarified, such as Century City being at Ave. of the Stars either at Santa Monica Blvd. or Constellation Avenue?
Given the state of Wilshire today (packed busses, over capacity for vehicle, really poor pavement quality) I hope Waxman and his constituents are happy to have been such blatant racists back when!
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