MetroRiderLA

East L.A. Civic Center station. Photo by Yours Truly. This and other photos can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.

The official opening day to the public for the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension is Sunday, November 15.

Photo by Fred Camino via Flickr. This and other photos can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.

What a stark contrast to the transit picture in Los Angeles. Just a few days ago, Metro spent the better part of a meeting fighting over how to divide a multibillion-dollar pie among rail projects and constituents fighting for, rather than against, service.

A lot of places in the country are envious to be in L.A.’s position for once. Imagine how sorry that is.

The typical mid-recession planning transit agencies have been focused on, though, is how much service to cut just a year after bus and train services nationwide reached highs not seen in decades. And L.A. is no exception. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation, the city’s official transit agency, has sounded its own warning sirens about upcoming service cuts. The agency is asking for rider solicitation on how services would impact them. Obviously, this is not a call for MetroReaders to tell LADOT what to cut, but all riders should make their voices heard to tell them what buses to save.

The story is the same. Government funding is being cut back at the time it is needed the most. We can pretty much write off the empty piggy bank that has been the funding coming from Sacramento. Funding from the county’s sales taxes, which funds the bulk of operating costs, has also fallen off sharply. LADOT itself has projected a $260 million deficit over 10 years if it does not restructure service. LADOT is also looking at how much service it duplicates — and outside of downtown L.A., the routes rely on poaching riders from the productive parts of Metro services.

The findings are to go to the L.A. City Council next month. If you need help finding who your council member is, or if you live outside of L.A. city limits and use a Commuter Express or DASH bus to commute to or within L.A., use the boundaries PDF as a guide.

Make your voice heard through official channels. MetroRiderLA only provides the news and links, but any comments posted here have no bearing on policy makers’ decisions. So use the form on the site or contact a council member for help. Your comments then become part of official public record. Remember, the bus you save may be your very own.

Photo by Fred Camino via Flickr. This and other photos can be seen on the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool.

A public-sector initiative coming in years late and millions over budget happens so much that it’s not even news. The devil’s in the details.

In this case, Metro’s efforts to create a countywide fare card — the Transit Access Pass, or TAP — has come in by more than 6.5 years (!) behind schedule and the budget for the project has nearly doubled to $154 million from an initial $78.5 million payment. Also, Metro has understaffed an initiative that had complex monetary transactions and had so many different stakeholders. These were some of the findings in a 55-page report prepared by KPMG. A copy of the report was obtained by Dana Gabbard of the Southern California Transit Advocates through a public records request (thanks, Dana), and is available in its entirety in MetroRiderLA’s new account on Scribd.

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What’s black, white, and red all over? The Source.

Today Metro announced the launch of its blog, er, “online news and features service” dubbed The Source.  Helmed by ex-LA Times transportation reporter Steve Hymon and local transit blogger Fred Camino, The Source will be Metro’s foray into 21st century communications with daily postings on policy and funding issues, transit lifestyle stories, and updates on infrastructure projects presented in a candid and conversational manner uncommon for governmental agencies.

Wait… Fred Camino?

That’s right, yours truly has joined Mr. Hymon in the belly of the beast in an attempt to tear things up from the inside out.  Just kidding.  But I, along with Steve, have been hired on a part-time contract basis to write for The Source and hopefully bring an outside perspective and a sense of credibility to their grand experiment.

Steve, with his “years of professional journalism experience”, will act as editor and cover hard news stuff like policy, funding, Zev, and Measure R.  I don’t even know what most of those words mean, which is why I’ll be using my “Blogger Sense™” to focus on transit lifestyle issues, much like I tried to do on MetroRiderLA.  You can read my introductory post right here to find out what my plan is for The Source.

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Photo by Alan Weeks and uploaded by Metro Library and Archive on Flickr; used with a Creative Commons license

You, at least more than two-thirds of you, voted for a tax to expand public transit. Most of them come at the last 15 years of the Measure R period. What’s the first 15 years? Attending meetings and seeing maps, diagrams and harangues on what could be.

It also means MetroRiderLA will post yet another meeting post, though longtime MetroReaders know we are much more.

Here’s something to do tonight. The Expo Line Construction Authority conducts a community meeting tonight in West Adams for an update on Phase 1, which may or may not open next year — and likely to Crenshaw Boulevard first and then to Culver City. Find out more by going at 6:30 tonight to Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd. Transit access: Metro lines 37, 38, 209, 210 and 710; and LADOT DASH Midtown.

Thursday, the sparks are sure to fly and Las Vegas bookies have placed odds at 3 to 1 that something may get accomplished at Metro’s monthly meeting, where the board must vote on the long-range transportation plan. How long range? A vote Thursday affects spending for the next 40 years. Curbed LA lists some of the major items, including the subway extension, the regional connector, and the Foothill Gold Line extension. Of course, the reason for odds is that Metro may decide to punt again. That, or Metro may spend hours arguing over what color the Expo Line ought to be. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. It’s at Union Station. By now we trust MetroReaders to know what buses and trains to take here.

And both tonight and tomorrow, Metro is also asking what ought to be done with the Harbor Subdivision. All options are considered: bus rapid transit, light rail, Metrolink service, or an express train between Union Station and LAX. Tonight’s meeting at 6 is at the Jackie Robinson Academy Auditorium, 2750 Pine Ave., Long Beach. Thursday’s meeting, also at 6 p.m., is at the Miriam Matthews Branch Library, 2205 Florence Ave., Hyde Park.

Transit access to the Long Beach meeting: Metro Blue Line and Long Beach Transit lines 51-52, 101-103 and 181-182
Transit access to the Hyde Park meeting: Metro lines 111, 207, 209, 210, 710, 711 and 757

Another day, another announcement about a Metro planning adventure. If you’ve enjoyed the meetings about the Crenshaw Corridor, the Wilshire Boulevard bus lanes, and the upcoming Regional Connector series, you’re sure to love the magnum opus of the next 30 years of public transit planning: the extension of the subway.

This time, Metro has changed the formats of the meeting. Now, instead of a general overview of the project, each meeting will focus on a minimal operating segment specific to the community. You’ll see what we mean, and as a refresher, the Census profiles for each segment will be included as something to keep in mind before heading to these hearings.

If you support the extension and are into the social networking thing, be a friend to the Metro Westside Subway Extension on Facebook.

All meetings are from 6 to 8 p.m.

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