Politics & Government

Metro to Study Converting Orange Line Busway into Light Rail

A fifth of the county's residents live in the valley, but only two of Metro's 80 rail stations are in the area.

The Metro Board of Directors today approved a motion to start discussing ways to enhance public transit options in the San Fernando Valley, including an idea to convert the Orange Line busway into light rail.

Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, the co-author of the motion who represents a San Fernando Valley district, said though a fifth of the county's residents live in the valley, only two of Metro's 80 rail stations are in the area.

"It's very clear that to date, the Valley has not benefited to the same degree as other areas," he told his peers on the Metro board.

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Meanwhile the "phenomenal success" of the Orange Line, the bus rapid transit system that runs through the San Fernando Valley, has "once and for all put to rest the unfair stereotype" that valley residents are "too wedded to their cars" and have little interest in public transit, Krekorian said.

"I think the greatest ... potential in the county for increasing ridership on the system happens to be in the San Fernando Valley," Krekorian said.

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The motion, approved unanimously, asks Metro CEO Art Leahy to report back to the board with a plan for developing and funding a feasibility study on a variety of potential improvements for the Orange Line.

Among the ideas are traffic signal prioritization, building overpasses or underpasses along the route and most notably, the conversion of the line into light rail.

Potential conversion to light rail became an option this month with the signing of state legislation rescinding a ban on studying above-ground light rail projects in the southeast San Fernando Valley.

The motion also instructs Leahy to look into a possible feasibility study into better connecting the San Fernando Valley with the rest of the region, particularly the San Gabriel Valley. The ideas include linking the Red Line subway with Bob Hope Airport.

The motion met with skepticism from Board Director Diane DuBois, a Lakewood councilwoman who expressed concern over the costs of doing a feasibility study.

She also said there is also the risk of allowing the San Fernando Valley- area projects proposed in the motion to cut ahead of projects included in Metro's long-range plan.

A feasibility study could be costly and is "not an insignificant thing," she said.

Krekorian argued that the motion would not "initiate multimillion dollar studies," though he does hope there will be studies "once we have the opportunity to demonstrate at a higher level that these are significant unmet needs and these are significant areas" for possibly improving the "entire countywide system."

Members of a group organized by the Valley Industry & Commerce Association that represents the Valley business community, spoke in support of the light rail idea.

Stuart Waldman, president of VICA, said the Orange Line is a "victim of its own success." It was originally only supposed to hold 16,000 people a day, but now experiences a 30,000-person-a-day ridership and "suffers from severe overcrowding," he said.

"The only way to get people out of their cars and out of the 101 (freeway) is to put them on light rail," Waldman said.

Also in support of Orange Line improvements was Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who told the board that the San Fernando Valley public transit is a major component in a plan to revitalize a commercial area in his district known as the Warner Center.

The motion -- authored by Mayor Eric Garcetti, three county supervisors and a Glendale councilman -- was approved as officials around the region are gearing up to pitch projects for inclusion in Metro's long-range plan, which could be up for another round of funding through a potential 2016 ballot measure.

That measure could call for an update of the voter-approved Measure R half-cent sales tax increase to fund transportation projects, or it could come in the form of another type of tax measure.

--City News Service


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