Another Way to Provide Bus Rapid Transit to Cal State Northridge

Metro Los Angeles is currently studying a bus rapid transit (BRT) line for the North San Fernando Valley.  Here is what the current alternatives look like.

However, all is not well with this project.  Acccording to Numble on Twitter, Metro is considering caving into NIMBYs on this project.

This would be disastrous for transit riders in this area.  In particular, this would leave California State University, Northridge (CSUN) out of our growing mass transit system.  If this terrible-case scenario occurs, I've been thinking about how else to serve CSUN.

One idea that has long been discussed is to have branch services from the "Orange" Line (now the "G" Line) on other busy north-south corridors in the San Fernando Valley.  One of these proposed busy corridors is Reseda Blvd.  

My proposal would be to have a branch service of the G-Line going north-south on Reseda, east-west on Nordhoff, and CSUN along White Oak as seen below.  We'd have G1 service between North Hollywood Metrorail station and Chatsworth Metrolink/Amtrak Station, and G2 service between North Hollywood Metrorail station and CSUN.

But we can see from this map even though we would still serve CSUN, what a large east-west gap in mass transit we are leaving out of our system in the North San Fernando Valley.  I really hope NIMBYs do not prevail here.  We need BOTH the proposed North San Fernando Valley BRT and a Reseda Blvd. BRT.

Also, coming to the San Fernando Valley will be a "Sepulveda" Line (hopefully as heavy rail and not monorail) between the Valley and the Westside, as well as a planned BRT route connecting North Hollywood to Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena.

A note for the future.  Eventually, the G-Line may be upgraded to light-rail.  A further enhancement I would support for this new Reseda Blvd. BRT is to run it between Universal City station and CSUN via Ventura Blvd.  Somehow Ventura Blvd. keeps getting left out of our San Fernando Valley mass transit conversation, when we should already be installing bus lanes on it.

And, of course, we should be doubletracking and upgrading the Metrolink/Amtrak rail corridors as well.

What do you think?

More Progress on Passenger Rail between Los Angeles and Palm Springs

The Desert Sun has reported that the Riverside County Transportation Commission had selected a passenger rail route between Los Angeles to Fullerton to study even further.

That route would run from Los Angeles to Fullerton, swing north to Colton, and then continue southeast through the San Gorgonio Pass to Indio.

According to the article, "If the train only stopped three times between Los Angeles and Indio, officials believe the trip would last around 3 hours and 10 minutes — only about 40 minutes slower than traveling by car."

Well, I don't know about you, but I'd happily bring a laptop and a Kindle and enjoy my journey even if it takes 40 minutes longer than being behind the wheel.

The article also states that "in earlier studies, Coachella Valley officials have suggested three stations, in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Indio."

So cannot wait.

Any progress on passenger rail to Palm Springs?

I regularly get asked if there is any progress on getting daily passenger rail between Los Angeles to Palm Springs.

Here is what I have been able to find.

The Riverside County Transportation Commission passed a resolution in October 2013 supporting daily intercity rail service from Los Angeles to the Coachella Valley.

Here is the Coachella Valley Intercity Rail Corridor Planning Study from 2013 by Caltrans.

Here is the current RCTC Fact Sheet on the project.

In the maeantime, I am wondering how that Sunline Transit Commuter Bus 220 service is fairing.  Also, I have friends who occasionally take Amtrak from Los Angeles to Fullerton and then catch the Amtrak bus to the Coachella Valley and then back the same way when returning.  Those Amtrak buses are nice and have WiFi.. 

Two big questions remain:  

(1) Should passenger rail service between Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley be a Metrolink operation or an Amtrak operation?  If there are sufficient people who would commute daily to work from the Coachella Valley and Riverside or even Los Angeles, the Metrolink makes sense.  If this is more resort and holiday travel, then perhaps Amtrak is the more suitable carrier.  Either way, we all want to Palm Springs and Coachella Valley having daily stops in the morning and evening.  And if that happens will Palm Springs upgrade its station with amenity or two?

(2) Competition with Freight Rail for use of those tracks.  Right now the freight rail carriers do not want to share the tracks for daily passenger rail service.  Approximately 40% of America's incoming goods go through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, so you can see why.  Is the answer for the federal government to make them share the tracks with passenger rail through regulation or is it to find the money to build more tracks or both?  

That is where we are at and as soon as I know more I will let you know. 

Recent travel to Palm Springs by Amtrak

On this blog I have previously discussed and advocated for more passenger rail between Los Angeles Union Station and Palm Springs.

Based on the recommendation of my friend Rob who began using this service, over Labor Day Weekend, I traveled to Palm Springs via Amtrak for only $24 each way.

We ride an Amtrak train between Los Angeles Union Station and Fullerton Station and then catch an Amtrak thruway bus between Fullerton and Palm Springs.  There are several destination stops in the Coachella Valley for this Amtrak bus, such as downtown Palm Springs, Palm Springs International Airport, Indio, etc.

The train car was clean, comfortable and had WiFi.  But guess what?  So did the Amtrak thruway bus!

 

One of the discussion points about increasing passenger rail through this area is whether or not people would actually commute between Palm Springs and Riverside or Los Angeles, or whether this area is more of a resort/vacation destination.  While Metrolink is designed to serve the needs of commuters, a few Amtrak trains per day might be sufficient for vacationers.

Note:  SunLine Transit Agency, which provides local transit service within Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, has begun a new Commuter Bus between Palm Desert and the Riverside Metrolink Station:  Line 220, covered by the Palm Desert Patch.  It will be interesting to see how it does.

Soon everyone will hopefully come out to see the giant statue of Marilyn Monroe

Passenger rail to Palm Springs -- a tiny amount of forward motion

At the Metro Board of Directors meeting yesterday, the Board passed a resolution from Supervisor Michael Antonovich.  .

From the Antonovich resolution which was overlooked in the reporting of this meeting:

10. An assessment of what would be necessary to provide seamless rail service
between Ventura and Indio (within 30 days).

Those of us who want to see daily Metrolink and Amtrak passenger rail service between Palm Springs and Los Angeles are eagerly awaiting this assessment.