| | The best way to examine the failure of the Green Line to go to LAX is
to compare it with the history of New York's own tale of building a
train to its airport.
The construction of the JFK AirTrain (which I've been on) is the first
new line of the rail system in New York since the completion of the
PATH trains under the Hudson, linking Manhattan (including the
late World Trade Center) with New Jersey in the seventies. When
JFK was being planned out, Robert Moses, power broker of transportation
in New York, intended the Van Wyck Expressway to cut south across
Queens to the airport. From there it would fan out into a giant
loop to service the widely spaced terminals. A few locals asked
Moses to set aside an extra two lanes down the median so that the
subway could be expanded to run right into the airport. Moses
refused.
And so for forty years, New York's John Fitzgerald Kennedy
International Airport did not have any public transportation access,
save for the buses that squeezed into the already nightmarish traffic
on the Van Wyck and the Beltway.
And when it was finally built, it was created as a separate system
apart from the subway and the commuter rail. Here's the kicker:
the AirTrain was built on a massive viaduct that runs in the air about
thirty or more feet above the median of the Van Wyck, exactly where
Robert Moses refused it to go forty years prior. How much money
has this one decision (just this one?) cost the People of New
York? The cost of the elevated viaduct, the cost of millions
sitting in 405-ish traffic for years under stop and go conditions, the
cost of the extra time needed to get through that traffic, the cost of
the gasoline expended and wasted in bumper to bumper for endless miles,
the adrenal stress placed upon the bodies of all in this hellish
landscape, the pollution and fouling of the air and water which we
survive on? (Yes I read Caro's "The Power Broker" way too many
times.)
But they built it and much is better. (Sorta.)
Now in Los Angeles we face an interesting challenge and a new
oppertunity. The problem: there is no train to LAX. The
solution: build a train which makes it safe, practical and convenient
to go to LAX without a car.
Now for the Devil: how to do it.
First we look at our resources, for they rather than look at the
limitations (FAA regulations, special interests, political inertia) we
should list what we already have done for us.
1. An active light rail spur exists along Imperial and stops at Aviation (the Green Line).
2. An unused MTA owned right-of-way exists along the airport side
of Aviation and runs all the way from Downtown (Union Station no
less!). It passes under the Green Line Aviation Stop and
continues on to the south into the South Bay cities and Wilmington, on
a course similar to the 405.
3. Los Angeles World Airports (owners of LAX, Ontario and
Palmdale airports and totally owned by the City of Los Angeles) has
been clamouring for years to do a major expansion and revamping of LAX
as well as some sort of unitary rail connection to wisk passengers
between the three airports, 60-plus miles apart.
4. The LACMTA has been planning to build a new transit center at
Manchester Square for years, but never knows what will happen with the
LAX expansion, a critical element in any such plans.
5. Despite what the private parking lot owners wishes, the rental
car companies would love to replace their stupid shuttle buses and
spread out lots with a single, new, clustered facility, which the MTA
could somehow get people to and from without bothering the rental
companies with dumb buses of their own.
6. The people of Los Angeles would love to be able to get to the
airport without the hassle of overpriced parking or insane traffic.
7. Homeland Security wants to be able to monitor automotive
traffic more securely without creating long lines of vulnerable cars
waiting to get in.
So this is what we have to work with. And now I envision a new
train and a new system, for the first train and the first system need
fixing. A train using the right-of-way from Union Station to LAX,
stopping at a new public transportation hub called "Manchester Square /
LAX". The train would continue into the airport, either just
below ground or elevated to the current "Level 3" at LAX (even with the
tops of the central parking garages). The train would pick up and
discharge passengers free of charge but outside the security
parameters. Not every terminal would need its own station, but
every terminal should be eaisily accessed by foot from at least one
station. Passengers need only to pay to go to and from Downtown
(a set of security barriers at Union Station can do this quite
easily). The Green Line will have a spur come north along
Aviation and halt at Manchester Square. So in order to get to LAX
by rail one may buy a day-pass from the MTA and ride to Manchester
Square then ride into the airport for free or they can puchase a
one-way ticket at Union Station and be wisked to the airport in a
beautiful one-seat-ride across LA (for a slightly higher price).
Clustered about at Manchester Square would be a unified hub for buses,
rental cars, and private shuttles and taxis, as well as any future rail
expansions.
I should point out two things here: this is exactly what JFK and Newark
have done; and if you can get to Manchester Square you can ride the new
super-nice train for free, if you don't mind only being able to get on
and off at the same place.
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| | Posted 6/4/2006 3:19 AM - 53 Views - 6 eProps - 1 Comment
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