First metro line to sea opens in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The longawaited first metro line linking Los Angeles to the sea opened amid much fanfare on Friday, providing passengers a reprieve from the gridlock the city is famous for.
The $1.5-billion, 6.6-mile Expo Line extension from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica marks the return of commuter train service to the sea following a six-decade gap in rail operations.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was among hundreds on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Santa Monica, arriving on the train platform with a surfboard.
Metro officials said the ride from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica will take about 50 minutes.
The new line marks the first time since the 1950s – when the city's electric streetcars stopped operating – that Santa Monica has been accessible by rail.
''We have a very dense population and this will help us traffic-wise,'' said Los Angeles resident Nanette Sanchez, who attended the inaugural ceremonies.
''Our freeways are just too packed and people are spending too much time in their cars.''
Fellow resident Lori Sanchez said the line will offer a welcome reprieve from the city's gridlocked streets and highways, among the world's most congested.
''It's going to be very convenient and very cost efficient,'' she said. ''And as far as the environment is concerned, it's going to be great for everyone to jump on the train and leave their car at home.''
Garcetti has said he expects the line to be one of the metro system's most popular, far exceeding the expected passenger count of 30,000 a day.
''My prediction is it will go well over 50,000,'' he said earlier this month.
''We're running every 12 minutes to begin with, but if we need to run it every 10 minutes or every eight minutes, we can build that capacity as the ridership surges so that you're never going to be in a crowded car, but you'll be able to get in there and get where you need to go.''
According to the data company Inrix, Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the country, with drivers wasting an average 81 hours idling in their cars in 2015.
This line, which switches back and forth from elevated tracks to the street level, is a 15-mile jaunt that takes about 45 to 50 minutes end to end. By car, the same trip can take up to an hour at peak times, and is a frustrating journey of stop-and-go lurching in a sea of brake lights. The inaugural runs over the weekend lured families, tourists and public-transit boosters.
Auto-centric Sunbelt cities such as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver and Charlotte, NC, are building out rail systems costing billions of dollars combined, funded in part by sales tax increases approved by traffic-weary voters and aided by federal dollars. To accompany the expanded systems, urban planners and city leaders have pushed for dense development along the transit lines to encourage ridership by clustering people and businesses near stations. That is changing the character of cities that for decades have been organized around cars.