Gold Line Eastside Extension---Expected completion date around 2033-2035

The Expenditure Plan is out for Measure R and the usual suspects got bent over.

Well, I guess Chimatli's dream of kids from the Eastside going to the beach via the rail will be waiting for her grandkids, if she is lucky.

If you think I’m being unfair just for reference the Gold Line Foothill Extension has an estimated completion date of 2015-2017.

That means the Foothills area is going to get their train completed a full 17 years before the Eastside.

The Eastside Extension covers the communities of  East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights and Little Tokyo/Arts District.

Yes on R votes on the Eastside:
Boyle Heights LA District 14- 74%
East Los Angeles- 75%

The Foothill Extension covers the communities of Arcadia, Irwindale, Bradbury and Laverne.

The yes on R votes in the Foothills:
San Dimas 55%
Arcadia 55%
Irwindale 63%
Bradbury 54%
Laverne 54%

H/T to MetroriderLA for crunching the Yes on Measure R numbers.

Yes the Foothills communities wanted rail, but the Eastside REALLY wanted and it takes public transit now. The Foothill communities which don't use it so much, even a resident of a community nearby the Foothills and writes on public transit issues finds it too much trouble.

Take a look how the funds where allocated. I wanted to be wrong, but I’m good at predicting future behavior by looking at past actions.

Other communities that voted in the 70% plus with large public transit ridership, but got the scrwegies South LA…nice…oh and bikeways got thrown in with potholes and left-turn signals…

Browne Molyneux

Comments

[chimatli]

Thanks for the shout-out!
My friends that visit me from Europe are always shocked that there's no subway to the sea and I have to explain to them how they really don't want us to have an easy way to get to the ocean.

[Rich Alossi]

I'm a little confused - the Eastside Extension is almost completed, isn't it? The Metro expenditure plan is referencing the -next- phase of the Eastside Extension out to Whittier. The East LA extension should be done in the second half of this year.

[writer]

On the list Metro presented and it says Goldline Eastside Extension completed 2033-2035

Goldline Foothill Extension completed 2015-2017

Now it's open to interpretation and yes it is confusing and I think it's meant to be confusing.

I'm assuming for the Eastside that they are talking about the El Monte or Whittier section of the Goldline. I guess they want to assure that the gentrification has moves sufficiently southeast before building the rail...haha...I don't get why they say they have almost completed Goldline, because I was under the impression that when they say 80% it included that section and now I'm certain they mean 80% of the part they started and I certainly didn't think Metro meant over 20 years for the remainder sections.

We will see what they mean in 2009 with the Gold Line Eastside Extension opens will it be completed or halfway done, they should probably say that 50% of the Gold Line is 80% built instead of saying the Gold Line East Extention is 80% built, but that would be honest and weird for Metro.

Whatever it means the fact that Bradbury (54% for measure R) is getting a completed rail before Montebello (71% for measure R) is pretty outrageous.

17 years difference, what's the hold up?

Browne

[human]

as long as i can belt off-key versions of poison songs at the karaoke bars in little tokyo and stumble to a train station to get home (relatively) safely by the end of this year, i'll be happier than i was at the end of last year (7 days ago).

[writer]

See now I am going to have to sing Every Rose Has It's Thorn and piss BusTard off, because Poison is a horrible band and I have horrible taste in bad 80s music, though not Poison bad, but I had my Poison moments...

Oh I forgot I want to have my birthday party in a Karaoke Bar in Little Tokyo. I forgot about that...I'm going to have to plan that.

Browne

[Shawn]

Wow! You've totally confused things. The gold line East LA extension through Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo, and East LA opens in 6 months, not 17 years! The Eastside extension in that document is for a future extension to unnamed points east. The under construction extension isn't on that list because it's not using Measure R funds. I don't think that Metro is being confusing in this instance, but you are.

[writer]

Shawn click on the link that I provided from Metro. It has two projections, for the Gold Line the Eastside and the Foothills, now I just restated what the documents states and that is what it states.

It's the Expenditure Plan for Measure R the first link.

The first half of the Gold Line Extension may or may not be done at the end of the year, but that is not the complete Gold Line Eastside Extension.

Browne

[Shawn]

You listed voting stats for Boyle Heights and East LA. Those communities are served by the currently under construction East LA line. That was the confusing part.

Also, the Foothill and Eastside extensions are both proposed extensions of currently existing lines. You can't say that the Foothill is a new line and the Eastside line isn't complete. They are identically incomplete as their situations are the same.

Finally a major difference between the two is that the communities near the Foothill extension have been active for YEARS to get the extension built. The route is set and the right of way is available. They've made significant plans to get the line built. That's why they're at the front.

But don't get me wrong. I'd MUCH rather see the eastside extended first. It will almost certainly have higher ridership and since the Foothill extension almost parallels Metrolink it's almost a duplication of existing service. But we have a massive county and political considerations are at play. The residents of the San Gabriel Valley have somehow gotten it into their heads that since they pay the same taxes, including Measure R, as the rest of the county that they should somehow also be eligible for some type of rail.

[Damien Goodmon]

Browne the list you link to was available well before the election on the MTA website. That's what the timelines were supposed to be and what the public voted on.

This is the link to the updated timetables, which have drastically changed: http://www.metro.net/board/Items/2009/01_January/20090114P&PItem9.pdf

And when you compare the two documents, it's clear that the ones that are getting screwed are the Crenshaw corridor communities. Instead of accelerating the project, which is what was stated in the brochure, they're proposing delaying it by 13 years.

[Gary Kavanagh]

Quite a few communities on the West Side like my native Santa Monica voted in the 70% yes range, but it seems without some additional support from somewhere, feds please pretty please, the West Side will remain disconnected for a long time despite some of the highest traffic density in the County, some even say the Country.

[Shawn]

I agree that the Crenshaw delay is the real surprise. This was well into the planning phase and was promised to that community long ago. Then to say that Measure R would speed things up only to find that the opposite is proposed is more than a little troubling. Seems like something political and I guess that shows where that part of LA fits politically at the MTA.

The fact that we have only one north/south route and none are planned for the next 20+ years is almost comical. I think that they are going to HAVE to reconsider that plan.

[Browne]

I'm definitely going to try to make it out to the Expo Meeting at Forshay tonight, of course sense I'm taking the bus from south central I'll probably be late...

Thank you all for sharing your insight on these matters.

Browne