pdf here

A series of three community meetings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project began tonight with Metro showing six initial concepts for the future rail line. The presentation is above; the boards are here — and some are posted below.

The rail concepts were developed as part of an ongoing feasibility study for the project, which aims to build a rail line between the San Fernando Valley and LAX with routes generally following the 405. Metro will release concepts for the Westside-to-LAX segment later this year.

Some things to know about the rail concepts:

•Four different types of rail are being studied — see below. Rubber tire and monorail are better able to handle steep grades and could hypothetically be built alongside the 405. The Sepulveda Pass, btw, is too steep for surface heavy rail or light rail.

•The emphasis at this time is to look at how a Sepulveda rail line could connect to other existing or planned transit lines, including the Orange and Expo Lines, the Purple Line Extension of the subway that is currently under construction and the future East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor line between Van Nuys and the San Fernando/Sylmar Metrolink station.

•The East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor will be light rail or bus rapid transit. Metro’s staff recommendation for the project is scheduled to be released later this month.

•As the feasibility study continues for the Sepulveda corridor, Metro will take a deeper look at other potential station locations along the routes of the different concepts. And, yes, that includes a potential station closer to or possibly on the UCLA campus.

•Measures R and M — Metro’s two most recent sales tax measures — provide about $9.8 billion for this project, which will be built in three phases. About $260 million will go toward construction of ExpressLanes on the 405 between the 10 and 101 freeways, with a scheduled opening in 2026. The next $5.7 billion is for the Valley to Westside rail segment scheduled to open in the early 2030s and the remaining $3.8 billion is for the Westside to LAX segment with a 2057 opening.

•The Valley-Westside segment is part of Metro’s Twenty Eight by ’28 Initiative that seeks to complete 28 major projects before the Olympics and Paralympics in the L.A. region in 2028. Metro is exploring whether it can accelerate the project through a public-private partnership.

•As you can see on the above maps, the big question is where to connect this project with the four other transit lines mentioned above. The concepts, I think, provide a wide variety of intriguing options.

•Metro is working with Elon Musk’s Boring Company to ensure their Loop tunnel project doesn’t interfere with any potential alignments for the Sepulveda project. The Boring Company plans to build a test tunnel beginning near the Expo Line’s Sepulveda Station that will run south to Culver City.

•Metro will continue evaluating these concepts and hopes to conclude the project’s feasibility study in 2019. At that time, the concepts that are deemed best and pass public muster will continue into the project’s formal environmental analyses. Among the criteria to judge the concepts: impacts on nearby communities, cost effectiveness, compatibility with local and regional plans, potential environmental effects, ridership, travel time savings and reliability.

•Many of you took our online survey about travel in the project’s study area. Here is what you had to say:

•The other two public meetings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project this month are:

Saturday, June 9, 2018

10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center

6262 Van Nuys Boulevard

Van Nuys, CA 91401

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

6 p.m – 8 p.m.

Proud Bird Restaurant

11022 Aviation Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90045

The June 12 meeting will have a live webcast at http://bit.ly/MetroSepulveda.

I’m sure many of you have some opinions about the concepts. Please comment or feel free to ask questions. And please share this post!

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