In 1991, the California legislature passed a law banning light rail in parts of the Valley (unless it's completely underground), which inadvertently led to the creation of the Orange Line busway, since light rail was impossible and a subway from NoHo to western parts of the Valley was prohibitively expensive. But now a bill to repeal that legislation has cleared the State Assembly and is about to head to the Democratically-controlled Senate, where it will likely pass. Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian introduced the legislation last year to repeal the bill originally introduced by State Senator Alan Robbins (it passed in the days of LA anti-rail zealotry). Should the Senate pass the Robbins repeal, it will still take a minor miracle to convert the at-capacity Orange Line to a train line, since there's no funding, nor a solution as to what to do with the 25,000 commuters who use the line while Metro installs tracks and overhead wires (such a conversion is logistically possible, though).

· Repeal of Orange Line Rail Ban Clears State Assembly [Building Los Angeles]

· Councilmember Pushing To Overturn Orange Line Light Rail Ban [Curbed LA]