In recent weeks, there has been a surge of interest in the carrying capacity of the Metro rail system. These discussions seem to be precipitated in part by state Senate Bill 827, which would override local zoning codes near transit corridors and allow for increased housing production. Although ridership has been falling on the Metro network for years, the outperformance of the Expo Line relative to projected ridership has been used to suggest that the line is running out of room, a conclusion not borne out by the data.

In a separate but perhaps related push, Metro’s launching their own investigation. The directors have asked staff to report back in 90 days on the capacity of the rail system, as well as that of individual stations. According to Henry Fung of Metro’s Citizens Advisory Council, one of the aims here is to assess 7th/Metro and its ability to cope with the increased passenger volumes it will undoubtedly see between now and the Olympics, a decade in which Metro will aggressively pursue acceleration of major transit projects.

It’s true that 7th Street/Metro Center, the safety pin holding together the east and west halves of the network, is quite busy these days. When Metro released its ridership data for the 2017 budget year, I put together a list of the rail stations in order of daily activity and shared it on Twitter. 7th and Metro, which is serviced by the light rail Blue and Expo Lines and the heavy rail Red and Purple Lines, drew the most attention by far. Averaging over 53,000 weekday boardings in fiscal 2017, the station rates among the most utilized in the United States.

Now, Metro leadership will have to figure out what to do with the station, as it will likely continue to become busier in the years following the Regional Connector’s debut. That’s not how it was supposed to work. If any single project had the potential to forestall the crowding in store for 7th/Metro, it would have been the Regional Connector. The under-construction light rail connector will create new stations in the downtown area, and simplify transfers for crosstown transit riders. But what it doesn’t do is reduce the system’s dependency on 7th/Metro as the primary transfer point between the light rail and heavy rail systems.

While transfers are possible at Union Station, they are tortuous and riders will avoid them given the opportunity. The Regional Connector makes it easier for westbound passengers to skip changing trains until they arrive at 7th Street, an arrangement that riders will be only too happy to accept. As a result, the opening of the Purple Line and the Artesia Line – now shooting for completion in the next 8 to 10 years – will add stresses on the system at the place where they will be felt most. New transfers to the Purple Line at 7th/Metro will number in the thousands, if not the tens of thousands, daily.

So what can Metro do to take pressure off its busiest point?

5th and Flower Station

Through most of the planning process for the Regional Connector, Metro intended to put a station between 4th and 5th, next to the Bonaventure in the Financial District. The station was removed following the release of the Draft Environmental Report to make room in the budget for the below-grade alignment that was adopted as the Locally Preferred Alternative. Metro is building this segment of the project in such a way that it can still build 5th and Flower as infill at a later date, and it should plan to do so sooner than expected.

The station location is about 1/3 of a mile north from 7th/Metro, which is close by Los Angeles standards, but also about the same distance as separates the new stops at 2nd/Hope and 2nd/Broadway. A 5th/Flower stop would serve existing jobs and alleviate congestion at Metro Center and remains a good idea.

Because of its proximity to office towers in the Financial District, 5th/Flower would help sort passengers based on their destination. As it stands, 7th/Metro is both the system’s most important transfer point and also the egress point for its second densest job center. 5th/Flower would reduce congestion at 7th/Metro by spreading out passenger exits, particularly for light rail riders, reserving more space at 7th for riders changing trains.

Frequency

An intuitive way to increase capacity is to run more trains. As part of the Purple Line Extension, Metro is planning on doing just that: during peak hours the Red and Purple Lines will every run every 4 minutes, 2.5 times as frequently as they do at present. Reducing the amount of time passengers have to wait on the platform will naturally help manage platform crowding.

Today, 4 minute headways would ensure that passengers would be cleared from the platform before the next train arrived. As Purple Line ridership grows, however, it could become necessary to run more frequent service. When fifteen trains per hour proves insufficient, Metro will have to consider separating the Red and Purple Lines to maximize the capacity of the subway system. Sending the Red Line down Vermont, a project on the far-off horizon, would allow Metro to double again Purple Line service.

Future Transfers

Because the concentration of activity at 7th/Metro is a result of its being both a busy transfer point and a busy destination point, it is reasonable to expect that, as the system grows, Metro’s planners will reinforce the network by distributing transfers more across a greater number of centrally-located stations.

One such opportunity has already passed us by: a decade ago, Alon Levy was bandying an idea to relocate the station at 2nd/Broadway to 1st/Hill for a direct connection with the existing Civic Center station. While this possibility is now foreclosed, it would’ve fulfilled a valuable purpose within the network: a second transfer point between the light rail and heavy rail lines would have bolstered 7th/Metro by providing an alternative for passengers based on their direction of travel.

In the future, it will be important to allow for new rail lines through downtown Los Angeles, as much as possible, to bypass Union Station and 7th/Metro. Already a line has been proposed by the South Park BID that would extend an east-west service across the southern half of downtown, through the Central Business District’s fastest growing neighborhoods, with a connection to the Blue and Expo Lines at Pico station.

I also believe that a line following 4th Street, as proposed by Devin Bunten, could be extremely useful in years to come, with transfer stations at Flower (Blue/Expo), Hill (Red/Purple), Alameda (possibly Artesia) and Santa Fe (Red/Purple/possibly Artesia). Outside of downtown, such a line could extend along Glendale Boulevard or Beverly to the northwest, and Pacific or Whittier Blvds to the southeast.

In the long term, the key will be de-intensifying the transfers at 7th/Metro, and creating a variety of options for passengers traveling to and through the downtown area.

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