Steve White () on October 05, 2011, at 05:12PM – #1

When he says the Little Tokyo Station is where riders will transfer, what transfers is he talking about?

All of the stations between Pico and Little Tokyo will be shared for these lines, so technically they can all be used for Expo/Blue/Gold (or whatever they change them to) transfers.

I haven't actually seen any of the designs for the Little Tokyo Station... will it be designed as a major transfer point for busses or other transit options?

Steve White () on October 05, 2011, at 05:32PM – #3

Ok that's what I thought... Do you think that three portals on that station are necessary when the Financial District is now being stuck without any reasonable connection? They lost the station at 5th/Flower, a new portal for 7th / Metro, and now the 3rd/Flower portal.

I think the Broadway station could be ok with this change if necessary -- over at The Source, they did note how short that block between the two portals would have been. I'd just like to see a nice little plaza to connect it to the future streetcar on the Broadway side... and some sort of improvements (whether development or just a pedestrian plaza) for people coming from the Spring St. side.

on October 06, 2011, at 01:56AM – #5

I'm glad to see that Little Tokyo will still have two portals, because I think portals are extremely important to a subway system. Subway entrances are the only really visible part of any underground Metro. The more portals the system can have, the better.

Little Tokyo deserves two portals. The First/ Central portal location makes sense, and I would hope that any future development at Mangrove would include a new entrance.

That said, we obviously haven't been putting enough money into rail transit if the Bunker Hill station doesn't also get at least two portals.

This shouldn't be an either/or. All of the downtown stations ought to have multiple entrances, and new developments ought to link directly to stations.

Knock out the "knock-out panels" as soon as possible.

Joel Covarrubias on October 06, 2011, at 08:34AM – #6

Two major issues here. Please excuse the extended rant.

The first issue, obviously, is the loss of key entrances to these stations - especially Bunker Hill station. Yes, the primary function of the connector is to connect the rail lines together. But the secondary function was to provide greater access to the rail system to underserved areas of Downtown, like the area west/northwest of the Central Library.

Now, this secondary function is being quickly whittled away. And for what? Seriously, what is the incremental cost for the critical portal at 3rd/Hope? $2 million? $5 million? Enough to make or break a $1.4 billion project?

Keep in mind, this portal/passageway would be nearly level, due to the slope of the hill. AND, it would be far cheaper to build this while the ground is ripped open for the cut-and-cover tunnel.

The second issue is the lack of transparency into the process of "value engineering". Of course, value engineering is a necessary part of project management, especially when your budget is fixed. But when you're going to remove essential elements of a project during value engineering, you should tell the stakeholders (i.e., the public) so that they know what's going on. You shouldn't sneak around in the dark of night with a machete, slashing away at anything with a cost line item that looks (to staff engineers) like it's unnecessary.

Hopefully Metro is also downward-adjusting the ridership numbers they are reporting to the FTA. Because to be fair, this is going to negatively impact ridership, and thus the cost-effectiveness of the line.

Steve White () on October 06, 2011, at 09:44AM – #7

Joel, I completely agree that this will affect ridership.

Especially for the business folks in the Financial District. Just like we're seeing with the discussion over the Century City subway stop, even relatively short distances matter here in LA.

While those who are accustomed to riding Metro are usually also used to walking around the city, those in LA who don't already ride Metro are usually not much for walking. To get people out of their cars we need to make it as convenient as possible (at least at this nascent stage, but really always) for them to get into and out of the station.

Interesting side note, I've found that many people discount the distance they walk when already in a station -- someone may walk a block from a portal in an underground tunnel to the train platform more likely than they would an extra block above ground to get to another portal.