40 Years Ago: $420 Million Transit Plan Proposed to Link Downtown and LAX
RTD / L.A. Times
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — 40 years ago today, officials from the Rapid Transit District unveiled plans for a $420 million plan to link Downtown to LAX via a line that would include both subway and elevated segments.
Four decades later, many of the pieces of that proposed line have been implemented, but the only ride going from Union Station to the airport is a bus.
To get the effort moving, RTD pledged that it would contribute $70 million of the needed funds, half of what it expected that local agencies would need to contribute in order to get the rest in matching funds.
The proposed line started out as a subway at Union Station, traveling through Downtown and then south to USC before emerging as an elevated near Exposition Park. It would then zig-zag east toward the routing of the modern Blue Line before connecting up with the Century Freeway, at that point still years away from completion.
That east-west corridor would eventually become Metro's Green Line, though its planned airport connection was instead curved south into El Segundo.
In 1971, RTD proposed that construction could start by 1973 and the line could be completed by 1978. The eventual Blue and Green lines took a little bit longer to come to fruition, opening in 1990 and 1995, respectively. Costs also climbed just a bit, with the two costing a combined $1.6 billion.
John G on December 07, 2011, at 05:33PM – #1
It would be challenging but visionary if city government would allow front-door service to the LAX terminals for passengers using the Metro Rail Transit System. With all the construction going on at the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) implementing a broader strategic plan to incorporate public rail transit INTO the airport is critical to our future transportation needs.
Vero Queero on December 08, 2011, at 08:55AM – #2
I think we can thank the taxi cab lobby for thwarting that one, plus the green line avoidance of LAX.
Brian Tompkins on December 08, 2011, at 11:08AM – #3
I have heard this taxi cab argument. Is it true that the lobby was responsible for the green line stopping short of LAX? If so, unacceptable. The train really is a nearly useless option for getting to the airport. On the other hand, I've used the shuttle quite a bit and I think it's a good option, except for the sometimes long wait.
James Fujita on December 21, 2011, at 03:18PM – #4
For what its worth, that's a weird zig-zagging route through Watts, combining elements of the Blue Line with parts of the Green Line and just a dash of the Expo Line.
Back then, they didn't know that the Alameda Corridor would make Santa Fe's Harbor Subdivision largely redundant and superfluous.
I like the Crenshaw light rail line, but I still don't see why we couldn't have used the Harbor Sub to link Metrolink with LAX.