Metro "Circle" Line

[Dan Wentzel]

Here's an idea I've seen floated around two days ago and it greatly intrigued me.

Imagine the Purple Line extended to Westwood and Santa Monica via Century City. Now imagine a Sepulveda rail line headed north into the Valley. Now imagine a Ventura Blvd. subway line. See that connecting into the Red Line. Now envision a "Circle" Line using parts of the Red Line, Purple Line, Sepulveda Line and Ventura Blvd. Line, going both clockwise and counterclockwise, similar to the famous "Circle" Line in London.

Yes, it will cost $20 billion, but as Ken Alpern stated on the LRTP thread, it would result in possibly a countless more dollars worth of increased economic productivity. The difficulty in explaining transportation economics is that it is not just a matter of users paying for trips. The empower economic activity is part of the benefit of the investment even if all of those dollars don't go directly back to the transit agency. One isn't just "subsidizing" public transit. Once is infusing economic development in a tide which raises all the economic boats in the area.

I'm not sure if this "Circle Line" would have a bigger diameter than the marvelous London one, because London is a sprawl too. But it would be miraculous and wondrous if it were built.

[kenny]

This reminds me of the circular line in Madrid also. It was a great line because almost every other line connected to it at some point. Circular lines are also great because or the reduction in needing to transfer so much.

[erict]

It is a great idea, maybe the money gods will wake up and shower LA with $20+ billion in transit dollars.

[bobdavis]

I commented on another discussion that this "LA Circle" would be much larger than the London "Circle Line", which circles the older part of London. One of its major functions is to tie together the various railway stations such as Victoria, Euston, Paddington and King's Cross. (London is rather like Chicago was 60 years ago, with trains coming into several stations depending on which railway one traveled.)

[James Fujita]

according to Wikipedia, London's Circle Line is 22.5 km. Tokyo's Yamanote Line is 34.5 km (also, according to Wikipedia).

According to Google maps, to get from UCLA to Century City to Wilshire/Western to Hollywood via Vermont to Ventura Boulevard via Cahuenga Pass, across the Valley and back down Sepulveda to Westwood would be 32 miles, which translates to a whopping 51 kilometers.

as others have pointed out, London's Circle Line does connect several of the City's major train stations; the Yamanote Line connects several of Tokyo's "mini-downtowns" as well as several major train stations.

as proposed, this Circle Line would miss our central rail hub at Union Station as well as any proposed western transit hub near LAX.

still, it would be an interesting line, if you could do it.

[BRinSM]

this circle line is obviously more like a square or trapezoid, so the benefit would be more than just the fact that you could ride in circles all day. The circle would actually be the "spine" if you will for the heavy rail system in LA. not only could you go in a circle, but portions of the circle would act as trunk lines for other routes in the system. For example a south bay/LAX to the central/north valley line would use the western most portion of the circle line. the subway to the sea (santa monica to union station) would use the southern most portion of the circle line. burbank to the west valley would run on the northern portion and noho through hollywood proper to vermont/wilshire would use the eastern portion of the circle line.