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Post by exporider on Oct 24, 2016 10:55:27 GMT -8
Nice smooth ride this morning. And the trains were well spaced, and plenty of seats. However, I did take a late train this morning so I missed rush hour. Any other observations? I'll head home tonight (from 7th/Metro) during rush hour, so I'll be able to report on the operational impacts of turning around one train every three minutes (Expo plus Blue line). That will be the biggest test of this new service plan.
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 24, 2016 13:37:24 GMT -8
Weekdays approximately 6 am to 8 pm only. Inconveniently it's every 20 minutes after 9 pm. It will be initially two-car trains and trains always pull to the forward end of the platform. Did you say: "6 am to 8 pm only" No, I said " Weekdays approximately 6 am to 8 pm only." Certainly, 6 minutes for most of the day is a great headway. I don't like it that it's every 20 minutes after 9 pm though. That headway is too long. The short headway is leading to occasional train congestion. Today, there were two eastbound trains back-to-back.
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Post by masonite on Oct 24, 2016 14:03:27 GMT -8
Did you say: "6 am to 8 pm only" No, I said " Weekdays approximately 6 am to 8 pm only." Certainly, 6 minutes for most of the day is a great headway. I don't like it that it's every 20 minutes after 9 pm though. That headway is too long. The short headway is leading to occasional train congestion. Today, there were two eastbound trains back-to-back. Seems like a great solution would be to just have service every 12 minutes from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and then every 12 minutes from 9:00 to close instead of every 20. Of course, that doesn't correspond well with the operator work day, but other than that it would make everyone happy and be more efficient.
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Post by exporider on Oct 24, 2016 21:37:14 GMT -8
Nice smooth ride this morning. And the trains were well spaced, and plenty of seats. However, I did take a late train this morning so I missed rush hour. Any other observations? I'll head home tonight (from 7th/Metro) during rush hour, so I'll be able to report on the operational impacts of turning around one train every three minutes (Expo plus Blue line). That will be the biggest test of this new service plan. I observed operations at 7th/Metro this afternoon from 4:30 until 5 PM. While operations were smooth, and alternating Blue and Expo trains were dispatched every three minutes, there was one severe problem: the dispatcher allowed two-car trains to operate on the Blue Line and three-car trains to operate on the Expo Line. This is a problem for Blue Line riders because now they can't depend on getting a three-car train during the evening rush hour. I observed two two-car trains operating on the Blue Line, both of which were well above capacity as the left 7th/Metro. The Blue Line carries ridership loads that are 50% higher than ridership loads on the Expo Line, and therefore deserves the additional capacity provided by the three-car trains. This is not a sustainable practice and Metro dispatchers need to find a better way to address the inconsistent arrival patterns of the two rail routes.
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Post by masonite on Oct 25, 2016 8:09:39 GMT -8
Nice smooth ride this morning. And the trains were well spaced, and plenty of seats. However, I did take a late train this morning so I missed rush hour. Any other observations? I'll head home tonight (from 7th/Metro) during rush hour, so I'll be able to report on the operational impacts of turning around one train every three minutes (Expo plus Blue line). That will be the biggest test of this new service plan. I observed operations at 7th/Metro this afternoon from 4:30 until 5 PM. While operations were smooth, and alternating Blue and Expo trains were dispatched every three minutes, there was one severe problem: the dispatcher allowed two-car trains to operate on the Blue Line and three-car trains to operate on the Expo Line. This is a problem for Blue Line riders because now they can't depend on getting a three-car train during the evening rush hour. I observed two two-car trains operating on the Blue Line, both of which were well above capacity as the left 7th/Metro. The Blue Line carries ridership loads that are 50% higher than ridership loads on the Expo Line, and therefore deserves the additional capacity provided by the three-car trains. This is not a sustainable practice and Metro dispatchers need to find a better way to address the inconsistent arrival patterns of the two rail routes. They probably need to wait until Expo runs three car trains to really fix that. Hopefully, we start seeing at least some 3 car trains in a few months.
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Post by exporider on Oct 25, 2016 10:22:58 GMT -8
I observed operations at 7th/Metro this afternoon from 4:30 until 5 PM. While operations were smooth, and alternating Blue and Expo trains were dispatched every three minutes, there was one severe problem: the dispatcher allowed two-car trains to operate on the Blue Line and three-car trains to operate on the Expo Line. This is a problem for Blue Line riders because now they can't depend on getting a three-car train during the evening rush hour. I observed two two-car trains operating on the Blue Line, both of which were well above capacity as the left 7th/Metro. The Blue Line carries ridership loads that are 50% higher than ridership loads on the Expo Line, and therefore deserves the additional capacity provided by the three-car trains. This is not a sustainable practice and Metro dispatchers need to find a better way to address the inconsistent arrival patterns of the two rail routes. They probably need to wait until Expo runs three car trains to really fix that. Hopefully, we start seeing at least some 3 car trains in a few months. I agree that this problem will be rendered moot when both lines operate with 3-car trains. However, I don't expect to see 3-car trains on Expo in the next few months. It appears that Metro's next priority for the light rail cars is to upgrade the Gold Line to 3-car trains, and this will take at least six months to accomplish, assuming they continue to run the Gold Line with 7-minute headways. I don't expect to see Metro increase the train lengths on Expo until next summer, at the earliest. Until then they have to do right by the Blue Line passengers and give them the service that they deserve.
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Post by masonite on Oct 25, 2016 10:43:05 GMT -8
They probably need to wait until Expo runs three car trains to really fix that. Hopefully, we start seeing at least some 3 car trains in a few months. I agree that this problem will be rendered moot when both lines operate with 3-car trains. However, I don't expect to see 3-car trains on Expo in the next few months. It appears that Metro's next priority for the light rail cars is to upgrade the Gold Line to 3-car trains, and this will take at least six months to accomplish, assuming they continue to run the Gold Line with 7-minute headways. I don't expect to see Metro increase the train lengths on Expo until next summer, at the earliest. Until then they have to do right by the Blue Line passengers and give them the service that they deserve. The Gold Line is already operating some 3 car trains now. They will probably take most of the new cars that are ready for the rest of the year, but then they can start adding 3 car trains to Expo. By August of next year all of the 78 cars should be in service. We'll start seeing 3 car trains on Expo long before then.
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expo
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Post by expo on Oct 25, 2016 15:41:06 GMT -8
On Monday I saw a WB train stopped at the 5th street intersection. An agreement between the City of Santa Monica and Metro stipulated that infrastructure would be built between Lincoln and the station that could provide either signal priority or signal preemption, whichever is necessary to achieve 5-minute headways. I figured this would mean full preemption once 6-minute headways began. I'm curious to see if that is implemented. Improvement to the signal timing is definitely needed, right now trains almost always catch at least one light during that section.
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Post by exporider on Oct 25, 2016 18:40:42 GMT -8
Today the dispatchers kept the trains on the correct lines, i.e. 3-car trains on the Blue Line and 2-car trains on Expo, at least that's what I could see from my observations. I talked to one of Metro's agents at 7th/Metro to ask what they were doing to accommodate the new schedules. He said it was all an "experiment" and they were using every trick they could think of to make it work. He even claimed that they were turning some Blue Line trains at Vernon to reduce the congestion at the terminal.
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Post by bluelineshawn on Oct 25, 2016 20:56:33 GMT -8
Nice smooth ride this morning. And the trains were well spaced, and plenty of seats. However, I did take a late train this morning so I missed rush hour. Any other observations? I'll head home tonight (from 7th/Metro) during rush hour, so I'll be able to report on the operational impacts of turning around one train every three minutes (Expo plus Blue line). That will be the biggest test of this new service plan. I observed operations at 7th/Metro this afternoon from 4:30 until 5 PM. While operations were smooth, and alternating Blue and Expo trains were dispatched every three minutes, there was one severe problem: the dispatcher allowed two-car trains to operate on the Blue Line and three-car trains to operate on the Expo Line. This is a problem for Blue Line riders because now they can't depend on getting a three-car train during the evening rush hour. I observed two two-car trains operating on the Blue Line, both of which were well above capacity as the left 7th/Metro. The Blue Line carries ridership loads that are 50% higher than ridership loads on the Expo Line, and therefore deserves the additional capacity provided by the three-car trains. This is not a sustainable practice and Metro dispatchers need to find a better way to address the inconsistent arrival patterns of the two rail routes. Unfortunately the blue line has had to deal with lots of 2-car trains at rush hour ever since expo opened to Santa Monica. It's probably not that bad for willow trains but I imagine it's very crowded on LB trains.
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Post by transitfan on Oct 26, 2016 6:32:33 GMT -8
Today the dispatchers kept the trains on the correct lines, i.e. 3-car trains on the Blue Line and 2-car trains on Expo, at least that's what I could see from my observations. I talked to one of Metro's agents at 7th/Metro to ask what they were doing to accommodate the new schedules. He said it was all an "experiment" and they were using every trick they could think of to make it work. He even claimed that they were turning some Blue Line trains at Vernon to reduce the congestion at the terminal. Vernon? That's a curious turnback point. I know there is a crossover just south of Washington, I wonder if they are discharging passengers at Vernon, running light to the crossover, then reversing and going back in service southbound at Vernon. Seems to me they could run to Washington in service and do the same, but what do I know.
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Post by exporider on Oct 26, 2016 11:13:32 GMT -8
Today the dispatchers kept the trains on the correct lines, i.e. 3-car trains on the Blue Line and 2-car trains on Expo, at least that's what I could see from my observations. I talked to one of Metro's agents at 7th/Metro to ask what they were doing to accommodate the new schedules. He said it was all an "experiment" and they were using every trick they could think of to make it work. He even claimed that they were turning some Blue Line trains at Vernon to reduce the congestion at the terminal. Vernon? That's a curious turnback point. I know there is a crossover just south of Washington, I wonder if they are discharging passengers at Vernon, running light to the crossover, then reversing and going back in service southbound at Vernon. Seems to me they could run to Washington in service and do the same, but what do I know. I'm not a Blue Line rider so I can't comment on the passenger impacts from this practice. However, I did hear a message on the PA at 7th/Metro this morning, stating that "for maintenance purposes some Blue Line trains will turn back at Vernon". They didn't provide any details about the "maintenance purposes" that would be served by the turn-back.
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Post by jdrcrasher on Oct 26, 2016 21:02:50 GMT -8
Well myself and a friend of mine took Expo on Monday, and our westbound train had stopped at around 12:45 for like 15 minutes just after we passed Bergamot station. A metro worker on board counting riders said it it was probably because there were "too many trains at the terminus station".
And apparently everyone knows about the increased frequencies. At around 3pm the eastbound platform at 4th street was jam packed and we had to wait for a 2nd train.
Overall, though, I was satisfied with the experience.
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Post by bluelineshawn on Nov 6, 2016 13:19:44 GMT -8
It's anecdotal but I can't recall Metro being in the consciousness of the LA middle class as it's been since Expo opened. Never have I heard so many people talking about it and actually riding it. And I live downtown. Unfortunately what I hear and discuss is overwhelmingly negative. For many people expo is their only experience with LA mass transit and they generally think that it sucks. Everyone has stories about multiple events of unexplained delays.
I can't really say that I blame them. It will get better over time, but such delays are part and parcel of street running trains. It will never, ever be as reliable as the red/purple lines. Lines with significant grade separation (gold line, Crenshaw) will be the most reliable. Still expo needs to get better and it will get better. But will the middle class riders still be there?
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Post by masonite on Nov 7, 2016 9:29:15 GMT -8
It's anecdotal but I can't recall Metro being in the consciousness of the LA middle class as it's been since Expo opened. Never have I heard so many people talking about it and actually riding it. And I live downtown. Unfortunately what I hear and discuss is overwhelmingly negative. For many people expo is their only experience with LA mass transit and they generally think that it sucks. Everyone has stories about multiple events of unexplained delays. I can't really say that I blame them. It will get better over time, but such delays are part and parcel of street running trains. It will never, ever be as reliable as the red/purple lines. Lines with significant grade separation (gold line, Crenshaw) will be the most reliable. Still expo needs to get better and it will get better. But will the middle class riders still be there? My first handful of rides were mostly disappointing as well, but it has been better. I could see a lot of people not sticking with it though. We'll see if Measure M can get over the hump tomorrow. I'm naturally skeptical that it can get 66.666% as it is a tough hurdle and the Southern part of the County seems mostly opposed as far as City officials. Also, the Daily News came out against it, which I was a little surprised at. On the other hand, there have been a lot of commercials for Measure M. Even more than Measure R from what I remember. Measure J did not have much in the way of advertising and I know some people felt that made the difference. I suspect we won't know tomorrow as the vote will be close and they'll need to count absentee votes.
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Post by tramfan on Nov 7, 2016 16:25:14 GMT -8
I live in the Rancho Park area and the WOWHOA has written a letter to Metro complaining about the six minute headways that on average close the gates at Overland, Westwood and Military (also include Barrington West of the 405) every three minutes. There are a lot of angry motorists who sometimes have to wait to let multiple trains pass. This morning at 8.30 AM I waited at Military and watched 4 trains pass before the gates went up. I personally do not mind because I'm a big supporter of public transport but I saw people ahead of me getting really frustrated in their cars.
All the complaints I've read and heard so far from people living around the Expo line can be attributed to a new phenomenon in car happy LA: street running trains. In European countries where streetcars are more common inner cities are made "car-unfriendly" to give public transportation more room to move and also more importantly to force drivers out of their cars in favor of public transportation. What is happening in LA and especially because of the Expo line is the start of turning a car culture slowly into a more public transportation friendly environment. This does not go without all the frustration that car drivers are experiencing now but will over time become the new normal. Drivers frustrated for waiting at the gates of Overland, Westwood, Military and Barrington will find other ways to get where they want, accept the new normal or hopefully consider taking public transportation. It will not be an overnight love fest.
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f ron
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Post by f ron on Nov 7, 2016 18:54:40 GMT -8
I live in the Rancho Park area and the WOWHOA has written a letter to Metro complaining about the six minute headways that on average close the gates at Overland, Westwood and Military (also include Barrington West of the 405) every three minutes. There are a lot of angry motorists who sometimes have to wait to let multiple trains pass. This morning at 8.30 AM I waited at Military and watched 4 trains pass before the gates went up. I personally do not mind because I'm a big supporter of public transport but I saw people ahead of me getting really frustrated in their cars. All the complaints I've read and heard so far from people living around the Expo line can be attributed to a new phenomenon in car happy LA: street running trains. In European countries where streetcars are more common inner cities are made "car-unfriendly" to give public transportation more room to move and also more importantly to force drivers out of their cars in favor of public transportation. What is happening in LA and especially because of the Expo line is the start of turning a car culture slowly into a more public transportation friendly environment. This does not go without all the frustration that car drivers are experiencing now but will over time become the new normal. Drivers frustrated for waiting at the gates of Overland, Westwood, Military and Barrington will find other ways to get where they want, accept the new normal or hopefully consider taking public transportation. It will not be an overnight love fest. It's a problem. A bigger problem than it needs to be if cars must wait for 4 trains to pass before the gates open again. I've witnessed such a thing myself on Overland Avenue (not in the car thank god!). At peak hours traffic is stacked both ways past the freeway to the south and all the way to Pico to the north. You say that frustrated drivers " waiting at the gates of Overland, Westwood, Military and Barrington will find other ways to get where they want, accept the new normal or hopefully consider taking public transportation." Those are pretty limited options as there are no other north-south routes in our neighborhood those drivers could take. Little solace for parents getting thier kids to school before work or for a local who needs to shuttle down to Pico to pick up the dry cleaning or someone who just needs to get to work --all to places the Expo Line doesn't go. The lack of grade seperation on the line may have been a clever cash saving option in principle but in practice its bad for everyone. It's negatively impacted the local environment and is giving the Expo Line's reputation a black eye. It may improve but it may also take a good while before it does and if the Metro Service Alerts on Metro's Twitter feed are any indication (lots of delays almost daily) then travel times for the line will likely be made longer come December 1st. Imagine if the City of L.A. decided not to pony up the cash to grade seperate Sepulveda? It would have been an even bigger mess.
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Post by RMoses on Nov 7, 2016 20:17:24 GMT -8
The signal preemption is contributing to traffic congestion on Lincoln northbound and during peak evenings will be impacting the freeway off ramp from the 10. The traffic has gotten worse during PM commutes with the increased headways.
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Post by gatewaygent on Nov 7, 2016 20:59:22 GMT -8
Interesting growing pains. I wonder if the communities along the route of the Blue Line went through this? Or is this more a case of Westside privilege vs. Gateway Cities low-rent woes and disenfranchisement?
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expo
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Post by expo on Nov 8, 2016 10:46:11 GMT -8
I rode the train EB last night, and to be honest the delays related to stop lights were absurd. It took around 16 minutes just to get from Jefferson/USC to Pico Station, only a 1.4 mile stretch. That's an average speed of 5.25 mph, around the pace of a quick jog. And that was after hitting plenty of lights from Crenshaw to Jefferson/USC. These street light stops created significant bunching, and the train behind mine had to hold ahead of Pico station for a long time waiting for other trains turn around at 7th/Metro. I heard a number of people complaining how bad the experience was, many saying they wouldn't ride again.
It seems abundantly clear that the Expo Line is not a useful line without more preemption. Until Metro gets that figured out (I know LADOT is involved as well), the Expo Line (and by extension Metro) will have a bad reputation on the Westside.
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Post by masonite on Nov 8, 2016 11:26:01 GMT -8
I live in the Rancho Park area and the WOWHOA has written a letter to Metro complaining about the six minute headways that on average close the gates at Overland, Westwood and Military (also include Barrington West of the 405) every three minutes. There are a lot of angry motorists who sometimes have to wait to let multiple trains pass. This morning at 8.30 AM I waited at Military and watched 4 trains pass before the gates went up. I personally do not mind because I'm a big supporter of public transport but I saw people ahead of me getting really frustrated in their cars. All the complaints I've read and heard so far from people living around the Expo line can be attributed to a new phenomenon in car happy LA: street running trains. In European countries where streetcars are more common inner cities are made "car-unfriendly" to give public transportation more room to move and also more importantly to force drivers out of their cars in favor of public transportation. What is happening in LA and especially because of the Expo line is the start of turning a car culture slowly into a more public transportation friendly environment. This does not go without all the frustration that car drivers are experiencing now but will over time become the new normal. Drivers frustrated for waiting at the gates of Overland, Westwood, Military and Barrington will find other ways to get where they want, accept the new normal or hopefully consider taking public transportation. It will not be an overnight love fest. It's a problem. A bigger problem than it needs to be if cars must wait for 4 trains to pass before the gates open again. I've witnessed such a thing myself on Overland Avenue (not in the car thank god!). At peak hours traffic is stacked both ways past the freeway to the south and all the way to Pico to the north. You say that frustrated drivers " waiting at the gates of Overland, Westwood, Military and Barrington will find other ways to get where they want, accept the new normal or hopefully consider taking public transportation." Those are pretty limited options as there are no other north-south routes in our neighborhood those drivers could take. Little solace for parents getting thier kids to school before work or for a local who needs to shuttle down to Pico to pick up the dry cleaning or someone who just needs to get to work --all to places the Expo Line doesn't go. The lack of grade seperation on the line may have been a clever cash saving option in principle but in practice its bad for everyone. It's negatively impacted the local environment and is giving the Expo Line's reputation a black eye. It may improve but it may also take a good while before it does and if the Metro Service Alerts on Metro's Twitter feed are any indication (lots of delays almost daily) then travel times for the line will likely be made longer come December 1st. Imagine if the City of L.A. decided not to pony up the cash to grade seperate Sepulveda? It would have been an even bigger mess. Why would travel times be made longer come December 1st? They are already using 6 minute headways so nothing will change on Dec. 1. I know in my area west of the 405, people feel the need to blame something or someone else for traffic problems even though the traffic is pretty much on every street. When a parking lane was converted to a bus lane on Wilshire for a short stretch years ago, it was seen as the reason for all traffic west of the 405 and people were outraged even though the lane had never been anything except a parking lane up to then (it has since been converted into the longer Wilshire bus lane after the demonstration project was eliminated during the outcry and turned into a regular traffic lane for a time). Closer to me a stop sign was placed on a residential section of Bundy Drive that people regularly sped on a few blocks from an elementary school. The outrage that ensued was unbelievable pitting the wealthy single family homeowners to the north who use Bundy as a route to the Freeway against pedestrians in the neighborhood who had no where to cross the street and people tired of speeding cars on their windy residential street. The City nearly caved to the outrage on that one, but kept it for safety and liability reasons. Now the Barrington crossing is the big traffic causing culprit for some. Of course, the light at Olympic is far worse (it has a red light far more than every 3 minutes) and has always backed up Barrington traffic to near Santa Monica Blvd. in the afternoons. It has probably made things a little bit worse, but I don't really see any major difference having lived here for 20 years.
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f ron
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Post by f ron on Nov 8, 2016 11:32:33 GMT -8
It's a problem. A bigger problem than it needs to be if cars must wait for 4 trains to pass before the gates open again. I've witnessed such a thing myself on Overland Avenue (not in the car thank god!). At peak hours traffic is stacked both ways past the freeway to the south and all the way to Pico to the north. You say that frustrated drivers " waiting at the gates of Overland, Westwood, Military and Barrington will find other ways to get where they want, accept the new normal or hopefully consider taking public transportation." Those are pretty limited options as there are no other north-south routes in our neighborhood those drivers could take. Little solace for parents getting thier kids to school before work or for a local who needs to shuttle down to Pico to pick up the dry cleaning or someone who just needs to get to work --all to places the Expo Line doesn't go. The lack of grade seperation on the line may have been a clever cash saving option in principle but in practice its bad for everyone. It's negatively impacted the local environment and is giving the Expo Line's reputation a black eye. It may improve but it may also take a good while before it does and if the Metro Service Alerts on Metro's Twitter feed are any indication (lots of delays almost daily) then travel times for the line will likely be made longer come December 1st. Imagine if the City of L.A. decided not to pony up the cash to grade seperate Sepulveda? It would have been an even bigger mess. Why would travel times be made longer come December 1st? They are already using 6 minute headways so nothing will change on Dec. 1. I know in my area west of the 405, people feel the need to blame something or someone else for traffic problems even though the traffic is pretty much on every street. When a parking lane was converted to a bus lane on Wilshire for a short stretch years ago, it was seen as the reason for all traffic west of the 405 and people were outraged even though the lane had never been anything except a parking lane up to then (it has since been converted into the longer Wilshire bus lane after the demonstration project was eliminated during the outcry and turned into a regular traffic lane for a time). Closer to me a stop sign was placed on a residential section of Bundy Drive that people regularly sped on a few blocks from an elementary school. The outrage that ensued was unbelievable pitting the wealthy single family homeowners to the north who use Bundy as a route to the Freeway against pedestrians in the neighborhood who had no where to cross the street and people tired of speeding cars on their windy residential street. The City nearly caved to the outrage on that one, but kept it for safety and liability reasons. Now the Barrington crossing is the big traffic causing culprit for some. Of course, the light at Olympic is far worse (it has a red light far more than every 3 minutes) and has always backed up Barrington traffic to near Santa Monica Blvd. in the afternoons. It has probably made things a little bit worse, but I don't really see any major difference having lived here for 20 years. Metro has said that they're reviewing travel times. Expo has demonstrated difficulty maintaining a 47 minute trip and subject to thier review that time could be ammended December 1st to 'reflect reality". Their words. www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-expo-line-behind-schedule-20201010-snap-story.htmlMy wording could be construed to mean that the trips themselves become longer. They wouldn't of course, only stated times would be longer.
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Post by tramfan on Nov 8, 2016 14:58:50 GMT -8
Grade separation at Overland and Westwood was something that was brought up for discussion but the nimbys only wanted tunneling which was financially prohibitive because of exisiting flood control. If they had opted for grade separation above the roadways it could have possibly been done for some extra money. But the stubborn stance of the nimbys took this option away and thus we have what is now reality. Even if Overland is congested with three lanes of cars to national, it still does not have the same passenger count as a full Expo train in rush hour. Most of the traffic coming from the congested 10 freeway has been in bumper to bumper slow moving lanes already; a little bit more on Overland does not really make the commute outrageously long, adjust your leaving time and by a couple of minutes, accept the new reality or find another route to your job at Fox on Pico or Century City (Motor does have grade separation...).
The waiting time for trains around the USC area and downtown at traffic lights needs to be changed to exemption. It is ridiculous that a train with 250 people on board has to wait for cars with only one person in it. LADOT is still public transportation averse, they also need to adjust to the new normal of more public transportation.
As a transitional commuter owning 3 cars I start to take the Expoline more and more; on Saturday I had to be at a meeting at Universal Studios. I left at 8 AM got on a train at Sepulveda and arrived via the Red line connection at the Universal City station one hour and ten minutes later. The return trip was even faster because of a better connection at 7th Street station. The trip to Universal I could have done faster by car, the return trip probably not because of congested weekend traffic on the Sepulveda pass.
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Post by TransportationZ on Nov 9, 2016 9:51:53 GMT -8
Grade separation at Overland and Westwood was something that was brought up for discussion but the nimbys only wanted tunneling which was financially prohibitive because of exisiting flood control. If they had opted for grade separation above the roadways it could have possibly been done for some extra money. But the stubborn stance of the nimbys took this option away and thus we have what is now reality. Even if Overland is congested with three lanes of cars to national, it still does not have the same passenger count as a full Expo train in rush hour. Most of the traffic coming from the congested 10 freeway has been in bumper to bumper slow moving lanes already; a little bit more on Overland does not really make the commute outrageously long, adjust your leaving time and by a couple of minutes, accept the new reality or find another route to your job at Fox on Pico or Century City (Motor does have grade separation...). The waiting time for trains around the USC area and downtown at traffic lights needs to be changed to exemption. It is ridiculous that a train with 250 people on board has to wait for cars with only one person in it. LADOT is still public transportation averse, they also need to adjust to the new normal of more public transportation. As a transitional commuter owning 3 cars I start to take the Expoline more and more; on Saturday I had to be at a meeting at Universal Studios. I left at 8 AM got on a train at Sepulveda and arrived via the Red line connection at the Universal City station one hour and ten minutes later. The return trip was even faster because of a better connection at 7th Street station. The trip to Universal I could have done faster by car, the return trip probably not because of congested weekend traffic on the Sepulveda pass. Now that measure M seems to be passing by a decent lead in the polls, there will be even more increased pressure for LADOT get over it and give the trains more priority. The county has spoken, and people want more rail. Full trains sitting for SOVs is going to look more and more ridiculous as the system is fully built out, and the rails will be moving as many people as freeways.
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Post by masonite on Nov 9, 2016 11:35:59 GMT -8
Grade separation at Overland and Westwood was something that was brought up for discussion but the nimbys only wanted tunneling which was financially prohibitive because of exisiting flood control. If they had opted for grade separation above the roadways it could have possibly been done for some extra money. But the stubborn stance of the nimbys took this option away and thus we have what is now reality. Even if Overland is congested with three lanes of cars to national, it still does not have the same passenger count as a full Expo train in rush hour. Most of the traffic coming from the congested 10 freeway has been in bumper to bumper slow moving lanes already; a little bit more on Overland does not really make the commute outrageously long, adjust your leaving time and by a couple of minutes, accept the new reality or find another route to your job at Fox on Pico or Century City (Motor does have grade separation...). The waiting time for trains around the USC area and downtown at traffic lights needs to be changed to exemption. It is ridiculous that a train with 250 people on board has to wait for cars with only one person in it. LADOT is still public transportation averse, they also need to adjust to the new normal of more public transportation. As a transitional commuter owning 3 cars I start to take the Expoline more and more; on Saturday I had to be at a meeting at Universal Studios. I left at 8 AM got on a train at Sepulveda and arrived via the Red line connection at the Universal City station one hour and ten minutes later. The return trip was even faster because of a better connection at 7th Street station. The trip to Universal I could have done faster by car, the return trip probably not because of congested weekend traffic on the Sepulveda pass. Now that measure M seems to be passing by a decent lead in the polls, there will be even more increased pressure for LADOT get over it and give the trains more priority. The county has spoken, and people want more rail. Full trains sitting for SOVs is going to look more and more ridiculous as the system is fully built out, and the rails will be moving as many people as freeways. Doubtful. The time to get this going was before the election. Metro has their money now for the future and will be focusing on new lines not existing ones. Expo will become less important in time. Once the Purple Line is built, it will be a secondary line not a major part of the system.
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expo
Junior Member
Posts: 71
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Post by expo on Nov 10, 2016 9:05:46 GMT -8
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Post by davebowman on Nov 10, 2016 10:08:52 GMT -8
I got sick a couple days after the Expo Line changed to six-minute headways, but based on a small sample size I'd say it makes a huge difference. Cutting down average wait time by about ten minutes a day or more does add up quickly, and one no longer has to fear standing around at a station for fifteen minutes or more if you just miss a train and the next one is late. And the trains are definitely less crowded.
With the time change I'm now taking the train home in the dark for the first time, and I have to ask: what is up with the lights at the base of the TAP readers that shine into your face and blind you as you tap your card? It is really annoying.
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Post by TransportationZ on Nov 11, 2016 7:36:10 GMT -8
Now that measure M seems to be passing by a decent lead in the polls, there will be even more increased pressure for LADOT get over it and give the trains more priority. The county has spoken, and people want more rail. Full trains sitting for SOVs is going to look more and more ridiculous as the system is fully built out, and the rails will be moving as many people as freeways. Doubtful. The time to get this going was before the election. Metro has their money now for the future and will be focusing on new lines not existing ones. Expo will become less important in time. Once the Purple Line is built, it will be a secondary line not a major part of the system. Expo won't become a secondary line until Purple reaches Santa Monica and Crenshaw is extended northward; both which aren't happening anytime soon even with Measure M.
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Post by davebowman on Nov 14, 2016 11:05:56 GMT -8
Not a good start to the week on the Expo Line: the EB train that was supposed to arrive at Bergamot Station at 8:05am never showed up and the 8:11am train was a couple minutes late, leading to a very full train after Palms station; there was a crazy guy I've seen before ranting angrily in my car and I seriously considered getting off and taking a following train but he thankfully exited after a couple of stops; two bicyclists got on at the front of the first car and blocked the forward doors, and when I needed to squeeze past them to get off a young woman next to them listening to earbuds never moved to let me get by.
When I got off at Expo Park USC I could see another train right behind us at Expo/Vermont, but I couldn't tell if it was a test train or not.
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Post by exporider on Nov 14, 2016 15:34:36 GMT -8
Not a good start to the week on the Expo Line: the EB train that was supposed to arrive at Bergamot Station at 8:05am never showed up and the 8:11am train was a couple minutes late, leading to a very full train after Palms station; there was a crazy guy I've seen before ranting angrily in my car and I seriously considered getting off and taking a following train but he thankfully exited after a couple of stops; two bicyclists got on at the front of the first car and blocked the forward doors, and when I needed to squeeze past them to get off a young woman next to them listening to earbuds never moved to let me get by. When I got off at Expo Park USC I could see another train right behind us at Expo/Vermont, but I couldn't tell if it was a test train or not. The best thing about the enhanced service, with 6-minute headways, is that there's almost always another train arriving a couple minutes later if the first train is packed, and the second train usually has plenty of seating available. So if you're not in too much of a hurry, or if you're too tired to stand, it's worth the wait. It helps if you have a next train cell phone app to confirm how close the next train is, just in case. If you're only going as far as USC, the second train will run pretty fast. But if you're going all the way to downtown (as I do) the second train will be delayed on Flower to make room for Blue Line trains.
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