Olympic Local Line, East L.A.

[gatewaygent]

I drive Olympic Bl. and have noticed the street is very wide as are the sidewalks. There is a curious black top covering the middle of Garfield from Ferguson to Olympic and continues onto Olympic east (it's not immediately obvious since the street was resurfaced) and continues to Vail Av. in Montebello. I'm guessing it's a vestige of the old East L.A. Line. Then it hit me: wouldn't Olympic Bl. make a great local adjunct line for the area?

With the East L.A. Purple Line extension under Whittier Bl. in hiatus, this line would serve the portion of East L.A. south of Whittier Bl., much like the Gold Line would continue to serve the portion of East L.A. north of Whittle Bl. The difference is that the Olympic Local Line would have stations spaced closer together (1/2 and/or 3/4 mile) and the alignment would be as follows:

Starting in Montebello at Montebello Bl./Whittier Bl., the line would head south down Montebello Bl. and then west onto Olympic Bl. through East L.A., into DTLA where Olympic Bl. becomes 9th St. Once in DTLA, a loop, a la Long Beach Transit Mall, would be established. The west bound track would continue past Main St., then be trenched below 9th St. and merge onto the pre-existing south bound track of the Blue/Expo Lines. On Washington Bl., it would follow the Blue Line east. On Main St., it would turn off the Blue Line track onto it's own northbound track with a layover station on Main St. between Olympic Bl. and 9th St. The east bound trip would take the train from the layover station east onto 9th St., next to the west bound track.

As an adjunct line through East L.A., it would allow the Purple Line extension (if/when it ever comes) to be built with fewer stations in East L.A., thus making it cheaper and more attractive to build. My understanding is that the Stations are what blows the budget for HRT subway projects. Station placements on the Purple Line would be located on Atlantic, Indiana, and Soto.

So the overall vision is as follows: the Olympic Local Line, in concert with the Gold Line, would take care of local needs. The Purple Line, with limited stops in East L.A., would be more of an express service.

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[bzcat]

Are you envisioning this as a streetcar? The Downtown portion you described will be difficult to construct as light rail because of the tight circle. If you want this as light rail, it probably needs to continue in a straight line beyond Downtown LA to Pico Union. Maybe continue on Pico Blvd or Venice Blvd all the way to the West side.

The other problem I see is that Olympic is too far south from the population center in East LA. The proposed line passes through some low density industrial areas so ridership will not be great compare to a line on Whittier Blvd/7th Street. There is a reason why the 720 bus runs on Whittier and not Olympic in East LA.

But conceptually, I think the line could work if there is plan to revitalize the industrial and warehouse area south of the 10 freeway.

[gatewaygent]

I had to modify my introduction, I left a lot of information out. Anyway, as far as technology, I was thinking LRT so that the technology stays consistent with the rest of the system. Is there really a need to start overlapping the rail system technologies ala Pacific Electric/Los Angeles Railway?

The portion of Olympic Bl. you're thinking of is full of shops, warehouses, and is then backed by the Union Pacific rail yard, BNSF rail yard, and the city of Vernon. So you're kind of right. Yes, this isn't the population center of East L.A., but there's still a decent residential density along this portion of Olympic Bl.; and the density only increases the farther east you go. The Food4Less supermarket and CVS that opened off of the 8th St./Olympic Bl. split opened because there was a need; you should see it, it's packed! Moreover, there's a number of articulated buses that serve Olympic Bl.; if MTA didn't have the bus patrons for them, those buses would be used elsewhere a long time ago.