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Post by crzwdjk on Mar 1, 2009 22:45:55 GMT -8
Sounds like Metro's own preferred operation is through-routing Pasadena-Long Beach and Eastside-Expo, which seems reasonable enough. Expo and Eastside seems like a good match demand-wise, and while Pasadena and Long Beach are not, turning half the Blue Line trains at Chinatown would work quite well. In terms of storage yards, the Foothill and Long Beach lines have Irwindale and Del Amo, while Expo will have a small yard in Santa Monica, and Eastside will then get the Highland yard, so it will make sense to keep a direct connection from Union Station to the Eastside line for non-revenue moves. It will be quite a thing to see three car light rail trains running every 2.5 minutes through a new downtown subway.
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Post by antonio on Mar 2, 2009 8:35:19 GMT -8
I strongly disagree with Metro's preferred DTC operation plan. I see Santa Monica-Sierra Madre Villa (with short runs to Chinatown) (Aqua) and Atlantic-Long Beach Transit Mall (Blue). Once Foothill is completed out to Montclair there'll be Montclair-Union Station (Gold). Let's address Aqua first. Expo would benefit from connecting at Union Station far more than would the current Blue Line. There is really no need for Metrolink transfers to take a 75 minute trip to Long Beach. On the other hand, most of those Metrolink riders probably want to go to their jobs on the Westside so they need a one seat ride on Expo. The Wilshire Subway will cover the big saturated job areas but a lot of people will still need access to places like the Water Garden and the offices off of Bundy. Sure, East LA riders work on the Westside too (and they'll be able to transfer to the Red/Purple Line at 7th Metro but for them the greatest areas they need to get to are in DTLA itself and in the manufacturing jobs to the south so it makes sense to route the Blue Line to Atlantic. Pasadena riders benefit from actually accessing DTLA and its important to remember that a lot of people who work and go to school at USC live in Pasadena so an Expo-Pasadena alignment is better there also
Also my alignment plan is much better from an operational standpoint because Aqua and Blue would each have access to full maintenance yards (Carson and Irwindale). With Metro's current plan the smallish Expo yard would struggle to meet the demands of an East LA-Santa Monica line as its only planned to hold about 40 cars and would require a lot of extra non-revenue moves every day to move cars out of the Midway yard onto the Eastside tracks while the planned Blue Line would have two huge yards that would not really be at capacity (and if they were that would be unnecessary mileage to move them to the SM-ELA routing every day.
Also crzwdjk, what is the Highland Yard? I am not aware of any planned yard near Highland, only the Expo 2 yard at Stewart in SM, the Irwindale yard on the Foothill, and the 15 car Expo 1 Maintenance facility off of the Blue Line near Washington
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