The federal New Starts program helps local transit agencies build large and high impact transit projects; Metro is seeking $2 billion of New Starts money to help fund the Purple Line Extension and the Regional Connector. The letter from Rep. McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) is very helpful, given the uncertainty of [continue reading]
MayoralLetterAFFBonds4-30-13 The America Fast Forward initiative got a nice boost last week when the U.S. Conference of Mayors issued a letter (above) to Congress supporting Metro’s attempt to create a new class of bonds that could be used to accelerate transportation projects across the country, including Metro’s Measure R highway [continue reading]
Photo by Luis Inzunza/Metro This morning, the City of Agoura Hills and Metro broke ground on the Canwood Street Improvements Project. The project, scheduled to begin on April 29, will receive full funding of $1.1 million for construction from Measure R. “We are deeply appreciative of Metro’s support for this [continue reading]
April Board of Directors agenda Here is the agenda for the regular monthly meeting of the Metro Board of Directors that is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday at Metro HQ in downtown Los Angeles. As usual, I’ll be at the meeting and will post about some of the [continue reading]
Some very welcome news via the proposed budget released today by President Barack Obama: the budget includes $130 million to help fund two of Metro’s big rail projects: the Purple Line Extension and the Regional Connector. The budget allocates $65 million to both projects. This is the first time that [continue reading]
Photo by ExpoLine Fan Now that’s a big drill! That’s work being done last night to drill one of the holes that will hold a column supporting the Expo Line bridge over Venice Boulevard. Check out a lot more construction photos of the Expo Line’s second phase on ExpoLine [continue reading]
Metro received word that former CEO Julian Burke, who was CEO from 1997 to early 2001, has passed away. He took the job at Metro — then only known as the MTA — at a time when the agency was in financial turmoil and facing a 1996 consent decree to [continue reading]
The San Fernando Valley Service Council will once again lead off this month’s series of Service Council meetings on Wednesday, April 3, in Van Nuys. A wide range of topics will be covered at the various meetings. Please note that some of the presentations are tentative at the time of this posting. For more information about [continue reading]
A few notes from today’s mostly uneventful meeting of the Metro Board: •Board Member Vice Chair Diane DuBois offered a motion — approved by the Board — that Metro staff produce a report for the April meetings that looks at fare restructuring. She asked that the report include a variety [continue reading]
New Realestate Mantra Interesting but not shocking report: in five metro areas studied, home prices fared better when the homes were near transit. The five metro areas are Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix and San Francisco. The study is above. It was done by the American Public Transportation Assn., a [continue reading]
