The Metro employees planning the Downtown Regional Connector projects recently published their monthly update on the project, which I’ve cut and pasted below. The connector would tie together the two Gold Lines, the Blue Line and Expo Line so that passengers on all four lines can travel into the heart [continue reading]
President Obama on Monday released his budget for fiscal year 2011, including his recommendations for transportation funding. The chart above, produced by Metro, shows how Obama officials want to dole out money from the federal New Starts program that helps local areas pay for big transit projects. The gist of [continue reading]
Federal officials have denied a request by Metro to provide $77.6 million in the coming year’s federal budget to be used for preliminary engineering on the Westside Subway Extension and Downtown Regional Connector projects. At the same time, federal officials say they are diligently working with Metro to advance planning [continue reading]
This item led Metro CEO’s daily email memo to agency staffers on Wednesday: Today, I wrote to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood to encourage him to hold a public listening session at our headquarters on the New Starts reforms he announced last week. On January 13, 2010 the U.S. [continue reading]
Some significant transit news out of Washington D.C. today: The rules that govern which major transit projects receive federal funding have been eased so that theoretically more projects can qualify. Why does this matter to Los Angeles County? Metro is currently seeking federal funds for the Westside Subway Extension and [continue reading]
As I posted last month, the funding game for the Westside Subway Extension and the Downtown Regional Connector projects was shifting from Los Angeles County to Washington D.C. Now it’s official. Earlier this month, Metro CEO Art Leahy submitted a formal request for $77.6 million to the federal government, with [continue reading]
One of our big hopes for The Source is to include reader email and feedback. It’s one thing for us to tell you what Metro is thinking — and it’s equally important in my view to hear what customers and taxpayers think of Metro. With that in mind, here’s our [continue reading]
If you’ve been following progress on the Regional Connector project, you already know that the Little Tokyo community has not exactly been thrilled with Metro’s proposals to build rails at street level across First and Alameda Streets to connect with the Gold Line. The Little Tokyo Community Council has, in [continue reading]
With the opening of the Eastside Gold Line, I’ve noticed some confusion in the media about a related project: the downtown regional connector. One story in a prominent newspaper whose name I shall not speak said the connector would still require passengers from East L.A. to transfer to reach the [continue reading]
We launched the Source quickly last month in time to report on the October meeting of the Board of Directors. But I wanted to circle back and try to better explain something that happened at the September meeting — when the Board voted to seek federal funds for both the [continue reading]
