Crenshaw/LAX Line

Crenshaw/LAX Line
Map of approved route of Crenshaw/LAX Line
Overview
Type	Light rail
System	Metro Rail (Los Angeles County)
Status	Under construction
Locale	Crenshaw, Inglewood, Westchester
Termini	Aviation/Century (south) Expo/Crenshaw (north)
Stations	8[1] (+ 1 under construction infill station)
Website	Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project
Operation
Opened	Late 2019 (expected)[1]
Owner	Metro Rail
Operator(s)	Metro (LACMTA)
Character	At-grade, underground sections and aerial sections
Technical
Line length	8.5 miles (13.7 km)[1]
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map future extension to  Red Line and  Purple Line  Expo/Crenshaw   Martin Luther King Jr. Leimert Park Hyde Park Fairview Heights Downtown Inglewood I-405 Westchester/Veterans SR 42 Division 16 Yard Aviation/96th Street (2021) Aviation/Century I-105  Green Line  Detailed diagram showing all crossings future extension to  Red Line and  Purple Line  Expo/Crenshaw   Martin Luther King Jr. Leimert Park Crenshaw Blvd Hyde Park Crenshaw Blvd Brynhurst Avenue West Boulevard Fairview Heights High Street Centinela Avenue Downtown Inglewood La Brea Avenue Fir Avenue Eucalyptus Avenue Cedar Avenue Oak Street Hyde Park Boulevard I-405 (San Diego Freeway) La Cienega Avenue Hindry Avenue Westchester/Veterans SR 42 (Manchester Avenue) Arbor Vitae Street Division 16 Yard Aviation/96th Street (2021) Aviation/Century Century Boulevard LAX Runway North trench LAX Runway Tunnel LAX Runway South trench 111th Street Imperial Highway I-105 (Century Freeway)  Green Line  all stations accessible

The Crenshaw/LAX Line is an under-construction light-rail line that will run through southwest Los Angeles. The line will run generally north-south and will connect the Crenshaw Neighborhood and Leimert Park to the City of Inglewood and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). When completed, the line will be a part of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail System.

The project is being built by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). The project has been given high priority by Metro in its long-range plan,^[2] and has funding set aside in Measure R.^[3]

The Final EIR was certified on 22 September 2011.^[4] FTA approval to build the $1.766 billion^[5] light rail line was given in January 2012.^[6]

Metro began pre-construction in July 2012, and a Notice To Proceed was issued by Metro in September 2013.^[7] An official ground-breaking ceremony for the project was held on January 21, 2014.^[8] Heavy construction began in June 2014 and initial revenue service projected to begin by late 2019.^[1]

Route

The Metro Crenshaw/LAX Line project is an 8.5-mile light-rail (LRT) route, starting at the Expo/Crenshaw station on the Metro Expo Line, and connecting at a wye to the existing Metro Green Line just to the west of Aviation/LAX station. The initial segment includes eight stations; an infill station, Aviation/96th Street, will be built later to accommodate a planned people mover system at LAX.^[9]

The northern half of the route follows Crenshaw Boulevard from Exposition Boulevard down to 67th Street. The southern half of the route utilizes the Harbor Subdivision Right-Of-Way (ROW) from Crenshaw Boulevard to the Green Line just west of Imperial/Aviation.

At its northern terminus, Metro has decided not to directly connect the Crenshaw Line track to the at-grade Metro Expo Line track. Such a connection would have allowed the Crenshaw Line to interline with the Expo Line and terminate in Downtown Los Angeles. However, Metro argues that this is not operationally feasible (three lines would share tracks on Flower Street, leading to delays), and is therefore not worth the cost. Instead, its northern terminus will be an underground subway station at Expo/Crenshaw, built to enable a planned northern extension to the Purple Line and the Hollywood/Highland station on the Red Line in Hollywood.

Station listing

The project will include nine new Metro stations (including an infill station that will not open until several years after the rest of the line):

Future service

In June of 2018, Metro staff recommended a service pattern that would see two new services using the newly built infrastructure:

Recommended service on the Crenshaw/LAX line after opening

• One service would connect Expo/Crenshaw and Norwalk, running along the newly built line, then turning at the wye, passing through Aviation/LAX and continuing along the existing Green Line.
• Another, shorter, service would connect Redondo Beach and the newly constructed Aviation/Century station, running mostly along the existing southwest section of the Green Line, then passing through the wye after Mariposa to briefly travel along the newly built line. This service would extend to Aviation/96th Street when that station opens.

At peak hours, both services would see 6 minute headways. In addition, when the Crenshaw/LAX line opens in 2019, the current G Shuttle bus connecting Metro Rail to the LAX terminals would shift from Aviation/LAX to the new closer Aviation/Century station, providing a connection for air travelers until the opening of the LAX Train and Aviation/96th in 2023.^[12]

The arrangement is meant to provide a seamless rail option for the many passengers who currently transfer between the Green Line and north-south bus lines in the area, as well as operationally combine the Norwalk-LAX and Crenshaw/Expo-LAX legs, which have matching capacity needs, rather than combining either with the more sparsely used Redondo Beach leg. Operating all three potential routes through the wye (Redondo-Expo, Norwalk-Expo, and Norwalk-Redondo) would require increased headways and result in longer trip times, and capacity constraints on the Crenshaw/LAX Line infrastructure ruled out Crenshaw operating as a frequent-service trunk feeding both ends of the current Green Line.

Metro staff stated that operational patterns may change with the future opening of extensions south from Redondo Beach to Torrance or north from Expo/Crenshaw to Hollywood. The full Metro board has yet to approve the proposals,^[13] which were met with resistance from some board members, particularly Supervisor Janice Hahn. The board will come to a decision on the routing later in 2018.^[14]

Previously proposed service pattern. The proposed route of the Crenshaw/LAX Line is in dotted pink.

Previous proposals had suggested that one line would operate between Expo/Crenshaw station in the north and Aviation/Century in the south, or possibly extend to Redondo Beach station once the stations west of Aviation/LAX station could accommodate 3-car trains, with the strech southwest of the wye also served by the Metro Green Line.^[15] An additional service would have connected Norwalk to the new Aviation/Century station and planned 96th Street Transit station and the Airport Metro Connector.^[16]

History

The line was planned following the Los Angeles riots of 1992 as a way to better serve transit-dependent residents in the corridor while at the same time providing stimulus for positive economic growth in the South Los Angeles region. It was championed by State Senator Diane Watson and County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, both representing portions of the corridor.

In 1993-94, a Major Investment Study (MIS) was initiated.^[1] An architectural design and planning visioning was performed by the USC school of Architecture in 1996. A route refinement study followed in 1999-2000 to improve the shelf life and to narrow down the number of alternatives.

A new Major Investment Study (MIS) was completed in 2003. From 2007 through 2009, Metro conducted a draft environmental review of the line, taking public input and analyzing the environmental impacts and benefits of various alternatives. In December 2009, the Metro Board approved the Draft Environmental Impact Report^[17] and chose a "Locally Preferred Alternative".^[18]

This alternative, which included the preferred mode and route, became the subject of a final environmental study, resulting in a Final Environmental Impact Report. This final study was completed in May 2011.^[19]

Local community leaders, neighborhood councils, L.A. County Supervisors Yvonne Burke and Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Congresswoman Diane Watson continued to express enthusiastic support for the proposed light-rail line. In a letter to Metro dated November 5, 2007, Congresswoman Watson wrote:

Having advocated strenuously for a light rail 'spur line' to carry passengers from the Wilshire Corridor down the Crenshaw Corridor and, ultimately, to LAX for 25 years now, I am delighted to offer continued encouragement, advocacy and feedback for a Metro study (to)…avoid aggravating (the) Leimert Park traffic bottleneck, Coliseum to Vernon;…Wilshire/La Brea station connection to Westside Corridor line, avoiding hydrogen sulfide;…fully consider (the) below-grade option. (Comment ID 116-125 in the cited link)^[20]

Environmental review process

The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) describes several alternatives, as well as "Design Options" (optional features with additional cost).^[17] Many other alignments were considered previously, but eliminated due to lack of feasibility or benefit.

The following table summarizes key characteristics of each alternative:

* in 2008 dollars.

Selected alternative

In December 2009, the Metro Board selected a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), and in 2010 Metro conducted the Final Environmental Study for this alternative. This alternative included the LRT Baseline alignment, plus Design Options 1, 2 and 4. At this time, Metro also authorized further study of the remaining design options.

In selecting this alternative, Metro staff eliminated the BRT (bus rapid transit) alternative, stating that it was too slow to provide much benefit, and that it generally lacked public support.

Metro staff also concluded that the northernmost portion of the Crenshaw Corridor between Exposition and Wilshire was too expensive to include in the project if implemented as light-rail. Thus, study and implementation of that segment was deferred, to be considered separately in the future as a northern extension ("Phase 2") of the Crenshaw Line (see section below).

Metro estimated the light-rail line will initially have a daily ridership between 13,000 and 16,000, would cost $1.3 billion - $1.8 billion (in 2008 dollars), would take five years to complete construction, and would generate 7,800 construction jobs over this period.^[17]

Project budget

Measure R assumes a project cost of $1.470 billion (2008 dollars). Measure R sales tax revenues will provide up to $1.207 billion (82% of the budgeted cost). The remaining $263 million is expected to come from local funding. The Crenshaw Corridor project did not seek state or federal funding.^[29]

The LPA (including Design Options 1, 2 and 4) was estimated to cost $1.306 billion, which was within budget. If Metro were to include the remaining three design options, the cost would rise to $1.766 billion, exceeding the Measure R project cost by nearly $300 million, requiring cost deferments.

In October 2010 the federal government awarded the corridor a $546 million loan, to be paid back by Measure R tax revenue. The loan allowed pre-construction for the project to begin in summer 2012. The final Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor budget was $1.763-billion,^[5] as it included most of the design options. Project completion is expected in 2019.^[1]

Ultimately, the LPA, with the addition of Design Option 6 and the underground Leimert Park station, is budgeted at $1.766 billion.^[5]

Future Extensions

See also

• Crenshaw Northern Extension Rail Project
• Regional Connector
• Purple Line Extension
• Light rail

References

External links

• Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project – official Metro website
• Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Map (pdf)