G (Orange) Line

Metro's new tunnel connecting North Hollywood's Red Line and Orange Line stations is looking nearly complete. According to Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero, the project is anticipated to open next month. Per Metro [PDF] the tunnel will save riders approximately 44 seconds on transfers between the Red and Orange Lines.

I was hoping to write a couple of happy stories this week about the Metro Orange Line. The San Fernando Valley's highly-regarded workhorse Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) opened in 2005. Lately, a new pedestrian tunnel and faster bus speeds seemed imminent. These facilities would save time for the Orange Line's 30,000 daily riders.

Construction is underway for a new tunnel that will make it easier for riders to transfer between Metro's Orange and Red Lines. Per Metro's fact sheet [PDF], the new tunnel, officially the North Hollywood Station Underpass project, is expected to be completed in Spring 2016. Riders are already detouring around the pedestrian-unfriendly construction site barriers.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a high-quality bus based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable, and cost-effective services at metro-level capacities, has enjoyed rapid growth over the past few decades in major cities internationally, and is gaining momentum in the United States. Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle are set to join L.A. and the handful of U.S. cities with true BRT.

UCLA's Lewis Center revised some of the estimates in its recent report comparing the costs of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using California high-speed rail to those of bike, pedestrian, and local transit projects. The report's authors found that high-speed rail is not as expensive as an emission reduction as they first thought.

Streetfilms featured Los Angeles' Orange Line BRT and bike path in 2009. A new UCLA report says infrastructure projects like the Orange Line are a better way to invest cap-and-trade funds than CA High-Speed Rail.

Last week, I was given the opportunity to take a guided tour of the Orange Line Extension's bike path and public art installation.  For both the Expo Line and the Orange Line Extension, Metro commissioned a team of L.A. County artists to personalize the stations by creating public art projects to reflect the community.  Los Angeles Times architecture critic Chris Hawthorne mocked the stations as "aggressively banal," but Streetsblog South L.A.'s Sahra Sulaiman writes about how community groups are working to make the art even more accesible to those passing through.

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to visit all five of the new Orange Line stations on a tour of the newly installed art (more on that tomorrow.)  The afternoon also gave me a chance to ride and review the Orange Line Bike Path.  While I found the bike trail easy to use for the most part, the delay caused by the crossings create a trail of two bike rides.