Metro

Last week, the Los Angeles Times published a disastrously titled piece entitled "L.A. Expo Line hasn't reduced congestion as promised, a study finds." The article is based on a study by the University of Southern California that used traffic monitors to gauge how many cars are driving on the freeway and arterial streets parallel to the Expo Line between Culver City and Downtown Los Angeles.

This morning, the Metro board's Construction Committee approved an additional $131.8M for construction of the downtown Los Angeles Regional Connector subway. This increase ups the budget from $1.42 billion to 1.55 billion - a 9 percent increase.

Metro's Planning and Programming Committee approved the proposed bike-share fare structure. Three payment options would be offered: a $20 monthly pass, a $40 annual "flex pass," or $3.50 per half-hour for walk-up single use. For further Metro bike-share fare details see earlier SBLA coverage on the proposal.

A Metro staff report available this week gives a peek into the proposed fare structure for the transit agency's bike-share system, coming to downtown Los Angeles in 2016. Metro has contracted with Bicycle Transit Systems (BTS) to open a 60+ station, 1000+ bicycle system extending from Union Station to USC. The new report [PDF] recommends that the Metro board approve bike-share fees and an interoperability plan, both detailed below.

For rainy Tuesday night viewing, watch Metro's updated Union Station explainer video.

(NO-710 advocate Joe Cano recorded the meeting. His video can be found here.)

What was I writing about, a woman wanted to know.

In a ruling filed yesterday, an appeals court denied Beverly Hills' attempt to block Metro from tunneling under their city to extend the Purple Line subway.  The city of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) challenged Metro's environmental studies as being inadequate. In 2014, Beverly Hills lost in the initial round of the lawsuit. This week Beverly Hills lost in their efforts to overturn the earlier ruling. The appeal court's verdict takes Metro a few steps closer to moving full speed ahead with subway construction.

Today, Metro CEO Phil Washington announced the opening date for the initial 12-mile extension of the Foothill Gold Line. The new Gold Line extension is set to open on March 5, 2016.