Union Station

The Metro board approved environmental studies for Union Station run-through tracks which will improve overall station efficiency for Metrolink, Amtrak, and high-speed rail.

Lots going on: Union Station Metro Bike Hub groundbreaking, Blessing of the Bikes, Bike to Work Day, and Hollywood Metro Bike Hub opening!

The Metro board approved $13.8M to continue to design and engineer the planned $2.75B Union Station run-through-tracks project.

What are the most significant 2010 on-the-ground improvements for Los Angeles' green transportation? At-grade Exposition Line rail crossings? The city of Los Angeles' first sharrows? Sixty-thousand-plus Angelenos walking, biking and skating the first CicLAvia? Janette Sadik-Khan's visit for the L.A. Street Summit? A shattered elbow leading to another summit? The Backbone Bikeway Network making it into the city's Bike Plan? Wilshire Boulevard Bus-Only lanes lumping along? 30/10 lumping along? Long Beach leap-frogging?

I love this place. It is among the most beautiful train stations in the world, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. And I feel bad for Union Station, too: for years - and this may be part of the reason it hasn't fallen to the wrecking ball - not much happened here. Amtrak was sleepy before the State of California began funding it. Bus services was weak. There was no Metro Red Line or Gold Line. Now, with all that happening, and even more expansion coming in the next decade, L.A.'s primary transit hub actually has to figure out how to function.