http://thesource.metro.net/2013/12/20/the-sources-big-honkin-2013-roundup-post-has-landed-take-it-its-yours/
By Steve Hymon, December 20, 2013
Above is the very nice rainbow seen Thursday afternoon over East Los
Angeles and County-USC Medical Center. Will there be a rainbow over
Metro in 2014? Stay tuned for that, folks.
As for 2013, here are some of the highlights:

•
Metro debuted a new “under construction” map
in June, which proceeded to skip happily across the internet. Metro
currently has 87 miles of rail lines and that number will pass 100 once
the projects shown on the map are completed.
•In February, the
ExpressLanes projected opened on the 10 freeway between downtown Los Angeles and the 605 freeway, joining the lanes that had opened on the 110 in Nov. 2012.
Perhaps the big news on the ExpressLanes front was the Metro Board of Director’s decision last spring to
suspend account maintenance fees.
Although the fees applied to relatively few existing customers at the
time, there seemed to be a positive reaction from the public — by late
summer more than 200,000 transponders had been issued, twice the number
expected before the lanes opened on the 10 and 110.
Next year will be a big one for the ExpressLanes as the Metro Board
is scheduled to decide whether to continue the pilot program or not.
•
In a pronounced nod to transit etiquette,
Metro introduced platform decals in February in an effort to get
passengers boarding trains to stand aside in order to allow passengers
to disembark from the train.
The reaction by many Metro customers: that’s nice but what about decals to show people to stand on the right on escalators?
•It was a big year for one of those Metro Rail projects, with the Metro Board of Directors approving a
$1.27-billion contract in
June to for the final design and construction of the 8.5-mile
Crenshaw/LAX Line light rail line. Earlier in the year, the Board — in a
deal brokered by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and then-Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa — had decided to
add two optional stations to the project — one serving Leimert Park and the other at Hindry Avenue to serve nearby Westchester.
•The
second phase of the Expo Line and the
Gold Line Foothill Extension both are about halfway complete with work proceeding smoothly on both of the Measure R-funded projects.

Track work near Overland Avenue earlier this fall. Photo by Expo Line Construction Authority.

Work crews working on the bridge over Palm Drive in Azusa. Photo: Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.
•Meanwhile, utility relocation and other exploratory work continued
in advanced of construction on the Regional Connector and the Purple
Line Extension subway.

Metro contractors in October looking for tiebacks — anchors that help support building foundations.
•Early in the year, the
Board approved a contract to provide cell phone service in underground stations. The contract was recently signed and work will soon begin; complete installation is expected to take 24 months.
•In March, a new
‘share the road’ poster debuted and was widely praised by the cycling community.
A T-shirt with the design on it is available in the
new Metro store that opened in December.
•
Metro released draft alternatives for the Los Angeles Union Station master plan in May. In October, the Metro Board approved
going forward
with a concept that would construct a greatly expanded east-west
passenger concourse while relocating the bus plaza to a north-south
configuration closer to Alameda Street that would also consolidate many
of the bus stops around Union Station. The final master plan is
scheduled to be considered by the board in the latter half of 2014.
•
Zipcars finally landed at Union Station in March.
•
Gate latching finally got underway in June,
beginning with the Red/Purple Line. By year’s end, five Gold Line and
five Blue Line stations were also latched. Gates on the Green Line will
be latched in early 2014.
•
More frequent late night service was added to the Expo, Gold and Orange lines in June.
•Los Angeles got a new mayor on July 1, meaning the Metro Board also got a new member — Mayor Eric Garcetti. He subsequently
announced his three appointees to the Board: Councilman Mike Bonin, Councilman Paul Krekorian, and Jackie Dupont-Walker.
•In October, in an
introductory video
for the annual Mobility 21 conference, Mayor Garcetti said that another
transportation ballot measure is possible in Los Angeles County and
that connecting Los Angeles International Airport to Metro Rail is among
his highest priorities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZZVZqT5PdY
•In July, Metro
released its review
of a Beverly Hills Unified School District consultant memo that
challenged the agency’s rationale for choosing the Constellation site
for the Purple Line Extension ’s Century City station. The gist of it:
Metro defended its prior work that determined that Santa Monica
Boulevard was an inappropriate location for a subway station due to the
location of active earthquake faults.
In the meantime, lawsuits by the city of Beverly Hills and the
Beverly Hills Unified School District against Metro and the Federal
Transit Administration challenging the project’s environmental studies
continue to proceed through the courts.
•Rail cars with a
new exterior design debuted in August on the Blue and Expo lines.
•Metro held a media event in September in hopes of
stopping a rash of suicides
along the Blue Line over the past couple of years. Signs were also
installed along the Metro Rail system with information on where people
could get suicide crisis help.
•Metro staff this fall
issued a report
that refined the alternatives for the East San Fernando Valley Transit
Corridor project. They are: peak hour bus lanes along the curb of Van
Nuys Boulevard, a bus lane in the center of Van Nuys Boulevard, a
low-floor light rail line in the middle of Van Nuys Boulevard and a
light rail line that would require passenger platforms in the middle of
Van Nuys Boulevard. The draft environmental study for the project is
expected to be complete in 2014.
•The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project managed to open several components of the project this year, including a
1.7-mile segment of the new northbound carpool lane, the
new Wilshire flyover ramps and the new
northbound off-ramp to Sunset Boulevard – just this past week — the
new Mulholland Bridge, the direct descendent of Carmageddon I and II.

The new eastbound Wilshire to northbound 405 flyover on-ramp. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.

The new Mulholland Bridge. Photo by Dave Sotero/Metro.
•In November, a Metro Board committee
discussed the need for fare restructuring,
which is expected to be formally proposed and considered in the first
half of 2014. Among options that agency staff discussed are
unlimited rides on a single fare for a certain time period (for example,
an hour or 90 minutes), different fares for peak and off-peak hours and
a simplified zone structure and/or offering flat fares for zoned buses.
And that’s pretty much the highlights as the sun sets on 2013 — please leave a comment if I left anything significant out.
A profound thank you to everyone for reading, riding and writing us
with your questions, concerns and comments this past year. After our
usual holiday breather, we’re looking forward to explaining what
YOUR government is doing in 2014.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year,
Steve

A lovely November evening as seen from the Metro mothership. Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.