As presently conceived, Metro's Harbor Subdivision Transit Corridor study has a number of problems. First, on its way out of Downtown LA, the line would pass through Vernon, an almost completely industrial city with a population of 91, making this segment effectively useless in spurring transit-oriented redevelopment and revitalization. Furthermore, connections to inbound Blue and South Broadway trains would render an additional inbound route redundant. Second, south of El Segundo, the line stretches entirely too far out into the suburban periphery to serve any real "local" function. It also bypasses the precious few significant nodes of centralization that do exist south of LAX. Third, the line is fundamentally flawed in its conflicting local and regional objectives. Transit systems that attempt to provide local and regional service simultaneously usually fail to provide either adequately.
Despite such problems, the study also reveal great potential for the corridor. The Harbor Subdivision should be reconceived as a crosstown light-rail line running from Norwalk to Manhattan Beach via Huntington Park and Inglewood. The single continuous line would consist of three component segments: a central crosstown route with radial segments extending to the eastern and western periphery at both ends. The route south of Aviation Green Line station to Long Beach should be eliminated from this study (though not from potential future study on its own). And rather than terminating in Downtown LA via Vernon, the line should instead continue eastward on Slauson from the Blue Line station, south underneath Pacific Blvd through Huntington Park and Walnut Park, and east again via the Southern Pacific right-of way from South Gate, through Cudahy, Bell Gardens, and Downey, terminating at the Norwalk Green Line Station.
LA's Industrial Heartland
From Wikipedia:
Historically, the Gateway region is the industrial heartland of Greater Los Angeles. The huge expanse of flat land in the floodplains of the lower Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers proved ideal for industrial development, and large-scale urbanization began in the 1900s. The cheap, fertile land was generally subdivided into long, narrow "railroad lots" aimed at Midwestern and Southern farmers starting new lives as workers in the region's factories. Explosive industrial growth and concurrent suburbanization occurred in World War II and continued throughout the Cold War; by the 1980s, Los Angeles County had become the leading center of industrial production in the United States, with the Gateway Cities leading the way. However, the end of the Cold War and the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico had a devastating effect on the region, and by the end of the 1990s industrial output was far below its historical peak. High-tech industries spurned the area as both lacking in modern buildings and also too polluted and crime-ridden, moving instead to locales such as the western San Fernando Valley, southern Orange County, and Santa Clarita. The logistics firms that grew exponentially with increased traffic at the Port of Los Angeles largely ignored the region as well, instead choosing inland cities such Corona, known as the gateway to the Inland Empire, and Colton. Most of the region's middle-class whites and blacks moved to other parts of Southern California (particularly the Inland Empire) or left the state altogether; the vacuum was filled primarily by persons of Mexican ancestry drawn to cultural magnets like Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park, with the result that most of the cities of the Gateway region have substantial Latino majorities, with the significant exception of Cerritos, which has a majority Asian population and Artesia, La Mirada, Lakewood, Signal Hill and Whittier, which remain predominantly white.
South Central has followed a similar trajectory as many of the rust belt cities of the Northeast and Midwest and its neglect and decline acts as a drag on the greater LA region. As industry, affluence, and population have continued to decentralize, the disinvestment and decline at the core has steadily expanded in the vacuum left behind. Transit investment in South Central and the Gateway region can help stabilize and strengthen the core, gradually increasing the area's regional competitiveness, and enable South Central and LA's inner industrial suburbs to meaningfully participate in the region's projected growth.
Three Segments
Inner Crosstown Segment
The inner crosstown segment would serve the Slauson corridor between Huntington Park on the east and Hyde Park on the west. South Central west of the Harbor Freeway consists almost entirely of crosstown streets, meaning that regardless of their direction, none of the streets around the Harbor Subdivision run to or from downtown, leading instead to Hollywood, Inglewood and Westchester, Huntington Park and the South Bay. This segment would funnel crosstown traffic to and from the South Broadway/Blue Line Corridor.
Heading east to west, stations include:
- Long Beach/Slauson (Connection: Blue Line)
- Central/Slauson
- Harbor/Slauson (Connection: South Broadway Connection, Harbor Busway)
- Vermont/Slauson
- Western/Slauson
- Florence/Crenshaw (Connection: future Crenshaw Transit Corridor)
Leading away from South Central, the Eastern Radial runs through two distinct subregions: the inner Hub Cities of Huntington Park, Walnut Park, South Gate, Cudahy, and Bell Gardens; and the increasingly suburban Gateway Cities of Downey, and Norwalk.
Heading west to east, stations include:
Hub Cities
- Long Beach/Slauson (Connection: Blue Line)
- Pacific/Gage
- Pacific/Florence
- Pacific/Broadway
- Independence/State
- Independence/Atlantic
- Eastern/Garfield
- Firestone/Old River School
- Firestone/Paramount
- Firestone/Lakewood
- Norwalk Green Line
The Western Segment would run through Inglewood, Westchester, and LAX before connecting with the Green Line to serve El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, and Lawndale. This segment would also serve as a northern radial for El Segundo, connecting its increasingly centralized business district to LAX, Westchester, and Inglewood.
- Florence/La Brea (Inglewood)
- Manchester/Aviation (Westchester)
- Century/Aviation (LAX)
- Nash & Maple (New station on existing Green Line)
- Mariposa*
- El Segundo*
- Douglas*
- Redondo Beach*
Connections with other transit routes:
The South Central region would ultimately be served by three east/west routes (Expo, Harbor Subdivision, Green Line) and three north/south routes (Crenshaw, South Broadway, Blue Line). The Harbor Subdivision Crosstown would connect with three north-south transit routes in addition to the Green Line.
- Blue Line - service to Downtown, Watts, Compton and Long Beach
- South Broadway Line & Harbor Transitway - service to Downtown, USC, Gardena, Carson, and San Pedro
- Crenshaw Transit Corridor - service to Wilshire, Crenshaw/Leimert Park; possibly Hollywood (via Western or La Brea), Hawthorne, Lawndale, and Torrance (via Hawthorne Blvd); Harbor Subdivision could also increase the pressure to construct the Crenshaw Transit Corridor as light-rail.
- Green Line - crosstown service to Hawthorne, Athens, Watts, Lynwood, and Bellflower.
2 comments:
I think you're conceptualizing this wrong. I think this line is basically the long-demanded LAX connector. Union Station<->LAX is one of the key missing regional transit links. The potential line also serves a connector role to LAX from the south.
The parts about adding connectivity between other parts of the route is just an added bonus.
Andrew, Thanks for the comment. Though ideally LAX and Union Station should be directly linked, I believe the added connectivity should take higher priority. Linking the southeastern cities into the network will pull more daily passengers into the system and spur greater redevelopment potential. Also, the crosstown orientation reinforces more bidirectional usage and relieve the strain on crosstown buses on Slauson, Florence, and Manchester/Firestone. Since LAX serves the entire region, the traffic it generates is harder to capture, which is why I feel the need for a direct Union Station/LAX connection is overstated. And LAX will finally be connected to the network, just not directly to Union Station.
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