Metro’s Board of Directors has voted to adopt plans for a heavy rail subway between the Valley and the Westside, setting aside consideration of a monorail along the congested corridor.
Proposed route of Modified Alternative 5Metro
The Board voted to adopt staff’s recommendation of a locally preferred alternative for the project, which would include an initial phase spanning between Van Nuys and Westwood. The selection option, a modification of Alternative 5 from the project’s environmental impact report, calls for the construction of a fully-subterranean rail line running from the Van Nuys Metrolink Station to the E Line’s Expo/Sepulveda Station, running below Van Nuys Boulevard in the Va…
Metro’s Board of Directors has voted to adopt plans for a heavy rail subway between the Valley and the Westside, setting aside consideration of a monorail along the congested corridor.
Proposed route of Modified Alternative 5Metro
The Board voted to adopt staff’s recommendation of a locally preferred alternative for the project, which would include an initial phase spanning between Van Nuys and Westwood. The selection option, a modification of Alternative 5 from the project’s environmental impact report, calls for the construction of a fully-subterranean rail line running from the Van Nuys Metrolink Station to the E Line’s Expo/Sepulveda Station, running below Van Nuys Boulevard in the Valley. However, Metro expects to build the project in phases, with an initial operating segment running between the G Line in Van Nuys and the D Line in Westwood.
The selected option would utilize automated train sets in a single-bore terminal running at frequencies of 2.5 minutes during peak hours. The end-to-end trip could be completed in under 18 minutes - a significant time savings versus rush hour traffic on the 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass. Metro estimates the subway would attract upwards of 137,000 daily riders.
Speed and a fully below-grade alignment will not come cheaply - the cost of a prior iteration of Alternative 5 was estimated at $24.2 billion in 2023.
Project overview for C Line extension to TorranceMetro
While rail along the Sepulveda Corridor takes a step forward, plans for the C Line’s Torrance extension (which would operate as part of the K Line, following the recent realignment of the two services) was dealt a setback at the same Board meeting.
Metro staff had recommended building a "hybrid" alternative for the extension, making use of a historic rail right-of-way owned by the agency. However, Metro Board member and L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell successfully moved her colleagues to shift support to an aerial alignment for the project within the median of Hawthorne Boulevard.
Both options call for 4.5 miles of new track parallel to the 405 Freeway between Redondo Beach and Torrance, with a stop near the South Bay Galleria shopping mall. However, the Hawthorne alternative requires crossing the freeway, and carries a steeper price tag of $3.4 billion versus $2.7 billion for the hybrid alternative.
As Metro staff had recommended use of the hybrid alternative, and couched its environmental review in that recommendation, construction of the Torrance extension will be delayed indefinitely. Metro has $890 million in local dedicated funding for the project.
A recap of the discussion on the Torrance extension can be found here.
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- Sepulveda Transit Corridor (Urbanize LA)
- South Bay Metro Rail Extension (Urbanize LA)