LA Metro EXPO line -- not enough cars for Santa Monica extension

[NW cannonball]

LA Times reports "Expo Line doesn't have enough rail cars for its surging ridership"

Excerpts

Weekday trips on the Expo Line have jumped by half since trains began running to Santa Monica

By December, Metro should have received and tested enough of the Kinkisharyo vehicles to run two-car trains every six minutes, officials said.

Now, 2-or-3-car trains are running on 12 minute headway, it seems that is not enough capacity, as some pax complain about waiting at intermediate stations as one or two trains too full to board pass through their station.

The LATimes article also includes some history on the car purchasing contract problems .

 

[afigg]

Overcrowding is not the worse problem to have for a new transit line. While riders may be frustrated, better than the negative publicity of low ridership for a new line which often take years to build ridership. Headlines about crowded trains may help with the sales tax ballot initiative this fall to accelerate and expand the build-out of the LA transit system in the coming decades.

With new cars being delivered, the capacity crunch should ease over the next several years. Although, what happens if after the trainsets are all expanded to 3 cars long and run every 6 minutes, the trains still become packed at the peak rush hours? With light rail that has a number of road and grade crossings, expanding capacity with more trains per hour or longer trainsets could be rather difficult to do.

 

[rickycourtney]

With new cars being delivered, the capacity crunch should ease over the next several years. Although, what happens if after the trainsets are all expanded to 3 cars long and run every 6 minutes, the trains still become packed at the peak rush hours? With light rail that has a number of road and grade crossings, expanding capacity with more trains per hour or longer trainsets could be rather difficult to do.

Maybe LADOT will finally be forced to give the Expo Line true signal priority...

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Hopefully the crowding will push construction of the subway westward and perhaps even true heavy rail conversions on some of their lines. LA is just so big it seems that for some of the routes a traditional subway would have been better.

 

[afigg]

Hopefully the crowding will push construction of the subway westward and perhaps even true heavy rail conversions on some of their lines. LA is just so big it seems that for some of the routes a traditional subway would have been better.

Once a billion or two has been sunk into a light rail line, converting it to true heavy rail is not going to happen for many decades, if ever. Given the population of the denser portions of LA, I think that more of the lines west of downtown such as the Expo and Crenshaw lines should have been built as heavy rail as a high capacity and true rapid transit "backbone" system. But the costs and politics of what is achievable pushed the process to light rail and one with a lot of grade crossings and traffic signals at that. If the Expo line reaches capacity even with signal priority, then the best that would be politically acceptable would be to upgrade the line with overpasses and grade separate more of the line.

 

[calwatch]

If the Westside subway was built. that would relieve a lot of the pressure on the Expo Line. From Downtown to Santa Monica, even with a transfer at Westwood if taking the subway and signal priority on the Expo Line, the subway -> bus option would be slightly faster than Expo Line, and more reliable since more of the trip is grade separated.

 

[seat38a]

If the Westside subway was built. that would relieve a lot of the pressure on the Expo Line. From Downtown to Santa Monica, even with a transfer at Westwood if taking the subway and signal priority on the Expo Line, the subway -> bus option would be slightly faster than Expo Line, and more reliable since more of the trip is grade separated.

Its not an "IF", its "WHEN." It has funding and construction has already started.