Los Angeles Gets U.S. Approval for Preliminary Subway Work
Los Angeles’s pursuit of an expanded mass-transit system advanced after federal officials cleared the local transportation agency to start preliminary engineering on new subway and light-rail lines.
Notification that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority may begin preparations for the Westside Subway Extension and Regional Connector light-rail project is a final step before construction can start, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said today in a statement. The first federal funds needed for the work may be included in the next U.S. budget, he said.
“These two projects represent tremendous job creation, mobility and environmental benefits for the Los Angeles region,” Villaraigosa said in the statement.
Los Angeles County is pushing to get faster access to local taxes approved to build transit projects within about 10 years, rather than the three decades it would take for all the funds to be collected. County voters in 2008 passed a sales-tax increase intended to generate about $40 billion over 30 years.
Los Angeles ranks as the nation’s most-congested city based on the latest INRIX National Traffic Scorecard. It has had the longest average travel time in Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility report every year since 1985.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net
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