LA mayor wants transit on fast track

Written by jrood

If Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has his way, Los Angeles County will soon embark on a commuter-rail building boom the likes of which the region has never seen, The Los Angeles Times reports. On Oct. 30, the mayor today will unveil an ambitious but politically risky transportation plan that fast-tracks several high-profile rail projects to be completed within the next decade. That's a big speed-up, because officials have generally been talking about completing them within 30 years.

Villaraigosa has made
building more rail a priority of his administration, though he’s the first to
admit it’s going to take more than speeches and good intentions to get it done.

"Yes, this is a
stretch goal. Yes, this is going to be tough, but I think by now folks
shouldn’t count me out," Villaraigosa said in an interview. "The fact
is that this is the most important thing that we can do to alleviate congestion
and gridlock, to improve the quality of our air and to really vindicate the people’s
will for the need to address transportation."

The mayor scored a victory
last year when voters approved a measure to help fund the projects, which
include a subway to the Westside, the extension of the Gold Line in the San
Gabriel Valley, the extension of the Expo Line to Santa Monica and new rail
lines along Crenshaw Boulevard and through downtown L.A.

The mayor’s office
estimates that the revenue from Measure R and other available funds would
provide only an estimated $5.2 billion if they were to expedite the projects.
The rest would have to come from private-sector partners, the federal
government or other public funding.

Villaraigosa has made it
clear he thinks the Westside subway — by far the most expensive project with a
price tag of $5 billion to $6 billion — is his top priority. That has sparked
conflict, with backers of other rail projects demanding that their lines be
given equal consideration. By fast-tracking projects across the region, the
mayor could ease those concerns, but only if enough money is available. And
that remains an open question.

The mayor’s office says the
county needs at least $10 billion in additional funds to complete the projects
— including the subway, the Crenshaw line and the rail extension to Los
Angeles International Airport, among others — in 10 years. The first step, he
said, is building a regional coalition to promote the projects. Then comes the
hard part: finding funding, whether in the form of public-private partnerships
or money from the federal government in the form of a no-interest loan, among
other possibilities, the mayor’s office said.

Villaraigosa said he
believes that the federal government will be more likely to give Los Angeles
money for the projects than other cities because of the passage of Measure R. He
also thinks it will be an attractive fast-track option because, during tough
economic times, it would create thousands of jobs much faster than originally
planned.

Art Leahy, Metro chief
executive, said that, hypothetically, if there were sufficient funding, the MTA
would be able to accelerate projects and that it may be cheaper to expedite
projects now because "we’re in a period of relatively low construction
costs."

Villaraigosa will discuss
the plan for the first time Oct. 30 at the Los Angeles Business Council’s 2009
Mayoral Housing, Transportation and Jobs Summit at UCLA. He said he will tell
the group that "30 years is too long" to wait and that all 12 transit
projects he wants to expedite can be built in a decade. It’s called the "30/10"
plan and he will joke that some might say he’s "coming up with another
dream."

"The projects are
going to happen, there’s no question about that, and I’m going to be very
aggressive at getting federal funds. . . . My goal is to make it happen sooner
rather than later," Villaraigosa said. "I recognize that it’s a
daunting task, but I love the challenge and I’m up for it."

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