America's Most Exciting Transit Project
The Sepulveda Corridor in LA could give the U.S. — a country accustomed to low-tech, low-speed, low-frequency transit — an urban rail line that rivals the best in the world.
“The Californians” might be the greatest TV show never made. This “Saturday Night Live” parody perfectly skewers Los Angelenos and their obsession with driving directions. No matter how serious the matter at hand, somehow the conversation always comes back to navigating the city’s horrific freeway traffic.
When Stewart (Fred Armisen with blond highlights) finds Devin (Bill Hader with a blond wig) having an affair with his wife, Karina (Kristen Wiig, hair dyed platinum), he tells his rival to beat it.
“I said go home, Devin!” Stewart says. “Get back on San Vicente, take it to the 10 and then switch over to the 405 until it dumps you on Mulholland where you belong!”
“Stewart, at this time of day it’s gonna be jammed!” Karina says. “Are you crazy?”
Perhaps in a couple of decades, this scene will look less like a painfully accurate reflection of reality and more like a quaint relic. That’s because by then, Angelenos will have a real alternative to the dreaded section of the 405 crossing the Sepulveda Pass.
And not just any alternative. The Sepulveda Corridor transit project could be the most advanced transit line ever built in the United States. This project could give America — a country accustomed to low-tech, low-speed, low-frequency and low-capacity transit — an urban rail line that rivals the best in the world.
Los Angeles Metro is currently in the process of evaluating different project alternatives being proposed by two companies: BYD and a consortium led by Bechtel. The latter recently released new details about its proposed heavy rail subway line.
The Bechtel group’s trains would travel from the Van Nuys Metrolink station in the middle of the San Fernando Valley to Exposition and Sepulveda in West Los Angeles in just 20 minutes. The trip across the Sepulveda Pass itself, from Ventura Boulevard to the UCLA campus, would take just 6.5 minutes.
These journey times are a massive improvement on car travel. The car trip along the entire route length takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The car ride from Ventura Boulevard to UCLA is 15 minutes at minimum, and typically closer to half an hour, not including finding parking.
The trains, designed by Stadler, would be automated. That technology enables trains to arrive as often as every 90 seconds.
As one of the only ways to travel between the San Fernando Valley and the rest of LA, the Sepulveda Pass is an extremely high-demand travel corridor. The 405 serves over 300,000 vehicles per day, making it one of the most congested freeways in the country. It was also, infamously, the site of a recent freeway expansion project that ended up making traffic worse.
In addition to relieving this particular freeway, the Sepulveda Corridor project will also provide crucial north/south connectivity to LA’s growing metro system, connecting to the east/west D and E Lines. The long term plan is to extend the line south to LAX.
In all likelihood, a transit line will be built across the Sepulveda Pass. Whether it will be the project proposed by Bechtel remains to be seen. LA Metro is weighing Bechtel’s proposal against BYD’s. The BYD project would use monorail technology, running mostly on the surface in the 405 median. BYD’s system would also be capable of operating trains every 90 seconds. But it wouldn’t be as fast as Bechtel’s system, making the end to end journey time in 32 minutes. (Alternatives without a stop at UCLA would be faster, but are less likely to be selected.)
BYD’s system would be quicker and cheaper to build. The company also says it could get started on the LAX extension sooner. But Bechtel’s subway has significantly higher ridership projections, with roughly 120,000 daily riders compared to about 86,000 for BYD’s monorail.
LA Metro has roughly $8 billion budgeted for this project. In 2021, Bechtel’s subway was estimated to cost $10.8 billion, and BYD’s monorail was estimated to cost $6.1 billion, before the addition of the stop at UCLA. Those numbers have likely increased substantially. Updated cost estimates, and a final route decision, are expected next year.
This being Hollywood, the path forward will probably be dramatic. Fred Rosen, the former CEO of Ticketmaster, has declared war on the project and LA Metro. He and some of his neighbors in Bel Air don’t like the idea of a subway traveling hundreds of feet beneath their homes. But if the project must go forward, Rosen and allies like the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association prefer the monorail, which they view as cheaper and less disruptive.
“Relentless is the name of an interesting wine in Napa,” Rosen wrote in one of a series of strongly-worded letters to LA Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins last year, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “[A]nd Relentless is also our desire and course of action to do what is necessary to protect the citizens of our community.”
Where does all of this lead? Find out next time on, “The Californians.”
Automated metros are the future: London's Elizabeth Line, Paris' numerous Metro & RER lines, Montreal's REM line, Vancouver's SkyTrain lines.
One advantage of the monorail is that it would be constantly whizzing past all those drivers stuck in traffic, making them think “I could be on the train.” Given how culturally embedded driving is as the default mode, I think we need a few powerful advertisements like that in our transit systems.