Mass Transit 2 the Disneyland Resort

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

LA SUBWAY DEVELOPMENTS

Suggestions For That Not-Yet-Built Vermont Avenue Subway

The transportation blog Wilshire/Vermont has a few ideas for a Vermont Avenue subway, a project that's part of Metro's long-range plans (though there's currently no funding or specific planning in the works and it's lumped with far-off projects like connecting the Green Line to Santa Monica and the Red Line to Burbank Airport).

Citing the fact that 100,000 people travel up and down Vermont on buses every weekday, the blog suggests a heavy-rail line going south from the Wilshire/Vermont red and purple station, traveling underground through USC, connecting to the Expo Line, hitting South LA, and then going above-ground at Gage Avenue and traveling on elevated tracks until it hits the Green Line. "The (underground) Vernon and Slauson stations present great opportunities for Transit Oriented Development due to the lower density development in these areas and large swaths of surface parking and vacant lots," according to the post. "The underground nature of these stations should make them especially enticing to developers who obviously prefer building sites that lack rail noise and vibration."


· Feasibility of a South Vermont Subway Line [Wilshire/Vermont]

[Bruce Bergman]

Streetsblog Capitol Hill » What Will Become of Amtrak If It?s Left Out of Plans to Expand HSR?

Amtrak will go on, and the HSR system has a far better chance of making it's own way. If they don't have those subsidy streams to depend on, they can't do any featherbedding and have three people to do one job, they have to assign just one person.

Sorry, but IMHO Fail-Trak is a Federal jobs subsidy system cleverly disguised as inter-urban transit and interstate travel provider, purposely designed to be heavily subsidized and the farebox only just pays the power and fuel bills. Maybe.

If it's forced to be run right, a HSR system can be self-supporting. Run wrong, it's just another money pit.

--<< Bruce >>--

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

That article claims Amtrak just gets a bum rap.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Today, the Obama administration announced its plan to include $8 billion more in high-speed rail funding, and the California High-Speed Rail Authority was quick to release a statement in conjunction with that announcement.

“This is the kind of bold investment in the future of our nation’s infrastructure that will get the attention of the private sector and make high-speed travel a reality in the United States,” said Roelof van Ark, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, who attended this morning's event in Philadelphia. ”Californians are already doing their part to invest in and develop a fast, clean and low-cost transportation system, and we are pleased to have the partnership of our federal government.”

Curbed LA : The Los Angeles Neighborhoods and Real Estate Blog

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

HIGH SPEED RAIL UPDATE


· Obama shows off $53 billion high-speed rail plan [Reuters]

Under the initiative, the Department of Transportation will choose corridors for new projects and increase use of the passenger rails.

President Barack Obama's budget for fiscal year 2012, to be unveiled next week, includes $8 billion for the plan. The rest of the money would be allocated over the six-year time period.
Obama has said he wants to target investments in areas such as infrastructure while reducing spending to tackle the budget deficit.

The announcement comes when some Republicans in Congress are seeking to cut $2.5 trillion from federal spending over the next decade, including steep cuts in transportation.
Biden noted Obama's goal to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years, announced during his State of the Union address last month.

Specifically, Biden laid out plans for three types of rail -- regional rail with trains speeds of 90 to 125 mph; core express rail corridors that would form the backbone of the high-speed system with electric trains traveling at speeds of 125 to 250 mph; and corridors with trains traveling at up to 90 mph.

· Amtrak also has a billion dollar plan in New York[WSJ]

Amtrak will spend $50 million to study a new Hudson River tunnel project expected to cost $13.5 billion, rail-system officials said Monday.

The two-tunnel Gateway project, part of a larger Amtrak plan for high-speed rail along the Northeast corridor, has been in the works for a few years but was fast-tracked after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie canceled a similar rail project. The Obama administration has made high-speed rail a priority, and New Jersey's senators said they would try to snag money left on the table by Midwest governors who rejected projects.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

DOWNTOWN LA STREETCAR NEWS

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...rticle-7945953

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

TRANSPORTATION TO THE DISNEYLAND RESORT

Amtrak starts new San Diego-L.A. express

To attract more northbound business passengers, Amtrak is offering a new express train service between San Diego and Los Angeles – a move expected to cut travel time by 15-20 minutes.

The San Diego to Los Angeles Express train on the Pacific Surfliner corridor makes its first departure at 7:05 a.m. Tuesday from San Diego's Santa Fe Depot with stops in Solana Beach, Oceanside, Irvine, and Anaheim. It's slated to arrive at Los Angeles Union Station at 9:33 a.m.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/san-2...n-service.html

[jsmith11618]

TRANSPORTATION TO THE DISNEYLAND RESORT

Amtrak starts new San Diego-L.A. express

Amtrak starts new San Diego-L.A. express | san, train, service - News - The Orange County Register

Looks like future trips to Anaheim will be a little quicker now.

Amtrak is the way to go when needing to go to LA/OC area.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Florida Rejects $2 Billion in Rail Money

Discusss this topic at:
High Speed Rail cancelled in Florida

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

What Could Florida's High-Speed Rail Money Do for California?


Too soon, Florida? We're already spending the money you forfeited...

State officials took quick action following this week's news that Florida's new governor said "no thanks" to $2.4 billion in high-speed rail funds. The Los Angeles Times reports that senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer wrote to transportation secretary Ray LaHood and said California will gladly take the money: "It is now clear that California will lead the way in demonstrating the viability of high-speed rail to the rest of the country," they wrote. Our proposed high-speed rail system received $616 million after Ohio and Wisconsin rejected their high-speed funds following the November election, likely allowing construction on California's line to begin next year and stretch from Fresno to Bakersfield. The LA Times surmises that should California get Florida's money "the segment could be extended west toward San Jose or south toward Palmdale."

Curbed LA : The Los Angeles Neighborhoods and Real Estate Blog

See also:

Calif. Lobbies for Florida's High-Speed Rail Money [LA Times]
· Calif. Could Feel Ripple From Florida Decision [Mercury-News]
· Calif.'s Reaction to High-Speed Rail Funding [Curbed LA]

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

WESTSIDE SUBWAY EXTENSION UPDATE

Possible Solution for Century City Subway Station Fracas? Meet Century Park East

Possible Solution for Century City Subway Station Fracas? Meet Century Park East - Purple Line Extension - Curbed LA

Metro has been studying Constellation Ave. as a station since 2007--at a recent community meeting, Beverly Hills locals accused Metro of pulled the wool over their eyes by suddenly announcing the Constellation option late in the game.

Possible Solution for Century City Subway Station Fracas? Meet Century Park East - Purple Line Extension - Curbed LA

[sediment]

I was listening to NPR last night on my drive home. It was discussing how home prices within walking distance to mass transit (rails) did not sag as much as those further out.
Looking for a link, but coming up empty.

One thing that was interesting was that rich white folks have been moving into one of Brooklyn's crappier areas, paying over a million, just to be near the subway station. Bumping up prices.

Here's something similar:
http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/media/u...rty_values.pdf

[jupitertronic]

I was listening to NPR last night on my drive home. It was discussing how home prices within walking distance to mass transit (rails) did not sag as much as those further out.
Looking for a link, but coming up empty.

One thing that was interesting was that rich white folks have been moving into one of Brooklyn's crappier areas, paying over a million, just to be near the subway station. Bumping up prices.

Here's something similar:
http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/media/u...rty_values.pdf

We should maybe look at other countries that use a lot of public transit to see how home prices fare near stations/rail lines. For instance, I've read in many places that distance from a station is the main way to search for real estate in Japan.

What can we learn from Japanese real estate listings?

I would expect as the U.S. gets more public transit, we'll go the same way as Japan, with houses costing more depending on convenience to stations.

[sediment]

My point is that our housing prices are already skewed upward around transit stops. I'm not saying it's bad or good. It's reality. A dwelling in an area that doesn't require as many cars due to nearby public transportation will be more valuable, and thus be priced as such, than a dwelling requiring a car to get to work, even part-way.
The example on NPR was a house in DuPont Circle in DC costing three times as much as a similiarly-sized house only five miles away from it.
People will flock to homes near stations. That is an upward shift in the demand curve (microeconomics-speak).
Now, it's good to own land near where a station might be built. And it would suck to lose it because of, say, some Beverly Hills activists.

I saw it for real in the Far East Bay Area (Walnut Creek) when I lived there for a couple years.

If you were to move to a new city, it might be one of your top considerations, along with schools, safety, noise, etc.

Most importantly, this value of convenience overpowers the "innercity punks will come to burgle houses and defile our women" drop-in-value claims.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

So funny you should be discussing this... What do you think of this article?

And now our head is spinning. Via a CBS affiliate up in SF: "Having jobs near public transit is more effective than housing near public transit when it comes to getting drivers out of their cars, according to a new study. Previous conventional wisdom was the other way around: that building 'transit villages' around public transit stations would get more people away from driving. That notion may not be working, according to research fellow from the Public Policy Institute of California, Louise Bedsworth." [CBS]

http://la.curbed.com/

It relates not to residential real estate prices, but to congestion, and transit USE which is the first concern of transit.