Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Does Consolidating Bus Stops Speed Up Buses?
The practice of consolidating bus stops—or stop thinning—is a controversial method to speed up buses. Los Angeles Metro is considering consolidation as part of its ongoing Strategic Bus Network Plan.
Proposed Santa Ana Branch Light Rail Would Connect Downtown Los Angeles and Artesia
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is exploring alignments for a new light rail line.

Olympic Hopes Move the Finish Line for Los Angeles Rail Plans
The city of Los Angeles is leveraging its hopes as the U.S. candidate to host the 2024 Olympics to ramp up rail construction to an "extremely aggressive" timetable.
Big Ideas Behind the Proposed Overhaul of the Los Angeles Bus System
A newly released proposal for overhauling Metro bus service in Los Angeles includes innovative and controversial measures. Included is a new metric for measuring the success of bus lines.
Los Angeles HOT Lanes Have an Oversubscription Problem
The 110 High Occupancy Toll Lanes, conversions of carpool lanes, appear to be a victim of their own success, writes LA Times transportation reporter Laura J. Nelson. An economist would say the solution is to raise the maximum per-mile toll. Or is it?
Change of Venue for Denver's Transit CEO: Los Angeles
Phillip Washington will leave his role as CEO of the Denver Regional Transportation District to take the same position at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Trains Are Always Better than Buses, Right?
Josh Barro provide examples galore of why the answer to that question isn't always yes—where costly rail investment has been to the detriment of existing transit. His column targets proposed projects, such as New York's LaGuardia Airport AirTrain.
Will Plummeting Gas Prices Threaten Recent Transit Ridership Gains?
As gas prices have fallen, driving has increased. October driving mileage figures show an increase of 3 percent from a year earlier. A shift away from public transit may cause transit providers to rethink expansion plans.
Electric Buses Stretching to New Lengths
Take a spin on the country's first articulated electric bus (minus overhead wires), manufactured by BYD Motors Inc. in Southern California and tested recently on the Los Angeles Orange Line.
San Fernando Valley Playing Catch Up in the Los Angeles Transit Boom
Dakota Smith reports that the Los Angeles transit renaissance is leaving the political leadership in the San Fernando Valley feeling left behind.
Citing High Rate of Adoption, Los Angeles Considers Expanded Freeway Toll Lanes
The use of toll lanes on two of the Los Angeles region's freeways has proven popular enough that county transportation planners are considering expanding the system.

Los Angeles Breaks Ground on Purple Line Subway Extension
The long awaited groundbreaking for work on Los Angeles’s Purple Line Extension commenced. The project is expected to open in 2023.
Plans for a $35 Million Rail-to-Trail Conversion in South Los Angeles
A blighted abandoned rail corridor through South Los Angeles received funding to plan a rail to trail conversion. Can residents compel officials to complete the sorely needed open space facility?

The New Transit User Fee: Real Estate Rent
Driven by a need to meet growing costs amid unstable federal subsidies, metropolitan transit agencies are eying their properties, particularly parking lots, as money makers from new residential and commercial development.
Friday Funny: Bringing Back the '80s to Pitch Transit Apps
Metro Los Angeles produced a retro-style music video to raise awareness about transit app options in Los Angeles. Miami Vice wardrobes and Atari-grade graphics contribute to the cause.
Ready and Waiting: New Law Makes Light Rail Possible in the San Fernando Valley
In another example of Los Angeles slowly unraveling itself from prior legislation that hinder its transit goals, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will allow light rail construction in the San Fernando Valley.
Proposed Rail Station to Provide Future Rail Connection to LAX
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to move forward with a station near LAX, proving they'd made more progress in the last 12 months than in the previous 25 years to bring transit rail to the airport.

$2.1 Billion in Federal Transit Funding for the 'Subway to the Sea' in Los Angeles
Los Angeles will receive its largest-ever federal grant, $1.25 billion, to help fund the Purple Line subway, aka the "Subway to the Sea." Also on its way is an $856 million loan from the TIFIA program.
Proposed Transit Fare Increase Provokes Strong Opposition in Los Angeles
More than 500 “activists, students and low-wage workers” spent their Saturday at a public hearing at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority imploring the agency’s board not to raise fees.
MAP-21 Putting Pedestrian and Bike Programs on the Chopping Block
It took a few years, but funding changes as a result of MAP-21, the 2012 federal transportation bill, have started to impact funding for Metro “Call for Projects” grants in Los Angeles County.
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