The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has released its Annual Report, which highlights accomplishments made over the year, including the opening of two rail line extensions and progress on three additional rail projects.
The report states that Metro had 453 million boardings in the last year and opened two new rail line extensions, the Gold Line to Azusa and the Expo Line to Santa Monica, with both lines exceeding the agency’s ridership projections. Since the extensions opened, Gold Line ridership is up 12 percent and Expo ridership has increased 43 percent.
“We’re waging a transportation revolution,” stated Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington. “We have the opportunity to be bold and tackle not only the infrastructure challenges of today but the challenges of tomorrow. Metro is carrying the banner for real and lasting change in traffic-choked Southern California and there will be no waving of white flags. Metro is not just looking toward the future, we are designing it.”
Three major Metro Rail projects are currently under construction, including the Regional Connector, the Purple Line subway extension and the Crenshaw/LAX Line, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. The report also mentions the Airport Metro Connector project, which will add a new transit center at 96th Street and Aviation Boulevard, providing Crenshaw/LAX Line and Green Line riders a transfer to the people mover to LAX terminals currently being built.
The report also notes that the agency had a $142-million decrease in Metro’s $5.7 billion annual budget from the previous year, due primarily to cost controls. The budget also included funding for State of Good Repair projects.
“Among our chief goals is to create an infrastructure inheritance for our children and their children,” remarked Washington. “We want to look beyond ourselves and develop and maintain a mobility network that is still up and running 100 years from now.”