Los Angeles, California
A Central Hub for Transit on the West Coast
Los Angeles serves major transit of both freight and passenger service from LAX and the Port of Los Angeles, along with secondary intermodal hubs. LA serves as a natural choice for a central terminus on the West Coast, and acts as the primary destination of both the Redline Transcontinental Line and the proposed Southern Transcontinental Line.
Los Angeles is an interesting transit and logistics puzzle, because it is a sprawling mix of urban and suburban territories, perhaps globally known for its traffic. In order to adequately integrate with the environment of LA, a certain level of City and State planning, along with consideration of a variety of private interests become part of the proposed solution. As Los Angeles is meant to be part of a North-South Route (The Pacific Coastal Corridor) as well as a East-West Route (The Redline Transcontinental), site selection must accommodate a certain amount of leeway for both alignments.
With that in mind, a few potential site locations are proposed.
Crypto.com Arena / Oceanview Plaza Station
Crypto.com Arena / Oceanview Plaza Station
The Oceanview Tower Complex has been abandoned for some number of years and the site has recently been moving forward into receivership. The Oceanview site is located adjacent to the Arena and Convention Center, and overlaps in part with the Blue Line of the LA Metro system. This kind of interplay between primary entertainment attractions, business development forethought, and local transit solutions is the ideal kind of placement for a central terminus.
Routing is primarily feasible on the North-South alignment, with creative tunneling solutions to facilitate the North-South freight traffic in relation to the Port, and the routing Eastward out of the City.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Station
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Station
LAX serves the bulk of international passenger traffic on the West Coast, and yet lacks reliable transit options with the broader city. In accommodating a route-specific location, the LAX Station site is ideal for a Northbound route via a proposed tunnel option at Westwood, approximately located at The Getty.
The Station itself would be located along the 405 (North-South) just East of the Airport, with route options approximating due East, due North, and due South. The site selection as proposed would overtake in part the existing Global Entry Enrollment Facility, with space to the North and South of the site depending on layout. The Enrollment Facility was built in 2008, and would be replaced in the same or similar location to allow for ideal operations.
In theory, two transit stations within Los Angeles could be utilized to join together a regional and local transit system. The Pacific Coastal Corridor could be served primarily by the LAX Station, and more centralized urban station could serve the East-West alignment of the Redline Transcontinental, connected by a direct route tunnel high speed service between the two for passenger service. Freight from Ports and other intermodal carriers would be directed by one of the aforementioned route options.
Disneyland / Anaheim Convention Center Station
Disneyland Park Station
Carrying forward the notion of multiple stations within the city serving different needs, a Disney Station at the Anaheim Convention Center could service a large swath of the Eastern segments of LA, while providing a valuable private interconnect to the broader transit network.
With multiple potential options within this location's site framework, the aim of the Station within that framework is to integrate with the local hospitality and entertainment options. Specifically, the site selection includes a connective feature to the nearby Anaheim Angels Stadium, as well as to the Disney Theme Park. The adjacent Convention Center would serve West-bound business travelers along the Redline.
Part of the integration proposal includes the undergrounding of a section of highway so as to accommodate the proposed local connective features, as well as make way for routing options to the Northeast which otherwise would cross I-5. The two main proposed site selections for this location would incorporate an I-5 connection for ease of transport along the main thoroughfare.
Port of Los Angeles Transfer Station
Extending the Intermodal Facilities of LA's Biggest Port
The purpose of this site's selection is to place it in such a way such that the North-South connections and the East-West connections are viable from freight shipment transfer. While some of the Port of Los Angeles is in flux with regards to usage, an addition/extension to the West of the Port would permit the kinds of intermodal facilities that would be desired for a robust rail network to supplement and/or replace existing traditional rail systems.
Depending on available space and accommodation, the Port could be expanded simultaneously on the vertical, allowing for cargo containers and materiel to be transferred between the primary onloading/offloading facilities at the Port and the secondary intermodal station that is proposed. Some novel transfer methods are hypothesized for this purpose, but would require the interlink between the primary Port site and the additional service station.
While this site selection could feed into the primary routes running through the center of LA, an alternative coastal route expansion could be employed for reaching San Diego to the South. This route would doubly serve as a land-based interconnect between the other Ports along the Pacific Coast--primarily Huntington Beach and Long Beach.
July 2024 Update - with the completion of the Pier 400 Freight Rail extension at the Port of Los Angeles, the thru-rail would be integrated both East and West from the Pier 400 connection.
LA Union Station
The CAHSR Through-Route
Union Station is presently being proposed as the Los Angeles Terminus of the California High Speed Rail Project, and has undergone a substantial amount of analysis and design work. At the time of writing, the proposal is also being objected to by local residents, over concerns regarding the reconfiguration of the nearby Malabar Rail Yard which would serve as the storage facility for those trains displaced by the Union station redesign.
The major change to the Union Station site is the reconfiguration of its stub rails to through rails, allowing the North-South lines to extend to San Diego and potentially extend Eastward, in the ways imagined by the two Transcontinental Railway proposals.
Objections are oriented around the proposed closure of streets adjacent to the Yard site, which locals are concerned will harm the local economy. Specifically, from the EIS 3.3-64:
"Permanent loss of approximately 5,500 feet of freight storage track capacity at the north end of the BNSF West Bank Yard is considered a direct adverse effect. However, the dedicated BNSF lead track (described above) and Mitigation Measure TR-3 (described in Section 3.3.6), would minimize effects on freight rail operations.
The following railroad improvements to BNSF’s Malabar Yard in the City of Vernon would be implemented as part of Mitigation Measure TR-3:
• Closure of an at-grade crossing at 49th Street in the City of Vernon to accommodate 3,350 new track feet of freight storage track capacity that does not exist at BNSF’s Malabar Yard; and
• A new 1,000-foot track connection to enable direct freight rail access to and from BNSF’s Malabar Yard and Los Angeles Junction, which is currently not available.
A full environmental evaluation of the Malabar Yard railroad improvements (Mitigation Measure TR-3) is provided as an appendix to this EIS/SEIR. With implementation of the dedicated BNSF lead track and Mitigation Measure TR-3, no direct adverse effect would occur. "
As for the station itself, this is a section from the Draft envitonmental impact study:
"ES.5 Existing Conditions at Los Angeles Union Station LAUS was opened for service in 1939 and has operated as the central hub for regional transit in Southern California for 80 years, providing direct linkages for the Metro rail system (e.g., Red, Purple, and Gold Lines), Metro’s Patsaourous Transit Plaza, Metrolink regional rail (commuter) trains, Amtrak regional and intercity rail trains, and Amtrak’s long-distance trains.
The existing LAUS rail yard includes 15 tracks and 7 platforms. Two active tracks (Tracks 1 and 2) serve the Gold Line on Platform 1, and 12 active stub-end terminal platform tracks (Tracks 3 through 14) serve Metrolink and Amtrak trains from Platforms 2 through 7. Track 15 is used for rail equipment layovers and not revenue service. On the west side of the tracks, just north of the platforms and adjacent to the existing Gold Line aerial guideway, there are additional stub-end tracks known as the Garden Tracks, where private train cars are currently stored. Amtrak currently has services available to allow for private train cars stored on the Garden Tracks to be connected to specific Amtrak trains that also originate/terminate at LAUS.
The LAUS throat consists of complicated track configurations that require train dispatchers to direct trains into and out of the appropriate assigned terminal platform tracks, thereby limiting the operational capacity and train frequency through LAUS. The existing stub-end rail yard configuration at LAUS requires all trains pull into the station terminal then reverse their direction of travel on the same set of tracks after loading/unloading passengers. As such, trains using LAUS are subject to delays and extended periods of idling time either at the station platforms or on the connecting tracks while awaiting a slot at the platforms or access onto the main lines.
Currently LAUS does not have adequate operational and passenger capacity to serve future rail transportation needs. Rail yard operations and passenger circulation at LAUS are currently constrained, congested, and nearing capacity. The role of LAUS in the regional transportation network is becoming increasingly critical, as regional growth in both population and employment dictate a growing need for increased regional transit capacity and connectivity. The combination of limited throat track and stub-end track capacity, along with the limited concourse capacity resulting from the current configuration of the pedestrian passageway and platforms, restrict Metro’s ability to accommodate the forecasted increase in rail and transit service (including accommodation of the planned HSR system) and corresponding increase in passenger capacity within the existing facility. "
