Dozens of participants in an online town hall Wednesday were largely enthusiastic about LA Metro’s plans for the 14.8-mile-long, southern segment of a proposed light-rail system that would go from Artesia to the existing A Line Slauson Station.
The $8.5 billion project — a first-of-its-kind transit project serving lower income communities in southeast Los Angeles County — has been in the planning stage for two decades. Metro estimates it will take 10 years to build, starting in 2025 and opening in 2035.
Metro has been holding public workshops about the southern segment of the project, dubbed the West Santa Ana Branch light-rail project. The “West Santa Ana Branch” name, which the Metro board says is confusing, stems from an old right-of-way once used for the now-defunct Pacific Electric Santa Ana route in L.A. County.
But the new segment will not reach Orange County — or go anywhere near Santa Ana.
“The project doesn’t connect to Orange County. We will work with the community to rename this project,” said Meghna Khanna, senior director of mobility, corridors, countywide planning and development for LA Metro, who led the Wednesday meeting.
Khanna asked participants to submit suggestions for a new name, presumably one that doesn’t refer to a city in Orange County. “We want to have a new name in front of the board sometime in January 2024,” she said during the meeting.
The project name misnomer didn’t stop curious residents from asking if one day, the line could go to Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park and Disneyland in Anaheim. That is not in the plans for this project since LA Metro uses sales tax revenues generated in L.A. County to build rail lines. Any extension to Orange County would need approval, and funding, from the Orange County Transit Authority, according to Metro.
The virtual town hall focused on numerous changes to the original plan adopted by the Metro board in January 2022, mostly affecting street closures, overpasses…
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