In a ceremony punctuated by speeches, videos and streams of confetti, LA Metro opened its new 1.9-mile Regional Connector rail line on Friday, June 16, in hopes that its eighth train line will not only connect tourists to L.A.’s cultural landmarks but also bring back local commuters to downtown offices.
The county’s transit agency has spent billions on new rail lines but has not recovered ridership to pre-pandemic levels, mostly because of a shift toward telecommuting. Underlying the congratulatory speeches given during the 90-minute ceremony in Little Tokyo was a whisper of making LA Metro great again.
“It will do a lot for ridership,” answered Ara Najarian, a Glendale City Council member and chair of the LA Metro board, after a photo-op in front of the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station that is one of three new Regional Connector underground stations. The other two are Historic Broadway Station and the Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill Station.
The Regional Connector has been under construction since 2014 but in the planning stages since the mid-1970s. It cost about $1.8 billion to build, $400 million over budget and three years beyond its original opening date. About $1 billion came from federal grants, while local funding came from four Metro sales tax measures.
In his remarks to several hundred people at the plaza of the Japanese American National Museum, Najarian expanded on the ridership theme. “Now that it (Regional Connector) is completed, it will help catalyze ridership growth systemwide in the years ahead,” he said.
Metro projects ridership out to 2035, when it estimates 90,000 daily trips within the new rail segment, including 17,000 new transit riders.
Ridership on the bus and train system in April was 74% of ridership in April 2019, still about one-quarter behind pre-pandemic levels, Metro reported. However, April 2023 ridership had increased by 10% as compared to April 2022.
Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said in May that another…
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