Callers to a virtual town hall meeting organized by LA Metro on Tuesday night, March 28, cited key concerns including feeling unsafe, unreliable bus service, and the phenomenon of the unhoused taking shelter in depots, train stations, buses and trains throughout the Metro system in Los Angeles County.
The hour-long call-in was the third to focus on the upcoming Metro budget and its additional spending during the past year to hire more safety staff — an effort to cut crime and persuade more riders to use the system of seven rail lines and about 2,400 buses.
A computerized system contacted 50,000 cell phones and 50,000 landlines and of those 2,413 participated in the call-in town hall, said Patrick Chandler, LA Metro spokesman.
Each caller was identified by the moderator by citing his or her first name only, city of residence and often what Metro lines they had ridden. Their comments were followed by brief responses from Metro staff members.
Here is a sampling of callers’ questions and responses:
– Nate from Sherman Oaks complained that the bus lines he takes have long waits between stops. “Why can’ t you improve frequency of local lines in the San Fernando Valley? They still run once an hour and it has been this way for over 20 years,” he said. “It is based on the level of usage on these lines. Every year we have this question of trade-offs in the overall Metro budget,” answered Joe Forgiarini, senior executive officer of service development, scheduling and analysis.
– Ali of Inglewood noted that Metro built the K-Line without a rail connection to SoFi Stadium. Forgiarini noted that the city of Inglewood is studying a rail link that could open by 2028. Until then, he recommended using LA Metro bus lines 212, 115 and 117 from the station to the stadium.
– Dan of North Hollywood said the biggest issues are crime, drug use, and large numbers of mentally ill and unhoused people lingering at stations and riding trains and buses. He said Metro…
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