(Sacramento, CA) – Calling the Green Line a “monument of poor planning,” a group of elected officials and community activists led by Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), LA City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl (11th District), and Congressowman Jane Harman (36th District), today sent a letter to the MTA asking the Board to connect the line to LAX. The group cited State Infrastructure Bonds as a funding source for the project.
Currently, the Green Line follows the 105 Freeway, and then abruptly turns South through El Segundo and Redondo Beach. Residents in the area have long referred to the Line as the “train to nowhere.”
“The entire point of building the Green Line was to connect the MTA system to the airport,” Lieu said. “The Legislature and the voters have done their job by passing these bonds; it’s time for MTA to fix this debacle.”
The letter, addressed to MTA Chairwoman Gloria Molina and copied to the other Board members, points out that the more than 61 million annual passengers that use LAX every year, creating more than 100 million vehicle trips. If even some of these passengers could be moved into rail, it would relieve traffic congestion and improve air quality throughout the region.
Ken Alpern, the Co-Chair of Friends of the Green Line, a community group that advocates for connecting rail to LAX, was excited to see the broad-based support. “Those of us who have been working on this issue for a long time are sensing an historic moment, when political support is matching up with available funds,” he said. “This could dramatically change this whole area.”
Besides those listed above, the other signers of the letter are: Assemblymember Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), Assemblymember Curren Price (D-Inglewood), Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica), State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), State Senator Jenny Oropeza (D-Carson), Assemblymember Karen Bass (D-Culver City), Mayor Kelly McDowell (City of El Segundo), Mayor Roosevelt Dorn (City of Inglewood), and Kenneth Alpern, MD (Co-Chair, Friends of the Green Line).
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