Enhancing Access to Los Angeles' Special Places
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Los Angeles City Hall
The Subway to the Sea will not be a new system, nor will it be a stand-alone system. Rather, it will be the completion of an existing subway system whose first phase has been operating successfully in Los Angeles County since 2000. Already the existing Red Line subway serves 40 million riders per year. MTA’s preliminary analysis projects that a Wilshire Corridor subway extension to the Pacific Ocean will serve an additional 26 million additional annual boardings. We believe this estimate to be extremely conservative. Afterall, the existing Red Line subway serves an alignment with less density and fewer major destinations than the Wilshire Corridor. It is more reasonable to expect the Wilshire Blvd subway to carry at least as many passengers as the Red Line.
Los Angeles Public Library
While the Subway to the Sea is a system which will stand on its own merit in terms of ridership and efficiency, it will also make many other parts of our transit system work better. It is called connectivity, and it is a key objective for any transit planner. The Subway to the Sea will be the high-capacity trunk line our system does not now have, a line that will link many of our diverse transit services and stimulate the increased utilization and efficiency of the entire public transit system.
Little Tokyo - Weller Court
Because of its capacity, speed, efficiency, and the nature of the destinations it serves, the Subway to the Sea will finally do what most of our transit system has failed to do — attract many current auto users out of their cars. When it does, it will facilitate the efficacy of the regional bus system as well, which will now operate on less congested boulevards.
The Wiltern Theatre
Still, like the current MTA bus and rail system, the Subway to the Sea will serve a large concentration of transit dependent users. The corridor it will serve has many transit dependent travelers for whom a modern, efficient, reliable and affordable transit system is essential — to their lives as well as their livelihoods. It will enable many of these workers to more easily and efficiently access the job-rich Wilshire Corridor, expanding horizons and opportunities. And it will make access to our beautiful Pacific Ocean and its beaches far easier for the transit-dependent.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Thus the Subway to the Sea can help provide congestion relief on many corridors and enhance the cost-effectiveness of transit services throughout the MTA service territory, while serving both the transit-dependent and the car-loving Angelino. The whole will truly be greater than the sum of its parts.