Orange Line Extension to Break Ground Next Month

The Metro Orange Line busway that connects the North Hollywood Red Line station in the East to the Warner Center in the West, will soon extend northward from the Canoga station and will terminate at the Chatsworth Amtrak station - the site of last year's tragic derailing. The 4-mile dedicated busline will add 3 stations to the line, at Sherman Way, Roscoe Blvd, and Nordhoff St, before the terminus. The short extension endured a long acceptance process, beginning with a study in 2003 and finalizing in January of this year with the completed EIR. The main goal of the project is to improve north-south traffic conditions in the sprawling Valley. Completion is scheduled for 2013.

The original 14-station Orange Line opened in 2005 to both local and worldwide acclaim, as one of the first North American examples of a successful dedicated "busline." The busway, which was chosen as the locally preferred alternative in the scoping process, utilizes long articulated buses on a reserved transitway. This system, which was largely developed in the 1970s in transit-conscious Curitiba, Brazil, is low-cost and high-efficiency. Like a light-rail, the buses run on a dedicated path, eliminating both the danger of collision and the impediment of traffic lights. The line seems to be the perfect fit for the Valley, a region that is still relatively low-density, but suffers from strangulating congestion.

The extension however, has been met with much local condemnation, not for construction inconveniences or noise, but for the displacement of area businesses. LACMTA owns the path that will be tapped for the line, and has been leasing out the properties along this right-of-way for 50 years. The county transit agency has retained all the rights-of-way of LA's original Pacific Electric redcar system since its closure in 1961. Long leased out to private businesses at cut-rate prices, these transit corridors have proved extremely convenient in Metro's avid rebuilding of transit lines beginning in the 1990s. But despite complaints from local businesses about government intervention in an already sagging regional economy, local officials will continue to laud the project as a universally beneficial and a much-needed improvement to area mobility. You can make fun of the Valley all you want, but in a city infamous for car dependence, the Orange Line is hurtling into the 21st century.