It was an article in the City Fix about a new metro line between Delhi, India's airport and Central Delhi that got my blood boiling about the sorry state of public transportation at LAX. Early next week I have to fly out of there and as I know from prior trips, it won't be fun. For starters, this trip I am on crutches due to a leg injury. So much for my effort to exercise more as I move into my second half-century. But even without a bum leg the trip to LAX is never a picnic. My best public transit option is Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus # 3. A bargain at $1 a ride, I pick it up close enough to my home, so that's not the problem. It is the slow ride unless it is very early or very late in the day and the inefficient connection from the LAX transit center to the terminal that raise the temperature in my veins.
When Metro's 30/10 Initiative or the visionary LA-born infrastructure idea some are now calling America Fast Forward happens, no one will be happier than me. But I fear that even then, Angelenos won't get true mass transit to LAX. In this often surreal town, the absurdist gibberish that comes out of LAWA, the city department that owns and operates LAX, about the infeasibility of bringing Metro to the terminals takes first prize in the fiction department. I wonder what it costs the cab and shuttle operators who seem to run LAWA to keep things that way?
With the world increasingly running laps around us as a destination for business travelers and tourists alike, isn't it time that Angelenos stopped accepting the airport commission's creative writing that it is simply not possible to bring the train to the plane?
My flight next week is to San Francisco, where I will exit my plane and get on BART for a quick ride to downtown. When I last lived in San Francisco is 1991, bringing the BART to the airport wasn't a possibility either. The difference between us and them is that San Franciscans had the foresight to realize their public transit vision. It is time Angelenos and LAX showed that same vision. A late bloomer, I have always been one who believes in better late than never.
According to the City Fix, the public-private partnership (PPP) that built the Delhi line between Indira Gandhi International Airport and downtown Delhi is one of the latest examples of using the PPP model to develop urban transport infrastructure in India. In order to improve the project's viability, the public transit agency built the line with private partners and the facility is leased out to a private company for operations and maintenance.
If a PPP is what it takes to bring Metro to LAX, then so be it. The time has come to give commuters to the world's sixth busiest airport a truly rapid mass transit option.
Yours in transit,
Joel
Follow Joel Epstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thejoelepstein
We don't OWE taxi drivers, shuttle companies, or even LAX car park companies a living. Consider this, put the Metro through to LAX, and the competition will bring down the prices to park at LAX for those who do.
Isn't what what Capitalism is all about? Competition, right?
In Amsterdam, Chicago, London, etc you can get on the train without stepping outside. Even Bangkok is building (has built (?)) a metro to their new airport. LAX is one of the most confusing airports in the world. Difficult for visitors to navigate and expensive to get in and out of. We deserve better. But we won't get it. LA, like America, is so mired in corruption and officials feeding at the trough that nothing can change.
You want to fly out of a good airport? Immigrate. China has some good airports with trains/metro.
Out of curiosity Joel, what is the reasoning LAWA uses in their argument that Metro to LAX is not feasible? If it works in every other major city, why is LA any different? I'm guessing they will change their tune when the Gold Line reaches Ontario airport and starts siphoning LAX's business away.
In addition, VP and TP will cost the public far less than the $2 Trillion to construct a subway system as it will be all private money. VP and TP will take people worldwide in a second and will benefit people's lives far more than fixed rail transit in LA.
With VP and TP, the traffic reduction will be so great that buses will be more efficient and faster. Thus, from LAX to downtown in 30 would be realistic. I know the times between LAX and almost everywhere since I was cab driver in my younger years. Distance in LA is measured in time and not in miles. Hollywood and Downtown are far close to LAX when there is 30% less traffic.
VP and TP will create modern technologies and attract decent jobs to LA and move us towards the 22nd century and not backwards to the 19th Century.
If someone cannot afford $14 for the airport Shuttle, then they cannot afford the fly anywhere.