Metro

Mayor Butts on Inglewood’s One Billion Dollar Federal Transit Investment

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James Butts

Recently it was announced that the city of Inglewood would be the recipient of a $1 billion-dollar federal investment for the Inglewood Transit Connector project. In this exclusive VX News interview, Inglewood’s Mayor, James Butts, provides an update on Inglewood's 1.6-mile people mover project. Emphasizing the project's broader impact on the local and regional economy, given multiple international events already booked through 2029, Mayor Butts challenges the miss-perception of who will use mass transit, envisioning Inglewood as a globally attractive sports and entertainment capital. Reflecting on Inglewood's transformative & successful economic recovery, Mayor Butts also shares a vision for the city's 2030 legacy, highlighting generational wealth creation and renewed infrastructure investments.

Patsaouras: Political Origins of LA's Transit Safety Challenges

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TPR shares this op-ed by former member and board president of the Southern California Rapid Transportation District (RTD) and MTA board, Nick Patsaouras, who outlines the historic and political origins of LA Metro’s policing contracts in the 1990s and subsequent degradation of security on the system. Highlighting the work of former MTA Police Chief Sharon Papa, Patsaouras highlights the necessity of having consistent, dedicated personnel specifically hired, trained, and deployed to work in and address crime, security, and quality of life challenges on LA’s transit system.

Eco-Rapid Transit: Metro Light Rail to Connect Southeast Los Angeles County & DTLA

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Michael Kodama

Michael Kodama explains the West Santa Ana Branch Corridor "megaproject"—a proposed light rail connecting Downtown Los Angeles to Southeast L.A. County, which has endured the loss of manufacturing jobs alongside heavy industrial pollution and a dearth of mobility options.

Metro CEO Phil Washington's Update on LA's 21st Century Transportation Build-Out

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Phil Washington

Facing a dramatic cut in federal funding, VX News sat down with the head of Los Angeles' public transportation operation agency about the impacts to their ambitious flurry of rail projects.

LA Metro’s CEO Shares Construction Progress with an Eye to Communities

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Phil Washington

At the “Transit Oriented Los Angeles 2015” conference hosted by Urban Land Institute-LA in December, VerdeXchange Chairman David Abel moderated a discussion between California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Jeff Morales and Metro CEO Phil Washington. Washington and Morales both emphasized their focus on the positive impacts transit build-out can produce for the communities it touches, if approached with care—and the steps they are taking to meet local needs and incorporate community feedback into plans that are expected to yield a transformative impact on the Southern California region as well as the entire state. They also discussed both the agency and authority’s efforts to protect and bolster local business as rail construction occurs.

New Metro LA CEO Washington Favors Public/Private Partnerships

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Phillip Washington

Phillip Washington was appointed CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in March, coming west from Denver's Regional Transportation District. At the June meeting of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation Board of Governors, Washington explains five mega-trends in transportation, then articulates his goals for Metro in the context of these national shifts. He emphasizes the need for public-private partnerships in the context of shrinking federal funds for major infrastructure. VX presents an edited transcript of these remarks, with an introduction by LAEDC President and CEO Bill Allen.

LA Metro’s Doug Failing on County Transit Agency’s Embrace of Public-Private Partnerships & Design Build

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With state and federal transportation funding slow, Metro and Caltrans are embracing public-private partnerships to finance and accelerate planned infrastructure projects. Doug Failing, Metro’s Executive Director of Highway Programs, tells VX News about their Accelerated Regional Transportation Improvement (ARTI) program, a series of small projects through which the county transit agency plans to demonstrate its viability and desirableness as a partner with private enterprise. Failing outlines the specific focus of ARTI (including the I-710 gap between the 10 and 210, the high desert corridor from LA to San Bernardino, and the 710 freight corridor), the benefits of P3 funding, and what Metro and Caltrans expect to learn about project delivery under a P3 system.