Several obstacles still make a Wilshire subway extension unlikely, but Mayor Villaraigosa's dream of pushing the Red Line further west got some good news this week.
According to the L.A. Times, a panel of tunneling and transporation experts contend that the subway could be safely built below Wilshire, despite the methane gases found particularly in the Fairfax area.
Notes the paper:
The preliminary decision by the five-member panel, which was convened by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, could bolster Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's vision of building a subway to the beach.
Currently, the subway runs between Union Station and North Hollywood. Federal law bans using federal money to extend the Red Line. The law was introduced by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) after a 1985 methane explosion at a Fairfax-area clothing store. Concerns have also been raised about the presence of lethal hydrogen sulfide gas.
Earlier this month, Waxman said he would ask Congress to rescind the law if the panel concluded that tunneling was safe. On Thursday, Waxman said the conclusion was "encouraging," but said he would not seek to repeal the law until he had a chance to talk to panel members in the next few days.
That "clothing store" was Ross Dress for Less (which still resides on 3rd, across the street from the Grove). The panel, which will submit its findings in mid-November, believes that much has changed since 1985, and that technology has improved greatly.
Meanwhile, also from the Times, some reason for the MTA to be concerned over its new baby: Two days before the Orange Line's opening, a car ran a red light Thursday and crashed into a bus making a test run on the San Fernando Valley transitway, authorities said.
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