Wednesday, September 11, 2013 5:00-7:00 PM Minutes WESTSIDE/CENTRAL SERVICE COUNCIL Regular Meeting La Cienega Tennis Center 325 S. La Cienega Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211 Called to Order at 5:00 p.m. Council Representatives Present: Jeffrey Jacobberger, Chair Elliott Petty, Vice Chair Peter Capone-Newton Perri Sloane Goodman Randal Henry Art Ida Glenn Rosten Joe Stitcher George Taule Officers: Jon Hillmer, Director Jody Litvak, Community Relations Director Deanna Phillips, Board Specialist Dolores Ramos, Council Admin Analyst Henry Gonzalez, Council Comm. Rel. Mgr. 1. ROLL Called. 2. APPROVED Minutes of July 10, 2013 meeting 3. RECEIVED PUBLIC Comment for items not on the agenda Wayne Coombs was on Line 704 on Monday evening. As it arrived in downtown Santa Monica near 4th and Broadway, the annunciator announced “Connection to the Expo Line.” He was surprised to hear that the Expo Line is already stopping at Downtown Santa Monica, as the only construction in the area has been utility line relocation. The Council recently discussed more space on the subway for bicycles. He was recently on the subway and there were three bicycles, room for two more and room for a wheelchair on one end of the subway car. He does not think any more seats should be removed to accommodate bikes. Ken Ruben from Culver City is hoping to keep his apartment. Today is the anniversary of 9/11; Mr. Ruben was interviewed which may air on Channels 2 or 9. Culver City Mayor Jeff Cooper was also interviewed; about ten to twelve seconds was aired. The 9/11 remembrance event didn’t have as many people as last year. He acknowledged the recent Angels Flight incident and commended John Wellborne for a great job in trying to keep it going and that Metro stored the cars used on Angels Flight for many years. He expressed frustration with the 511 system. At times, the system will not understand requests, which is very frustrating. Wayne Wright asked staff to consider re-routing Lines 605 and possibly Lines 71 and 252 to the LA County USC Busway Station. Currently, there are no buses serving the busway station. He would like at least the Line 605 serve the busway station since it lays over on the north side of USC. It can then connect to the Freeway Express Lines, Silver Line and Silver Streak. Currently, it’s not safe, it’s leery to walk from the busway station to USC because there isn’t a direct bus route that serves the hospital busway station. Something needs to be done to bring service to the busway station. 4. RECEIVED Report on Expo Bus/Rail Interface -One Year Later, Stewart Chesler, Transportation Planning Manager Exposition Line (Phase I) is the newest rail line in Metro’s network. The line runs from 7th/Metro to Culver City, is 8.7 miles long and has a running time of 26 minutes. The line stops at 12 stations including two shared with the Blue Line. The Expo Line opened on April 28, 2012 except for Culver City and Farmdale Stations which opened on June 17, 2012. Expo Phase II to Santa Monica (4th/Colorado) is slated to open in FY 2016. Average weekday ridership for the Exposition Line was 11,347 after one month in operation (May 2012), rose to 18,181 with the opening of the Culver City and Farmdale Stations in July 2012, and reached 26,663 after one year in operation (May 2013). Expo Westside/Central Service Council Minutes 2 Line ridership has experienced 135% growth or average rate of 8% per month. Average Saturday ridership was 9,000 after one month in operation (May 2012), 11,930 with Culver City and Farmdale Stations opening (July 2012), and has reached 18,604 after one year (May 2013), a 107% growth rate or average rate of 7% per month. Sunday ridership was 7,000 after one month (May 2012), rose to 11,322 when Culver City and Farmdale Stations opened in July 2012, and reached 14,299 after one year in operation (May 2013), a 104% growth or average rate of 7% per month. The Exposition Authority originally forecasted average ridership of 25,251 for the year 2015; ridership surpassed that mark after one year in operation. That forecast did not include Exposition Park USC or Farmdale Stations. Expo Line is also very productive line on a per-mile basis. The Line averages 3,020 boardings per mile, which ranks as the second highest productivity among the light rail lines and third highest productivity overall. Walking is the predominate mode of access to Expo Stations. Bus transfers are highest at Crenshaw, La Cienega and probably Culver City if non-Metro Service is included. Park and Ride access is highest at Culver City and La Cienega stations due to parking availability. Modes of access percentages are comparable to the rest of the rail system. Bus Line interface changes made with the opening of the Expo line include: Line 30 was extended to West Hollywood via former Line 550 and 305. Line 42 was discontinued east of Western Ave. Line 102 was shortened to Exposition/Western and combined with the remaining portion of Line 42, south of Exposition/Western. Line 217 was extended to La Cienega/Jefferson Station and Westfield at Culver City via former Line 439. Lines 305, 439 and the portion of Line 550 west of Exposition/Vermont were discontinued. Route 730 was converted to Route 330, a new branch of Line 30, also extended to West Hollywood. Line 740 was shortened eastern and re-routed to Expo/Crenshaw. As a result of bus line changes, ridership for Lines 440 and 740 dropped 45% and 52% respectively on weekdays due to paring them back to the Exposition Line. Line 102 ridership increased 81% on weekdays due to swapping the portion of west of Western with that of the former western portion of Line 42. Ridership on the former western Line 42 segment decreased 12% on weekdays. Line 33 ridership remained virtually unchanged on weekdays but experienced slight gains on weekends – 3% Saturdays, 6% Sundays. Line 733 experienced a slight drop of 4% on weekdays. Lines 38 and 40 ridership decreased 13% and 4% respectively on weekdays since they parallel the Expo Line. Line 217 ridership gained 9% on weekdays due to extending it to the La Cienega Station and Westfield Mall at Culver City. Line 30 ridership increased 46% on weekdays partly due to its extension to West Hollywood to replace the San Vicente portions of Lines 305 and 550 and because it absorbed the former Line 730 as branch route limited 330. As a result of all the line changes, the Expo Corridor experienced a net weekday gain of 6,220 (11%). Wayne Wright complained that Line 740 ridership has dropped since the re-routing to the Crenshaw Expo Line, particularly on Saturdays. Line 102 has a lot of riders between LAX and Western and up to Jefferson and Figueroa. The last three runs on Line 102 at 10:30pm, 11:30pm and 12:30am only go as far as the stop at Crenshaw, they do not serve the rail. The last bus going to the Expo Line is the 9:40 or 9:45pm route. He doesn’t agree that Line 40 ridership has dropped, as he sees those buses packed between downtown and South Bay Galleria, as well as east of Crenshaw, King and Broadway. One of the Westside/Central Service Council Minutes 3 reasons Line 740 service was changed was to have it serve the rail. Unfortunately, when LAX/Crenshaw Line comes in at the end of this decade, there will be problems with Line 40. Ken Ruben has observed a lot of people alighting from Lines 733 and 33 to get onto the Expo train. Sometimes there are problems when the trains are delayed due to accidents. People get a little bit antsy when there’s an announcement that the train will leave in 15 minutes and it ends up not departing for 30. Councilmember Henry asked how walking mode data was calculated. Mr. Chesler responded that he began with spot counts on the number of cars parked and subtracted from the total of boardings at each station. He then looked at the increase of boarding at the stops where Expo and bus lines intersect. Those numbers were then subtracted and the difference was presented as walking. Councilmember Henry asked if in calculating the data they had been able to calculate a circumference from which people were walking. Mr. Chesler stated he did not have that information; an on-board survey would need to be conducted in order to find that out. Councilmember Henry replied that pedestrian data would be helpful in relation to the discussion of proposed pedestrian enhancements, particularly for the next phase to see if there are a lot of people walking and where they’re walking from. ADA enhancements are necessary in that neighborhood and should be linked those to the areas that pedestrians are walking from. He suggested that he and Mr. Chesler discuss further. Councilmember Capone-Newton asked if the Expo Corridor experienced a net gain of about 11% in ridership of all the bus lines in the area. Mr. Chesler clarified that the 11% ridership gain refers to all bus lines intersecting the Expo Line, not including the two stations shared with the Blue Line. Councilmember Capone-Newton asked if that was all bus lines, or only those that were modified. Mr. Chesler replied that it included all bus lines, not only those which had route modifications.