Why no rail line to LAX?

It's a long and frustrating story, and the $546-million federal loan announced last week for a light rail line to and from the LAX area should be more a reminder of what could have been than some grand public policy achievement. The eight-and-a-half mile line will run from the Crenshaw district to the Green line station at Aviation Boulevard. There's irony in the location: If the old LAX terminals were still being used (we're talking pre-1961), the rail stop at Aviation would have left passengers within a short walk of their planes. Today, the terminals are too far west to walk. I imagine shuttle buses will be made available, but it's likely to be a clunky process - just as it is for passengers getting off the Green line. This is hardly what planners had in mind 30 or 40 years ago when they proposed a transit system that went directly into the LAX departure areas.

So what happened? Well, conflicting agendas happened. Federal aviation authorities were concerned that overhead rail lines would somehow disrupt airline avionics. They said that a proper study was required, but the MTA never got around to it (too much money and too time-consuming were among the reasons). Also, nearby parking lot owners put up a stink because they worried about more people taking public transit; and homeowner groups were understandably suspicious of most anything the airport did. The shame is that L.A. would have benefited greatly by having a mass transit system run from downtown and portions of the Westside and South Bay to the airport. But the window on such an ambitious public works project had been slammed shut years ago. That's why current transit ideas, such as the Crenshaw/LAX corridor, are being pursued in such piecemeal fashion. It's not exactly a terrible idea, but will it have any impact on travel times along the 405? Doubtful. And that's really the problem - these projects are being planned not because they'll improve traffic (studies have shown that they won't), but because of cockeyed public policy sentiments about giving folks more transportation choices. So how exactly does that fix the problem?

By the way, the latest iteration of the LAX Master Plan is out, and it still contains several proposals for a people mover that would take passengers from Century Boulevard to the terminal buildings. But no action has been taken, and I'm not holding my breath.