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Tim Lindholm — Deputy Chief Program Management Officer
James Wei — Deputy Executive Officer, Project Management, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Transit system modernizations deliver many long-lasting benefits, including greater safety, mobility, accessibility and economic development. At Los Angeles Metropolitan County Transportation Authority (Metro), we view modernizations as an opportunity to reimagine how our ridership experiences the system- from signage to station layout.
Our A Line is a 48.5-mile northeast-southwest light rail alignment between Azusa and Long Beach via downtown Los Angeles. Under a $600 million modernization, we worked to modernize the original 22-mile alignment between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles that was built in 1990. The project replaced the existing track, refreshed the stations, installed new crossovers, overhauled overhead catenary systems, enhanced at-grade crossings and upgraded train control and signaling to modern standards – all while ensuring 70,000 weekday passengers continued to receive the best service possible.
We employed the following passenger-centric strategies during system modernizations to minimize service disruptions and deliver maximum outcomes as quickly as possible:
1. Provide as good or better service during construction
While modernizations emphasize change and renewal, the commitment to provide the best passenger service possible should remain a constant – even during a closure.
If we cannot deliver our passengers to their destinations by the normal transit mode because of a line closure, we find an alternative. In the case of our recent A Line modernization, we executed the most extensive bus bridging program in Metro history, requiring hundreds of additional buses, bus operators and a network of temporary bus routes. We provided three levels of temporary bus service, one Express Route with direct non-stop service from Downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach, a limited stop express service between the closed and active portions of the line (LA to Watts or Watts to Long Beach) as well as a train emulating bus service that stopped at every closed station.
LA surface streets worked in our favor. Large, arterial roads parallel to the A Line allowed buses to mimic the existing light rail route. In addition, we introduced express bus service from downtown Long Beach to midline and then midline to downtown LA. Although it was complex to plan and deploy, the temporary option of express bus service helped Metro gain customer support for the closure and confidence that their transportation needs would continue to be met.
2. Make improvements passengers can see and appreciate
Because riders cannot see many of the system improvements made during a modernization, we make a point to facelift stations with fresh paint, new digital signage, brighter lighting, landscaping, artwork, maintenance and furniture. Clean, attractive and welcoming stations are tangible signs of Metro’s progress, and our investments make passengers feel served and valued.
During the A Line’s shutdown, we also took the opportunity to advance our rebranding initiative by installing new signage and wayfinding devices to reflect the transformation from the station’s previous name- the Blue Line- to the A Line.
3. Increase accessibility and inclusivity
When planning a modernization, we seek ways to increase access to our system. For example, during the modernization we reimagined how customers might reach the A Line’s Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station. The result is a new pedestrian crossing at the south end of the station platform connects to the bus plaza. Walkways, a new pick-up/drop-off area, an expanded park-and-ride, a new Metro Customer Service Center and a new Metro Bike Hub narrow the first-mile last-mile gap and extend the opportunity for transit ridership to a broader audience.
“While modernizations emphasize change and renewal, the commitment to provide the best passenger service possible should remain a constant.”
4. Create faster, more reliable service
Metro wants to be the premier mobility provider in Southern California, and the only way we will achieve our vision is with fast, reliable service. During a modernization program, we may upgrade train control, install new interlockings, add new sidings and fine-tune signal timing on the streetrunning portions of the line. On the A Line, these collective improvements cut five minutes off trip times.
Further, to increase passenger safety, we increased battery backup capacity on our trains so lights and communication systems can continue functioning during power outages.
5. Spark revitalization in passengers’ communities
Metro projects strive to benefit everyone – even those who don’t use our system. We purposely plan our system improvements to spark economic transformation in the communities we serve. Downtown Long Beach and downtown LA are experiencing massive transit-oriented development near Metro stations with affordable senior housing, a medical center, a high school and a private university sprouting up around the Willowbrook/ Rosa Parks Station.
6. Ensuring capacity during the Olympic Games In 2028, Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics, and area leaders have declared the games to be car-free. LA Metro will be a key transportation provider during the event. Our system improvements and modernization programs focus on increasing capacity to ensure our regular passengers can rely on us to connect them to their destinations seamlessly and reliably, even as we serve the millions of tourists and athletes who will visit our city.
the Passenger First, Maximizing Results By enlisting these strategies, transit owners can execute passenger-centric programs while bringing their systems into a state of good repair. We can minimize future maintenance and service disruptions, increase trip reliability, spark revitalization and provide seamless transportation on the world stage – all while ensuring our passengers receive the best service possible.THE AUTH
By Quemuel Arroyo Chief Accessibility Officer | Metropolitan Transportation Authority
“I have never felt more excited or more like a New Yorker than during that train ride.” That was what I heard from 31-year-old Whitney, a New York resident and power wheelchair user who had just experienced a seamless, accessible subway ride. As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s first chief accessibility officer, it’s my responsibility to ensure all transit riders have the same positive experience Whitney had.
My team and I are overseeing a historic modernization program to make our 119-year-old legacy subway system 95% accessible by 2055. When the next capital program is completed, no transit rider will be more than two stops from an accessible subway station with an elevator and/or ramp.
Creating a 95% accessible system
The MTA has dedicated $5.2 billion of its $55 billion 2020-2024 capital plan to advance our program. By the end of 2024, we will have modernized 78 subway elevators and added 67 more subway stations to our growing inventory of 142 Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant stations.
MTA has committed to invest $30 billion to modernize and ensure systemwide compliance. When our program is complete, passengers will enjoy seamless, aesthetically pleasing MTA facilities packed with accessibility features:
• Signs with larger fonts and high-contrast displays
• Crisp, clear public address systems
• Decals on subway platforms that indicate accessible boarding areas
• Tactile subway line maps
• High-visibility information train screens
And, coming soon, the MTA will be the first U.S. transit system to add sign language into its digital display systems.
The MTA’s accessibility program is comprehensive — touching every borough and impacting many locations throughout our system. It is a balancing act to deliver the changes riders want as efficiently as possible with minimal disruptions to service. One way we do that is to complete the work at night and on weekends when ridership is lower and fewer passengers will be impacted. That is why we targeted 2055 as our completion date. It’s the sweet spot between what passengers want and what we can reasonably deliver.
Still, we are delivering the modernization rapidly, using contract bundling and design-build delivery. Aggregating the work allows us to award larger contracts for multiple stations in one borough, which enables greater efficiencies. And design-build allows for faster completion.
Becoming universally accessible means redefining and broadening our target audience to include the 1.5 million-plus New Yorkers over 65 who may be experiencing changes in their sight, gait or hearing and could benefit from accessibility enhancements. The MTA wants senior citizens to have the option to age in the communities they helped build. That means being able to ride the mass transit system whenever and wherever they want.
We also have expanded our target audience to include New York City’s 60 million annual tourists who may or may not know how to navigate a bus or subway system.
The MTA provides tools our customers need to navigate our system independently and successfully. For example, mobile apps, such as NaviLens and MagusCards, allow people with visual and hearing disabilities to become familiar with our system from their homes. They learn where bus stops, train stations and elevators are located, how to purchase a Metro card, navigate a turnstile and get to the platform.
“I have never felt more excited or more like a New Yorker than during that train ride.”
Our message is, “Come to New York City. We give you the access to move around 24/7, so you can enjoy all the city offers.”
Our accessibility program also considers the needs of passengers with bicycles, musical instruments and shopping carts. And, for parents, we have allocated stroller space on 1,000 MTA buses, so when they board, they don’t have the Herculean task of holding a child with one hand and folding up a stroller with the other.
Ultimately, our goal is not to limit the definition of accessibility to specific populations. Accessibility is universal and everyone who comes to a bus stop or train station needs assistance in one form or another. We intend to make their experiences easier.
Forming broad partnerships
One of the more innovative steps we’ve taken to make our system 95% accessible has been working with the New York City Council, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and the New York City Department of Buildings to ratify a new Zoning for Accessibility building code. The 2021 legislation incentivizes private developers to install an elevator or additional access points to an MTA train station when that station is within the envelope of their developments. In exchange, participants are allowed to build denser, higher structures.
Macy’s recently paid for and opened a new ADAcompliant entrance at our Hoyt Station in Brooklyn. The new entrance provides direct access to the retailer’s Fulton Street location and is expected to increase store traffic.
Private-sector partners, such as Macy’s, which also has agreed to maintain the elevator to MTA standards, bring accessibility to fast-growing areas of our system more quickly than we could alone. This year, the MTA has received four ZFA applications with more to be expected.
The MTA strongly believes if we provide our customers with what they need, they will ride more and even pay for it. And the only way to find out what they need is to engage with them and learn how the system is or isn’t serving them. For example, we are testing a best-in-class electric turnstile that opens and closes like saloon doors, and New Yorkers have shared what they think about them, which is precisely what we want to happen.
The pilot program reveals how the top-of-the-line gate needs to be improved to fit the New York environment. These learnings will become our requirements for a fare array designed specifically to meet the demands of our ridership.
In addition to pilot programs, we engage with our customers in person and online. We visit their communities to learn about their needs and educate them about MTA’s goals and initiatives, such as our state-of-good-repair program. Instead of viewing state-of-good-repair projects as a direct competitor of their agendas, we want our riders to understand that service availability is synonymous with service accessibility.
In fulfilling our commitment to providing a system where all can move with dignity, safety and independence, we intend to make New York City’s mass transit system the premier model of universal accessibility. And we are making significant strides toward that goal.
Taulby Roach — President and CEO, Bi-State Development Corporation
The landscape in St. Louis is rapidly changing. We are embracing our public transportation and leveraging our system to serve our strongest economic assets such as educational institutions, research and technology facilities, and innovation hubs.
The Metropolitan St. Louis Transit Agency (Metro) made a fundamental policy shift to grow ridership by capitalizing on existing economic investment. Our new mobility strategy focuses on providing and developing transit services where the city is developing. It acknowledges transit’s role in St. Louis’ equation for economic success, by providing safe, efficient mobility for people commuting to and from work. Following are some of the ways we are putting that new policy into action.
One of the most exciting economic investments in St. Louis and the largest federal investment in the City’s history is the $1.7 billion National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s West Facilities campus. When the 97-acre campus opens in 2026, it will house an operations building, two parking garages, a visitor control center, a remote inspection facility, a central utility plant and 3,100 employees.
We are planning to expand our light-rail system to serve the future NGA campus and the subsequent development it will spark. The proposed 5.8-mile, north-south Green Line would provide transit access to neighborhoods that have seen decades of economic divestment
and where the public transit modal split is high. It purposely dovetails with the City’s plan to ensure new developments promote economic opportunities for historically disadvantaged neighborhoods and the NGA’s commitment to increasing diversity among its workforce. Furthermore, one of the Green Line’s stations will be adjacent to CityPark, St. Louis’ new MLS soccer stadium, helping to connect fans to the sporting venue.
To ensure continued ridership growth and encourage people to use Metro, we are emphasizing safety throughout the system. Customer surveys prioritized the need to feel safe, secure and comfortable using transit. Further, each time we conducted a security review with our law enforcement partners, they requested we create a specific area with defined boundaries they could control. Our Secure Platform Plan is in direct response to this feedback.
The Secured Platform Plan, among the first of its kind in the nation, is a state-of-the-art security plan that enhances the customer experience by creating centralized, highly secure entrances at all 38 MetroLink stations. Each MetroLink station will feature a barrier system with swing and roto gate turnstiles, upgraded welded wire fencing around the perimeter, closed-circuit TVs with real-time monitoring and uniformed Metro security patrols to ensure code-ofconduct compliance and fare enforcement.
In addition to securing the physical environment, a new electronic fare collection system tied into the turnstiles will serve as a second barrier. Once passengers purchase a ticket with their smartphones, then and only then will the gate open, allowing them entrance to the station platform. Those without tickets will be prohibited from entering.
We recently completed our first secure platform installation at Washington Station, and the new strategy is transforming public safety on our system. We hope these improvements will enhance relationships with current customers and attract new riders.
Passengers also will experience enhanced safety, security and comfort as we introduce new rolling stock, station improvements and other amenities. We are procuring 55 new light-rail cars, phased in over several years, equipped with closed-circuit TV cameras, antimicrobial interiors and Wi-Fi. The new vehicles will help us continue to provide fast, reliable, safe service. We also are exploring alternative energies and applying efficiencies that will contribute to safer, cleaner neighborhoods and better places to live and work.
The total estimated cost for the Secure Platform Plan is $52 million. To help cover the costs, we approached several major downtown corporations
“St. Louis is changing, and Metro is changing with it. We are embracing our role in supporting economic growth and improving quality of life through strategic service expansions.”
about partnering with us. They agreed and are contributing an unprecedented $10.7 million. Our business partners understand the value of making a tangible investment in the safety of transit for the sake of their employees who ride our system.
Our goal is to complete the secure platform installations by the end of 2026 so our privatesector partners can see a return on their investments as soon as possible.
We are listening to and applying expertise from all stakeholders to realize our shared vision for the Green Line. For example, the Green
Line will cross a bridge owned by the Missouri Department of Transportation. The more direction and detail we collect from MoDOT and other stakeholders, the clearer our timeline and budget become. When transit agencies deploy the right resources and expertise and use them appropriately, ambitious projects, such as the Green Line, can benefit from greater budget and schedule certainty earlier in the project’s life cycle.
As we strive to serve nearly 60,000 riders daily, we never want to lose sight of the people we are producing it for. We have found the best way to provide a system the public will ride is to cocreate it with them. Our best, most effective tool is respectful, reasonable conversations with elected officials and constituent groups, where we listen to their ideas, needs and concerns and look for ways to accommodate their needs. By cocreating the Green Line with the community, we begin to cultivate in them a sense of project ownership and trust.
Changing with our city St. Louis is changing, and Metro is changing with it. We are embracing our role in supporting economic growth and improving quality of life through strategic service expansions. Our groundbreaking Secure Platform Plan is enhancing safety and inviting new ridership. We are collaborating with citizens, partnering with the private sector and bringing our economic mobility initiatives to life. By capitalizing on existing economic investments, we are building a vibrant, resilient and responsive future for Metro and the city we serve.
