Los Angeles — With $2.5 billion in high-speed rail work currently under contract in California, advocates now are focusing on public-private partnerships, transit-oriented development and multimodal connections around the planned ultimate route between Sacramento and San Diego. In Los Angeles alone, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is pondering a 2016 ballot measure for a half-cent sales-tax increase and an unsolicited proposal policy, plus a $1-billion redevelopment of downtown Union Station.
Phil Washington, CEO of LA Metro, told attendees of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association’s December conference that the agency hopes to take advantage of an expedited project delivery program in the new five-year reauthorization legislation to complete the last 2.5 miles of the Purple Line between downtown and UCLA. The proposed ballot initiative would extend Measure R, the original 2008 voter-passed initiative, and add another $120 billion for construction programs. “My worry is capacity—can you handle all the work?” he asked engineers and contractors in the audience. LA Metro will host a mega-industry forum in February for both the construction industry and potential equity partners, he added.