Southern California opinion: Gold Line and Metrolink battle for rail riders

By The Editorial Board, San Gabriel Valley Tribune; October 12, 2017

Private-sector transit options in Southern California have always been in competition. Depending on where you need to get to, you can walk, or bike, ride a motorcycle (lane-splitting is attractive at rush hour), drive your own car solo, bring along a friend to take advantage of the HOV lanes or take a taxi, Uber or Lyft.

Are the public-sector options in competition as well? We don’t often think of them as being so, but of course they are. Even though in Los Angeles County Metro controls most of the bus routes, in the San Gabriel Valley it has competition from the nonprofit Foothill Transit buses. And Metro’s light-rail options such as the Gold Line and subways such as the Red Line are actually in competition with its own buses. When ridership on one option drops, more attention is paid to the others, and more dollars are spent in in that direction.

Click here to read the full story.

 

Please share with others