A New Transit Vision for Southern California's San Gabriel Valley

The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, the regional planning authority for a sprawling, populous swatch of Southern California, is ramping up its transit planning efforts, with the recent release of a "San Gabriel Valley Transit Feasibility Strategy" that includes 15 possible mass transit routes through the region.

Kristopher Fortin broke the news of the proposed transit alternatives for Streetsblog LA and provided a summary of the strategy's proposals. The strategy proposes eight potential east-west routes and seven north-south routes. "The modes being considered include a rapid bus that runs in mixed traffic lanes, express bus, bus rapid transit (BRT), light rail, and commuter rail," according to Fortin.

Fortin reported on the feasibility strategy in December 2020, when the work emerged from the ashes of a failed proposal to extend a light rail line (the L Line née Gold Line) along an alignment shared by State Highway 60, which connects Downtown Los Angeles to destinations farther east.

The Metro Board instead chose the Washington Boulevard alignment, but also "allocated $1.5 million toward the feasibility study, expected to determine how to spend $635 million in Measures M funds that had been set aside for the SGV L Line extension, but could shift to other SGV transit projects."

As noted by Fortin, the feasibility strategy is soliciting public feedback, although the survey does not ask questions specifically about the 15 route alternatives.