Report: LACMTA Eyes Cutbacks to Union Station Upgrades
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
The Los Angeles Union Station modernization project’s major components include new lead tracks, elevated rail yard and platforms; new concourse-related improvements, including new escalators, elevators and canopies; new run-through tracks south of the station over U.S.-101; accommodation of the planned California high-speed rail system; new rail communications, signals and safety improvements; and off-site improvements to the BNSF Malabar Yard. (Image Courtesy of LACMTA)
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) may be trimming its plans to update the historic Los Angeles Union Station as construction costs have doubled from $950 million to an estimated $1.93 billion, Urbanize LA reported Jan. 10.
The project’s major components include new lead tracks, elevated rail yard and platforms; new concourse-related improvements, including new escalators, elevators and canopies; new run-through tracks south of the station over U.S.-101 (the station is currently a ”stub-end” station, in which all commuter and intercity trains enter and exit through a five-track ”throat” that is located at the north end); accommodation of the planned California high-speed rail system; new rail communications, signals and safety improvements; and off-site improvements to the BNSF Malabar Yard, according to LACMTA, which in 2011 became owner of the station that opened in 1939. LACMTA is working with the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) on the project, as well as the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA; Metrolink), Amtrak, Los Angeles–San Diego–San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and the cities of Los Angeles and Vernon.
Since the new project price tag was announced in June 2023, LACMTA “appears to have adjusted its plans in an effort to move the project forward, per a new [January 2023] presentation unearthed by @numble,” Urbanize LA reported. “After value engineering, plans how [sic] call for a reduction in the number of new-build platforms which would have access to the run-through tracks from seven to four. Those platforms would serve eight different tracks which would converge onto just two tracks crossing the [US-101] freeway—also a reduction from the original plan which had called for at least four.”
According to Urbanize LA, the project would have multiple phases with construction initially focusing on the station’s platform 3, “which would be shortened and modified for the approach to the tracks across the freeway.” Other plans, it reported, include “active transportation improvements such as new sidewalks and bike lanes along Commercial Street on the south side of the freeway, as well as work within a BNSF yard, ‘quiet zone’ improvements at the North Main Street grade crossing, and the addition of a sound wall adjacent to the William Mead Home public housing complex.”
Utility relocation work along Center and Commercial streets starts this year and will continue through summer 2025, according to the presentation, Urbanize LA reported. LACMTA anticipates receiving Environmental Impact Statement/National Environmental Policy Act approval this fall; then, final design would run through summer 2026, early construction would begin in fall 2025, and heavy construction would start in summer 2026, according to the media outlet. The completion date is still to be determined.
“Union Station remains the centerpiece of Metrolink’s SCORE, which have the goal of enabling more frequent service across the more than 500-mile regional rail system,” Urbanize LA reported.
