Afternoon/morning rush hours through the Sepulveda Pass can be bumper-to-bumper.
It seems the one fact that people in Los Angeles and surrounding areas can agree on is that traffic through the Sepulveda pass can be excruciating, especially during rush hour. It takes afternoon peak period commuters on average 48 minutes to drive those 10 miles northbound from the 10 Freeway to the 101 Freeway, according to a 2019 study commissioned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro).
The solution Metro is proposing is to build either an aerial monorail over the pass or undergrounding a rail line or a combination. The five alternatives start in Van Nuys and end at UCLA. The sixth alternative is no project.
Who doesn’t want for a system to ease traffic through the Sepulveda Pass?
But if you ask people, especially those who live west of the 405, would you take a metro system through the pass and where would you go? There is a pause.
One person, a transit proponent answered, “Most of us realize the traffic is often times horrible in the Sepulveda Pass but how do we pull over somewhere and hop on public transit, and then what do we do when we get over the hill?”
Do cars commuting from the West San Fernando Valley park in Van Nuys, take a train to Westwood/UCLA and then Uber to Santa Monica/Pacific Palisades?
If one is headed to a kid’s soccer game in Lancaster, do you drive to UCLA, find a place to park, take a train to Van Nuys and then find a bus?
According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, “the 10-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway between the 10 and 101 freeways often sees more than 300,000 cars per day.”
Has anyone asked those commuters about using a train to UCLA? (and in fairness, there are plans to hook that train up to other lines, so one could travel to Beverly Hills? Culver City? Downtown L.A.?)
When I contacted Metro on August 20, only 3,100 people had voted on an option, which is only one percent of people traveling daily through the pass.
L.A. Metro Communications Mallory Mead responded to CTN’s query on August 25 about that low number, “It’s too soon to say definitively how many people will submit a public comment as the public comment period does not end until August 30. Typically, Metro receives a substantial number of comments near the end of the comment period. That being said, the amount of public interest and engagement in the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project is higher compared to similar Metro projects.”
Public comment closes on August 30 from choices which range from $15.4 billion for Alternative 1 to $24.4 billion for Alternative 6,click here. Metro will make a selection in early 2026, but want resident’s input click here.
The projected annual operation/maintenance cost, once the project is completed is estimated at $130 million for Alternative 3 to $157 million for Alternative 6.
Even if Federal Funding comes through there is a huge gap to complete the project.
Mead explained, “As with many Metro projects, Measures R and M provided initial funding. There is currently $5.7 billion (this number is subject to escalation) in funding among Measures R, M and other local sources. That local funding, combined with the high projected ridership and significant time savings for this project, are all factors that should help put us in a good position as we compete for federal grant funds.
“By completing CEQA and NEPA for the project, we will make this project competitive for grant programs at the state and federal levels including the federal Capital Investment Grant program. As we get closer to finalizing the EIR, we will be able to better plan our funding strategies for implementing the project following Board approval.”
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Alternative 6 is the only way to go. It will provide access to the ‘downtown’ Van Nuys civic center. Other alternatives that parallel Sepulveda don’t serve the area well. And that loop from Sepulveda back to the Metrolink station makes no sense. On the West L.A. side, it hits all the major points, especially UCLA and the Bundy E Line station. I’m not sure why that East Valley transit line that parallels Van Nuys Boulevard to the Metrolink station is needed, but I guess it’s already set.
I tried to take the survey when Brad Sherman‘s office emailed it and after I finished it I could not submit because it said they had already reached their limit.
I then called Brad Shermans DC office and the person who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about nor that there was even a survey going on.
It seems as though they don’t really wanna know what we think.
My personal opinion regarding the Sepulveda pass – leave it alone, you’ve already caused enough misery for all of us in Pacific Palisades.
I would’ve come down to the beehive Monday but I’ve basically given up on Los Angeles
I commuted from Venice to Van Nuys circa 78-81…there was talk of a monorail back then as there were wide breakdown lanes both ways…vote no project as self-drivers will happen before any of these projects are ever completed.