There’s a brighter future in the works for Metro Orange Line riders in the San Fernando Valley.
“I ride it all over town from the San Fernando Valley to Dowtown Los Angeles,” said Lawrence Landry, who was waiting for the bus in Van Nuys.
“I’m going to visit a friend of mine on skid row. [I] used to live down there,” he explained.
Landry is now a homeless advocate, and Metro helps him get from his home in Granada Hills to several appointments.
“I used to have seizures, so I had to turn my license in,” Landry said, adding, "The Orange Line is reasonable. It’s convenient.”
It’s also the most popular form of public transportation in the Valley.
Metro recently broke ground on a project to speed up and improve safety on the bus line, which links Chatsworth to North Hollywood.
Metro plans to build aerial bridges at Van Nuys and Sepulveda Boulevards — two of the line’s busiest intersections.
The bridges would let buses drive over the intersection instead of having to stop, making the bus ride about ten minutes faster and potentially safer.
New crossing gates are also planned for up to three dozen intersections along the 18-mile corridor. Metro says it will work to minimize delays for cars as a result. Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian is a big supporter of improving the line that runs through his district.
“This is the first step toward our ultimate goal of building light rail along the Orange Line,” Krekorian said.
We likely won’t see that conversion for roughly 40 years, but Metro does plan to convert all the buses to electric power by 2020.
“It’s now the most successful bus rapid transit system in the entire United States,” he said.
The Orange Line project is expected to wrap up by 2025, a year ahead of the Summer Olympics.
As for Landry...
“I’m one step closer to my destination,” he said as he boarded the bus.
And he’s looking forward to the day he can get there even faster.