Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line

Recently Russ Quimby an internationally recognized expert in rail accident causation and investigations submitted testimony in the CPUC hearing regarding the two crossings closest to our South LA community schools: Farmdale Ave (10 feet from Dorsey HS) and Western Ave (50 feet from Foshay Learning Center).  

Here’s an excerpt of his professional evaluation of the Farmdale Avenue crossing:

As proposed, the Farmdale Avenue crossing creates a high risk that students will be injured and killed because the proposed safety mitigation measures essentially put the burden on students to maintain their own safety. The proposed crossing also creates a higher risk of a catastrophic accident. [....]

By “catastrophic accident,” I mean an accident involving fatalities and/or injuries to a large number of people. As proposed, the at-grade Farmdale Avenue crossing creates the notable risk that a catastrophic accident may well occur under one of several different scenarios.  For example:

First, that a train will collide with a vehicle with sufficient force to either derail the train into and/or push the vehicle into the proposed “holding pens” where several hundred students are trapped inside, killing or seriously injuring scores of students in a single accident.

Second, that a train will collide with a vehicle (particularly a truck or bus) rupturing and igniting a fuel tank which would engulf students in the holding pen in flaming diesel or gasoline.

Third, a combination of the above two scenarios where the students are crushed and burned simultaneously by vehicles and/or a derailed train.

You don’t have to look far to see that just these types of accidents (car gets hit by train and train derails, and/or catches on fire).  In fact, you can look to the MTA’s very own Gold Line, which the Expo Authority calls “safe”:

When you think of the word “SAFE” is this the image that comes to mind?

That crumbled piece of metal that looks like a big potato chip bag is a former SUV that upon impact with the train caught on fire.

Video from the accident is below.

Led by the same project managers who told the communities around the Gold Line that it would be safe and that accidents like that would never happen, the MTA now tells us a train that crosses major streets like Crenshaw, Western, Normandie and Vermont without even basic crossing gates, and passes 10 feet of Dorsey HS is “safe.”

We’re being told this by the MTA – an agency that operates the Blue Line, which at over 821 accidents and 90 deaths is the deadliest light rail line in the country.

Today the number is up to 90 people DEAD and over 821 accidents.  

Does that sounds safe to you?

Here’s the chaos at Farmdale/Exposition, where every day after school 700 kids in 15 mins (up to 108 per min) flood the tracks.  There’s nothing like it anywhere on MTA light rail system:

MTA plan for this crossing is not grade separation, but instead, what they originally called a “holding pen,” akin to that for a penal institution or for cattle:

The “protection” MTA proposes for OUR South LA kids at Dorsey HS every day for the next 100 years is a holding pen.

We fight because we don’t want to prove Russ Quimby right.  We don’t want that holding pen – we won’t accept an at-grade crossing here.

Dozens of children have already been killed on the tracks of MTA’s trains.  Children that successfully crossed the tracks thousands of times, but just one day at one time was caught in a bad circumstance.  They are gone now.

Tell the MTA, PUC and our elected officials to FIX EXPO, by giving South LA equal investment, equal treatment and the same safety as the end of Phase 1 from La Cienega to Robertson.  We don’t want to have to bury any more children because of MTA’s unsafe street-level crossings.

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(As covered in CityWatchLA)

At the California Public Utilities Commission Hearing Monday on the Expo Line crossings by Dorsey High School and Foshay Learning Center, the assigned Judge Kenneth Koss issued the following statement as part of his ruling:

“With the submission of Expo’s information it appears that a grade separation at Farmdale is in fact practicable.”

This means that the street-level application with the holding pen is off the table.

The only options are:
a) underpass
b) overpass
c) street closure with a pedestrian bridge

This a major victory for the Dorsey High School family – for the future children of Dorsey HS.

Here’s some of the leadup to the hearing.

The Expo Authority since February has been conducting a study on alternatives to the street-level railroad crossing at Farmdale right by Dorsey HS.

Since April, both our attorneys and the LAUSD lawyers have been requesting the study. Expo has refused to supply it, including during discovery. They were ordered to supply it by the Judge and still they have not. Yet, in June, Expo produced testimony stating that this study showed that closing off Farmdale and building a pedestrian bridge was not possible because it would have adverse traffic impacts on the adjacent crossing of Buckingham that could not be mitigated and would not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Again we requested the study and they failed to supply it.

The LAUSD and our attorneys supplied our testimony in response to Expo’s testimony August 6 and July 30 respectively.

Our lawyers filed a request for a continuance on August 7 because of the failure of Expo to supply the document, along with motions to eliminate from the record any reference of Expo’s witnesses to the study since Expo refused to supply it. The same day, the Judge denied the request for the continuance and stated the other matters would be addressed on Monday.

On night of August 8, at 7:30 pm, Expo sent amended testimony COMPLETELY REVERSING their position that they could not close Farmdale and on Saturday night they submitted another 75 pg document showing how it would legally comply with CEQA.

The LAUSD is quite clear in their statement:

“We can reasonably infer from such changes in Expo’s Friday night revised testimony that the ‘draft’ traffic study found adverse impacts that would have to mitigated, so Expo commissioned another study to reach a conclusion more to its liking.”

Accordingly, the LAUSD has requested they be supplied all of Expo’s draft studies to determine the extent of the manipulation by the Expo Authority:

“These studies will provide a window into Expo’s apparent manipulation of technical studies to serve its litigation interests in this case. To the extent is shows that Expo has suppressed studies with conclusions not to its liking and has commissioned other studies that later the assumptions or methodologies to arrive at different conclusions, that practice is highly relevant to the weight this Commission should give to Expo’s witnesses’ testimony. To ignore such practices and to accept the project proponent’s technical assertions at face value would make a mockery of this hearing.”

Judge Koss answered the question of MTA motives with his Monday decision.

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Thank you to the hundreds who showed up at Foshay and Dorsey yesterday to rally for safety and grade separation on the Expo Line. A special thanks to the brave and able many who marched the 2.5 miles in between, and those who spent their Friday night before the protest making our great signs.

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As reported by Betty Pleasant in this week’s The Wave, this Saturday, August 9th the LAUSD and United Teachers Los Angeles will lead a protest that we’re supporting opposing the unsafe street-level railroad crossings near our community’s schools.

The goal is to send a message to the MTA and Public Utilities Commission that we do not support the MTA’s proposed Expo Line Phase 1 design that forces no child west of La Cienega to walk across the tracks, but forces thousands of South LA children to walk across the tracks every day for the next 100 years (link and pdf). Show up to stand up for our community and children’s safety!

The schedule for Saturday’s activities is as follows:

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An Important Battle Victory in a Our Struggle

As reported in the LA Watts Times last week, we won an important battle in our struggle, as the Public Utilities Commission (”PUC”) moved the location of the evidentiary hearing from San Francisco down to Los Angeles. The PUC is one regulatory body that can prevent MTA from building the trains at street level.

Holding the hearing is San Francisco would have been a logistical nightmare for us and prevented several of our witnesses from testifying. But because of YOU and YOUR emails and letters, and YOUR ACTION through your presence and statements of concern at the July 2nd PUC Workshop at Foshay we were victorious.

Special thanks go to State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, who promptly responded to the concerns of the community by sending the first letter to the PUC requesting the hearing be moved to Los Angeles. Thanks also go to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Assembly Member Mike Davis and even Council Member Herb Wesson for writting letters and contacting the PUC.

The hearings will be held daily from August 11 to August 15 beginning at 10 am and ending at 5 pm at the PUC’s Downtown Los Angeles hearing room:

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