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# Let light rail reach the beach
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/let-light-rail-reach-the-beach-editor/
- Published: 2007-12-11T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T04:22:23.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*By Richard Orton Santa Monica*

I read with interest, the planning progress of the Exposition Line light rail into Santa Monica (“Getting around is king,” Dec. 10). Whether it follows Olympic or Colorado doesn’t matter to me so much as where it terminates.

I’ve heard that, currently, plans are for the light rail to terminate at a facility at Fourth and Colorado, on the site now occupied by Sears automotive. I think the light rail needs to run all the way to the beach. Stopping short of the ocean is not in the public’s interest for two reasons. 1) The beach, the pier, the boardwalk are all huge destinations for people from all over Southern California. For a light rail line to go almost to the beach does not serve the public interest and makes as much sense as a rail line in El Segundo that goes almost to the airport. That situation serves airport transportation companies, but not the public. 2) The beach has huge parking lots — empty most of the time — that could function as park-and-ride facilities for a light rail system. If the line doesn’t go to the beach, the opportunity to attract that ridership is lost.

The public will be paying for this system, but politicians will be making the decisions about it. I hope when they make those decisions they ask the question “What best represents the public interest?” I’m concerned because it’s a question, too often, politicians never seem to ask.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 11, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/121107.pdf?ref=smdp.com)