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# Train on the brain: Rail-Volution rolls through SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/train-on-the-brain-rail-volution-rolls-through-sm/
- Published: 2004-09-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:07:24.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Environment, Downtown, #archive-import

*Light rail seen as a transit option for commute to the westside*

*By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer*

HOLLYWOOD — Santa Monica officials continue to actively campaign for a light rail system that would link downtown LA to the west-side, Mayor Richard Bloom told an audience of national transportation experts Monday.

Currently, the I-10/405 interchange ranks fifth among the nation’s most congested highways, with the highest traffic volume heading west towards Santa Monica in the mornings. Once the rail is completed, Metro anticipates as many as 76,000 passengers a day. “(We’ve) been meeting with Metro, and our message is that we want a light rail to come from downtown LA to Santa Monica,” Bloom told an estimated 400 transit advocates at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. Monday’s event was part of Rail-Volution, a four-day conference held in LA.

Bloom touched briefly on the need for light rail before singing the praises of Santa Monica’s projects that ranged from the new public library to the Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (SMURFF), which reduces storm water pollution that flows into the Santa Monica Bay.

Following Bloom’s speech, a group of 45 attendees boarded a bus to tour both those spots and others, including the right-of-way that would be used for light rail.

Metro officials say current plans call for a 9.6-mile line extending along the MTA-owned Exposition right-of-way from the existing metro rail station at 7th/Metro in downtown LA to Venice/Washington in Culver City, with an initial segment constructed at least to Vermont Avenue adjacent to Exposition Park. The rail line would then end near the Civic Center area in Santa Monica, possibly where the Sears building now sits on Colorado Avenue.

But progress is slow: MTA began work on the Mid-City/Westside Transit Corridor Study in 1999, but isn’t scheduled to break ground until 2007 with completion of the Venice/Washington station as distant as 2012.

“The westside cities joined together to do a mobility study and found that though we generate 10 percent of income, we get.01 percent of transportation dollars,” said Kathryn Vernez, assistant to the city manager for government relations. “The Expo Light Rail is the best hope to get people out of their cars and into mass transportation. Now it’s just a question of getting it built.”

In addition to a stop at a Exposition right-of-way, attendees of the sold-out tour learned about Bergamont Station, the downtown housing project and urban design plan, the Third Street Promenade, Colorado Court’s “green” affordable housing and the new public safety facility.

“Anyone who’s been to Santa Monica knows transportation is the most significant challenge,” Bloom said while discussing the city’s $7 million investment into improving the 20 miles of key traffic corridors in Santa Monica through such means as widening curbs and installing flashing cross signals.

Bloom said such achievements “didn’t just happen, and didn’t just happen overnight.” He encouraged attendees hoping to follow the city’s example to incorporate the help of residents and businesses, use a holistic approach and remember that vision and perseverance are more important than the starting point.

He then showed the audience a picture of the Santa Monica Pier ferris wheel, which is solar powered through the help of a 50 kilowatt rooftop system.

“What we’re doing here is proving you can find opportunity for sustainability in the most unlikely of places,” he said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 21, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)