--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "3/7 Long Beach Press" <batn@xxxx> wrote: Published Sunday, March 7, 2004, in the Los Angeles Daily News Editorial A maglev too soon First, kill Hahn's LAX expansion plan. The folks in Los Angeles City Hall can never seem to get it right. This time, they've put the maglev before the horse. Or something like that. Last week, a City Council committee approved spending $563,000 on a study to determine whether Los Angeles would be well served by a magnetic-levitation -- or maglev -- train running from the Westside to Ontario Airport. It's an appealing idea, but it raises an obvious question: Why would anyone in West Los Angeles want to go to Ontario Airport? The short answer, for now, is they wouldn't. Ontario, like the city's other airport in Palmdale, is under- utilized and doesn't offer enough flights. That's not going to change until L.A. embraces a regional plan for airport service, spreading flights among the three facilities. But standing in the way of that happening is the horse -- er, Mayor James Hahn -- and his $9.1 billion plan for "modernizing" Los Angeles International Airport. Although Hahn promises that his plan isn't about expanding LAX, but making it safer, there are fewer and fewer people around who still believe that. For starters, experts have concluded that Hahn's design wouldn't make the facility any more secure. In fact, by putting all travelers in a single check-in facility, it could heighten the risk of a terrorist attack. Then there's a new study out of Berkeley showing that Hahn's plan would bring some 87 million new passengers to LAX a year. That in turn would attract yet more traffic and pollution to the area. No wonder the mayors of the several small cities surrounding LAX that initially supported Hahn's plan, have changed their minds. They realize they've been sold a bill of goods. The mayors join a long list of the plan's opponents, including several city leaders and the airlines. It seems like the only remaining supporters of Hahn's plan are the contractors and the unions that stand to make a bundle should it ever be adopted. That said, the plan is still on the table, and as long as it stays there, there's no sense discussing a bike path, let alone a maglev, to Ontario Airport. If the city expands LAX, no airline is going to want to bring more flights to Ontario, as it's simply more economical to operate out of one facility than out of two. A maglev system, not just to Ontario Airport, but linking up points throughout greater Los Angeles, could go a long way toward improving the region's transportation problems. But it's pointless as long as the mayor remains committed to a vision that would channel all air traffic through LAX. Before wasting half a million dollars studying a maglev, City Hall ought to fully embrace airport regionalization. And the first step to that end is sending Hahn's horse of a plan to the glue factory. [BATN: See related: Los Angeles panel pushes Ontario airport maglev http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/16678 ] --- End forwarded message ---