The City Council Tuesday approved a study of extending the Metro Green Line to Los Angeles International Airport.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn said that Los Angeles World Airport's pending purchase of the Park One lot for $126 million "may provide the first real opportunity to build an on-airport rail link at LAX."
The Park One lot is just off Sepulveda Boulevard next to the airport's Central Terminal Area.
The 17-mile Green Line was intended to serve the airport, but budget problems and planning conflicts derailed those plans. Green Line passengers headed to LAX can get off at the Aviation Station and catch a free shuttle to the airport.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has explored extending the Green Line to Aviation Boulevard and Century Boulevard, and the airport agency has proposed building an "automated people mover" to get people in and out of the terminals from Manchester Square. An airport tax to fund that possibility has been in effect since 1993.
Hahn stressed that "an on-airport rail link inside the Central Terminal Area would provide the greatest convenience to passengers and encourage the use of the city's mass transit system."
Other big-city airports have on-site rail links connecting to mass transit systems, Hahn said, citing San Francisco's airport link to the Bay Area Transit Service, Reagan National Airport's link to the District of Columbia rail system and John F. Kennedy Airport's AirTrain that connects to the greater New York City and regional rail systems.
