Southeast Gateway Line gets OK for federal funding

Federal officials have given final approval to environmental review documents for LA's future Southeast Gateway Line, opening up funding for a massive extension of the local transit system meant to serve residents of the county who have traditionally had fewer rail options, officials said Saturday.

The Federal Transit Administration on Friday issued its Record of Decision for the first segment of the line, signing off on documents which the Metro Board certified in April. The Record of Decision now makes a 14.5-mile segment of the 19-mile, $7.1 billion project eligible for major federal funding.

"This line is going to serve one of the regions that has historically been left behind whenever we've expanded our Metro system," County Supervisor and Metro Board Chair Janice Hahn said Saturday. Hahn represents the region that will be served by the line.

"We made it clear to our federal partners that these communities needed and deserved this critical investment, and they've delivered. Now let's get to work," she added.

Utility work on the project is expected to begin by the end of this year. When completed, the full 19-mile Southeast Gateway Line will serve 1.4 million residents between Union Station in Downtown LA and Artesia, running through Vernon, Huntington Park, Bell, Cudahy, South Gate, Downey, Paramount, Bellflower and Cerritos.

Hahn has said that 44% of residents along the line live below the poverty level, and that construction and operation of the line will create between 37,000 and 46,000 jobs, and generate $5 billion per year in economic activity.

She has called the project a "game changer for some of the most transit dependent communities in Southern California."

"Most of this line will serve equity focus communities that have some of the worst air quality and suffer from some of the worst congestion anywhere in the entire state," Hahn said earlier this year. "They deserve high-quality transit, and the Southeast Gateway Line will finally deliver that."

The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. The federal funding unlocked by the Record of Decision will go along with over $2 billion in local and state funds already committed to the project.