Students can breathe a sigh of relief as The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority reopened the Cal State LA Eastbound busway station on March 10. However, the stairwell still remains boarded up and closed off to the public.
The reopening comes after a week-long closure of the busway station, which caused frustration for students commuting to and from campus.
According to Cal State LA Public Affairs, Metro was seeking to make improvements due to a deteriorated staircase slab incident that occurred in December. No injuries were reported during the incident. Issues with the busway elevator also occurred due to heavy rain, which completely shut down the busway. Students seeking to get to campus on time were out of luck and experienced inconvenience.
“The University was originally told that the work would be completed in early March; however, due to other issues found through these repairs, the completion date has been extended by Metro to an unknown date,” said Hollins
Elevator issues have also been another recurring problem for student commuters. Heavy rainfall drenched the locks and circuits on the elevators, which caused malfunctions and disrupted the improvements being made on the eastbound stairwell.
Buses failed to stop at the Cal State LA eastbound station and continued to El Monte Station, over nine miles away. Student commuters were surprised to see the bus operator pass the Cal State LA station and continue to El Monte, which caused them to be late for their classes. Shuttle services at LAC+USC Medical Center Station were available for those going to Cal State LA from downtown L.A.
Mark Hanohano, a rehabilitation services major, said that the bus detours have caused him to be late for class.
“My counseling professor took notice of that, and I explained the situation to her,” said Hanohano. “She was understanding of my situation and provided me with alternative routes to make my commute easier since Metro’s signage was confusing to me.”
Students often found the Metro posted signage of the detours complicated to comprehend. Metro ambassadors informed students of the closure and provided students with shuttle information and alternative routes at both platforms.
Sai Gutierrez, a Los Angeles County High School for the Arts student, depends on public transportation to get to her classes. Like many other students who expressed their irritation over the closure, she felt Metro communicated very little about the ongoing elevator issues or an update on the stairwell project.
“These closures have affected my commute to school as I now have to wake up earlier just to make it to my classes,” Gutierrez said. “The elevator issues have been going on for two months, and I feel it’s never going to get resolved with these constant outages.”
Students express their frustration by sharing anonymous messages to the Instagram page CSULATruth regarding the ongoing issues. Students have also voiced their displeasure about the slow progress on the stairwell construction since the closure at the beginning of the spring semester.
“We’ve engaged with LA Metro on several occasions about proper notification to our campus community in the event of elevator outages,” said spokesperson Hollins. “That is an ongoing frustration, but we hope for better communication in the future,”
The University Times reached out to Metro and Mitsubishi Electric, the contractors in charge of the elevators, for comments but did not receive a response to emails or calls.
