Written By: Aaron Cuellar, Staff Writer
REVOLUTIONARY: An overview of what Metrolink’s SCORE project is, how it will affect SoCal, and why you should care.
The Olympic games have long been regarded as one of the most important sporting events in the world, and in 2028, they will be held in Los Angeles. That being said, current infrastructure is already beyond its limits, and will be crippled by the millions that are sure to arrive from around the world for this event. Los Angeles traffic is notoriously bad, and this massive increase in tourism would only make it worse. Thankfully, Metrolink is aware of these problems and working to address them, even now.
Most people probably forget about the agency’s existence. As of 2022, their trains are extremely infrequent, slow, and do not go to the places that people want to visit. One can be forgiven for this due to the low quality of service attributed to the factors above. They are the quintessential commuter rail network; useful for getting to work in downtown LA, and going back out into the suburbs after the end of a shift, and almost nothing else. Weekend commuters, recreational travelers, and anyone trying to go in an off-peak direction (The direction of travel where demand is lowest, for example, LA to Riverside early in the morning on a Monday. Due to this lack of demand, most if not all trains will run in the peak direction, that is, the direction of travel with the highest demand. In this example of an early Monday morning, the peak direction would be from Riverside and other suburbs into LA.) are left to fend for themselves and figure out a different route to their destination.
All that being said, there is hope for a brighter future for the much maligned rail operator. Metrolink has a massive system-wide improvement plan known as the Southern California 
Technical improvements aside, the economic and environmental benefits are also extremely compelling. SoCal’s traffic has garnered global notoriety for being soul-crushingly awful. California as a state outperforms Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio and Georgia in terms of vehicle miles traveled. According to these statistics, we have one of the worst traffic problems in the country, a near-ceaseless pileup on every highway in the state. SCORE is projected to eliminate 3.4 billion vehicle miles traveled (over the course of the projected project lifetime, 2023 to 2078), greatly alleviating the dire state of our roadways. For the environmentally conscious, getting people out of cars and onto Metrolink trains post-SCORE will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 51.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (over the course of the projected project lifetime). The project is also predicted to directly generate $18,879,400,000 for the local economies over the course of its eight year construction process. Thousands of new jobs will be created by the project directly and indirectly, and an incalculable number of induced jobs will be created after the project’s completion. Many of these will be in low income or disadvantaged communities.
Metrolink’s SCORE project is slated for completion in 2028, before the Los Angeles Olympic Games. For further information, visit Metrolink’s webpage or the federal California State Rail Plan, which will be published on Caltrans’ web page sometime in early 2023. Both are linked below.
Metrolink on SCORE: https://metrolinktrains.com/score
Caltrans on the California State Rail Plan: https://dot.ca.gov/programs/rail-and-mass-transportation/2022-california-state-rail-plan