City Councilmen Tom LeBonge has been kicking around an idea for some time now that would connect the Southern California Institute of Architecture to the Arts District located just south of the campus using an existing rail line that has been previously abandoned. This idea didn’t gain much support from the Mayors Office when it was first introduced four years ago. So when LaBonge was asked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to sit in on the Feb. 25 Metro board meeting in the place of Councilman and Metro board member José Huizar, LaBonge made his pitch again.

Lebonge commissioned a feasibility report to be completed by Metro Staff. The report would include the environmental impacts of adding a service car to the Red and Purple Lines that would service a new station at Sixth Street near Santa Fe Avenue. Lebonge wanted to make it clear that no new track would need to be constructed and a platform could easily be erected either there or near Third Street.

LaBonge envisions the line extension as a way for people to get to and from SCI-Arc and the Arts and Industrial districts, and possibly as an opportunity to reduce congestion at Union Station’s Patsaouras Transit Plaza.

“If I can use a baseball analogy, a lot of times you try to get a hit and maybe you get a hit to the outfield but you don’t score,” LaBonge said. “I didn’t hit this one out of the park, but we’re at least in play to get around the bases.”