Cerritos, CA – Today, the Metro Board advanced a motion by Supervisor Hahn to create new access to career opportunities at Metro specifically for communities in Southeast LA County and the Gateway Cities. Hahn’s motion seeks to bring trainings that right now are only available at one school in downtown Los Angeles to communities like those along the proposed route for the West Santa Ana Branch rail line at schools like Cerritos College and Rio Hondo College.
“When it is complete, the West Santa Ana Branch rail line will serve Southeast LA and Gateway Cities residents – and I think the project’s good-paying jobs should go to them too,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn. “The problem is many Metro jobs require training that is only available in downtown LA. That means these jobs are inaccessible for many Southeast LA and Gateway Cities residents because we do not yet have high-quality transit to serve them. That needs to change and that is why I am going to bring training opportunities to schools along the rail line like Cerritos College and Rio Hondo College.”
“The West Santa Ana Branch project provides unprecedented opportunities to grow our local economy through job creation. Our communities have waited decades for this project, and we stand ready to work with Metro to provide a trained and motivated workforce that will make the West Santa Ana Branch project a reality,” said Senator Bob Archuleta.
The motion, which was spearheaded by Supervisor Janice Hahn and Senator Bob Archuleta and co-authored by Metro Directors Solis, Dutra, Dupont-Walker, and Krekorian, was unanimously approved by Metro’s Operations, Safety, and Customer Experience committee.
The motion now heads to the full Board for approval next week. If it is approved, Metro staff will update the Board on their progress toward program objectives in June 2022.