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ChineseWell, I Guess We Have the Fly-Away
It crossed my lips without even knowing it, but as soon as it came out I knew I had betrayed LA. It hurt and still does. How could I? How could I speak so passively and negatively of something I’ve championed so much since its inception in March? Well, if you were on that Blue Line train from O’Hare airport in Chicago going straight to the city then you would too.
The train was full of people. Luggage from travel and briefcases from work. And so simple. I got off my plane, got my luggage and followed the well-placed and easily readable signage that sent me directly to the train. Automated kiosks were abundant enough that I didn’t have to wait in a line, but just stepped up and bought a pass, went through the turnstiles and got on the train. The whole train ride we zipped passed the red brake lights of cars on both sides of us.
I must have had a stupefied face of envy as I stood on the full train because a woman of about thirty asked me if I was looking forward to Santa’s arrival. Confused I asked what she meant and she replied that I was staring off and smiling in my own world. And though I’m sure I looked as cool and collected as the lawyer next to me in his knee long overcoat she must have sensed something. I of course assumed she was hitting on me and since I was on vacay I took the flattery and ran with it instead of nodding it off and turning back to the system map like I usually do. I ignored the fact that her body resembled a coffee mug and we spoke for a good part of the ride. The main topic of conversation being public transportation.
She, we’ll call her Joanne, had grown up in and around Chicago and when she traveled she usually had friends pick her up from the airport. Her only experience of riding the train to and from the airport was in Chicago and therefore assumed all other major cities shared such a convenience. When I told her LA had no such train to LAX like what we were currently experiencing, Joanne was blown away. She even questioned how long I had lived in LA. Perhaps I was just misinformed. But I assured her I had lived here long enough to know.
“So you don’t have anything that connects the airports (plural to include Midway) to the city?” Joanne insisted with disbelief as if to convince me otherwise and to which I responded with my previously described guilt.
“Well, I guess we have the FlyAway.”
I then went on to explain what the “FlyAway” was. And though I believe I explained it quite well she didn’t seem to get it. “So you have to take a train downtown, and then a bus to the airport?”
“Well you don’t have to take a train downtown, you can take a bus there.”
“But a bus to the airport?”
“Yes.”
“And LAX is the big one right?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
I was ashamed. I had been pwned by a woman that had personalized Hello Kitty laminates for her luggage information. And during the holiday season no less. It was no way to start my vacay, and though she got off at the next stop I still had about four more stops ‘til I got off and therefore enough time to dwell in my pity. But as time passed I didn’t let it bother me and I walked with my head held high for the next couple days. That is until I had to meet my girlfriend at Midway airport on the south end of the city. So I perused the easily navigable CTA website and saw the orange line went straight to midway. PWNed again!
As I walked to the Red line stop at Belmont I thought about how messed up LA was/is for not having thought about such things. How could something like this not already exist? How can there be no train from downtown to LAX. How come the green line is so pathetic and its one possible quality function (sorry to completely disenfranchise its riders) was negated by not connecting, by way of underground tunneling, to LAX’s seven busy azz terminals? I don’t know the entire story of Los Angeles’ public transportation history, though I’m learning more everyday, but it’s inexcusable no matter the reason that we are lacking such an obvious need.
I entered the station and paid my fair with a magnetic card, passed through a turnstile and boarded the Red line. I would have to transfer (for free) once at Roosevelt to the Orange line to finish my trip to midway. The view of the city from the train traveling perpendicular to the city was grand and the Sears Tower with its two white satellite swords soaring above it all mocked the US Bank Tower and I. “You damn right we got a quality transportation bitches”. And I couldn’t argue back. Sears was right. The US Bank Tower, myself and all of LA were his public transportation bitches.
The entire trip from Belmont (north side) to Midway (well south side) took about 50 minutes and just like O’Hare it brought me right to the baggage claim where I met my girlfriend. In less than fifteen minutes we were on a train heading back to the north side. My girlfriend who was born and raised in LA even commented how great and easy the system was, saying as I did a week prior, “and all we have is the FlyAway”. The entirety of the trip was about two hours and completely stress free, but most importantly full of people doing the same thing. From both O’Hare and Midway, the trains were full of people, which of course is biased it being around the holidays, however, the FlyAway taken just several days before was not even a quarter full.
I’m finally back. I arrived at LAX last night and as I waited for my bags I thought about the traffic ahead. About how terrible it was going to be sit on the 110 and though it’s a million times better to sit on the FlyAway than a car it’s still a bus on a highway at the mercy of LA’s traffic and not a train on a track going at its own schedule.
I looked at my watch and sweated a bit hoping I’d be able to catch the next FlyAway, knowing it would be another half hour before I could catch the next. One bag was at my side, the other still hidden in the caves of LAX’s interior, where if it stayed much longer would cost me those precious 30 minutes. But just as I was about to give up, there it was. The giant luggage beast spit out my bag onto the silver rotisserie for me to grab and grab I did. I then raced outside and just as I stepped on the curb I saw the FlyAway pull up. I tightened my book bag and raced through the slow moving traffic to the blue beacon of change.
“Fly-away to Union Station!” the man yelled in a thick Caribbean accent.
“That’s me,” I said handing him my luggage. He put it in the storage and then helped some others behind me. I boarded and got a great late gift when I saw a nearly full bus. It was glorious and I was only at terminal 4. 5, 6 and 7 were still ahead! I was finally going to witness a full FlyAway bus. I walked passed tired faces thinking that even though the FlyAway isn’t perfect - many people don’t even know it exists, and if they do, still choose not to use it - it’s a big step up from what we Angeleno’s had before it came. And it’s a big step in the right direction.
I found a seat towards the back and as the air brakes released my brother called to see if I had I arrived. I instantly remembered what I had said to Joanne a week before, but this time responded with pride, “Yeah I made it. I’m on the FlyAway right now.”
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
I totally agree, the green line should go there, but not all major cities have this that should… Boston you have to ride a crowded city bus for nearly half an hour to get to the main train station, or crowd onto a bus for a train that is most likely not your line, a la the green line in LA. New York’s LGA, the City’s most important domestic airport, doesn’t have any subway service, you need to connect with city busses in Astoria on the N,R. LA’s not the only city to be frustrated in its efforts, and it seems it’s usually because of over-powerful Airport authorities who want to continue to both control parking and run shuttle services, both for a fee.
Aaron has a point. I was really disapointed on my last trip to NYC when I tried to use the transit system to get to LGA. It was an hour long crowded subway ride followed by a slow local bus in Astoria that literally stops at ever block.
i suggest the next time either of you or anybody else for that matter travel to nyc to fly into newark, nj. the airport blows crap ass la guardia and jfk away. and more impressive is the ease of getting from the airport to manhattan. airtrain newark takes you from the terminal to the train station where your 14 dollar ticket takes you to Penn Station downtown in just 40 minutes. i did it three weeks ago and was blown away by the ease of it all after having flown into both of the nyc airports and been amazingly let down by their lack of an easy way to get downtown.
another city that is doing it right is minneapolis, mn. where you can take the metro transit light rail from downtown to the airport with 17 well designed stops along the way. the hiawatha line as its called is very much like the gold line in design but newer and… well theres alot about this line thats great, too much to put in a comment. most importantly though, it takes you very quickly from downtown to the airport and onto the mall of america. i’m sure there are otherrs out there like this… anybody got more?
Re: Tyke - for all of SEPTA’s fault, R1 service to the airport is pretty good; service every half hour on LIRR-type commuter rail cars into downtown Philly from every terminal. But the rest of SEPTA is so horrific that airport service is like the light in the millennia of darkness that is SEPTA.
Every city has it’s issues. In Chicago, much of the transit system is old and decrepit. It was great rolling out of Midway walking 20 minutes to the Orange Line. By sheer luck, I changed to the Red Line at Roosevelt, which is one of the few ADA compliant stations with elevators and escalators. But I didn’t know that. I got to Lawrence with my four heavy bags and there I am four floors above the street with only a rickety stairway down.
If you are in a wheelchair, Chicago is not a place you can survive using the grandfather era transit system.
OK, so Chicago needs only $100 billion to bring its transit up to date.
Now, we are making slow progress in Los Angeles. Politically, we have a determined City Councilmember whose district includes the airport.
He understands and advocates that Metrolink be extended to LAX. He also has a plan to extend the Green Line 2.4 miles closer to the Central Terminal Area. And then a People Mover Extension through the Central Terminal Area.
This is a sea change from three years ago when thankfully exMayor Jim Hahn and his crooked staff ignored suggestions from transit advocates to fix transit to LAX.
Now, the Councilmember has a deputy who fully understands strategy on getting the Green Line extended. The Mayor has appointed an Airport Commission who wants to see transit get to the Airport and if a new Executive Director of the Airport is selected, one would assume that the next director would move any plans along to get Airport Transit.
The one key issue that always blocks things is MONEY. There are different pockets of it with different spending colors. Overall, it is a complicated issue, like a multi dimensional chess game.
So, maybe we will see some progress in 2007. We’ve finally got things aligned politically. But we will see.
though your 20 minute walk to the orange line from midway must be an obvious exaggeration or you walk at a snails pace, i agree, chicago has its problems as to do all. def not saying they’re golden, in fact a day later the “caboose” of the orange line de-railed. there weren’t any injuries and the incident was slight, but still, a pain in the ass and a smear no matter how minor it may have been.
as for your the ADA compliant stuff, there was a discussion earlier here on MetroRiderLA that discussed just that and it seems LA is def a good deal ahead of many other major cities with disibility friendly subway/rail mass transit. of course it’s at a cost, we didn’t have it til the 90’s.
SFO Has the most glorious transit service of any airport I’ve ever witnessed. It’s a joy to ride, and you get some amazing views of the bay. And we San Franciscans bitch about the AirBART you have to take to Oakland!
After fighting traffic to get to LAX it was real real joy upon arriving at Schiphol to be able to go downstairs and catch a train into Amsterdam.
I have heard two different theories on why the Green Line doesn’t go to LAX. Both probably have some truth to them. The first is that the cab and shuttle companies lobbied against the Green Line to LAX for obvious economic reasons. (Having worked for a cab company and supervised the feasibility study of the Super Shuttle, I know this theory has more than a grain of truth.) However, don’t discount the second which argues that the city of LA makes more money off of the parking at LAX than all of their other metered parking combined.
Please note that there is a free shuttle between the airport and the Green Line Aviation station. Until the Green Line is completed through the airport station(s) and north to meet the Red Line in Santa Monica (we can dream, can’t we), it’s going to require at least one bus/shuttle ride to use public transit getting into/out of LAX.
BTW, I have a lengthy page on using public transit from LAX posted on Notes from the Bus (notesfromthebus.com)
use a comma next time!!!
In response to FredCamino’s comment above, there is no public transportation to said LGA airport. He must have been high and confused it with John F Kennedy airport (aka JFK). It should be noted that one should only make a comment when they have their facts straight.
I should know, I am a NYC resident.
boo ya
LAX doesn’t have easy transit access because the City of Los Angeles makes billions on the current system. Transit access would cost billions, lose hundreds of millions and cut airport revenues additional billions. It’s about the money.
Bart Reed mentions Metrolink to LAX. That makes sense in a big picture way. Eventually we’ll see some LAX functions distributed to Palmdale and a rail link twixt the two is a vital component of that plan. Who wouldn’t love a $20 2hour ride from Ventura or Ontario to LAX rather than drive 1-2hrs using $20 of gas only to end up paying for Lot C charges? But like I said, the $20 comes nowhere near close to costs and the $100 loss to Lot C is money straight out of LAs budget.
Happy New Year, Transit Poodle!
spent 90 minutes waiting for my flyaway back to union station tonight. watched 3 for van nuys go by (and one for union station that just drove right on by.. not even close to the right lane to pick us up)
phun
Happy New Year, Transit Poodle!
Bow wow to you, too!
Transit Poodle?
That’s no way to talk to a semi-retired porn legend.
Semi
Cristina, I’m a former New Yorker too… unless your sarcasm is lost on me (and if it is sarcasm, I totally agree, it once took me over two hours to get from the West Village to LGA), there are at least two very poor bus route options, the Q33 from Astoria and the M60 from Harlem. Most people take the Q33, but if you’re disabled you take the M60 from Harlem because the 125th St east side IRT station is wheelchair accessible; the Astoria connection to the Q33 isn’t wheelchair accessible. There are other bus routes that originate from Queens for local riders from the 7 etc., but I’m not as aware of them.
Strike that, the M60 serves both 125th St *and* the Astoria Blvd el. I got that backwards, Q33 is the one that originates from inside queens.
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