MetroRiderLA

This morning on NPR, Morning Edition, they weighed in on Turnstilemania, the hubub about the MTA installing turnstiles and fare gates on our heavy and/or light rail lines. I was going to coin the whole controversy as Turnstilegate, but then, that would be redundant. HA! Anyway, here’s a link to the story. They do cover both sides of the issue, in what seems like a pretty balanced report. They also indicate that the final decision won’t be made until January.

Link

Me personal: I don’t want ‘em. Don’t want distance-based fares either. My personal preference. I intend to go to the MTA Board meeting and gripe about it.

Looks like noted train loather Randal the Tool, er, excuse me, Randal O’Toole, is trying to poison another well against new rail mass transit, this time Honolulu. Check out his article claiming how
horrible trains are. If I were selfish, I’d let Randal go on about his business, hoping his nasty work would just mean fewer projects in other cities and more federal transit money for L.A. But I don’t think that way.

I hope some of you would like to debunk this article and Randal’s raucous ranting, and send off a response email to this Hawaiian website, which I have already done on more than one occasion.

Should I be castigated as naive for expecting high quality from The New York Times?

Their article today on the Gold Line extension sure did disappoint, I’ll say that. What they got wrong was not so much what they included, but what they didn’t include. They failed to explain well enough how the Gold Line extension connects to the rest of the system. They did not show a current or future Metrorail map. And they said nothing about the Expo Line, which merited at least a mention for its help in bringing East L.A. residents to jobs on the west side, which they did mention. How are East L.A. residents going to reach their jobs in West L.A. if there’s no train going there? This riddle is unanswered by the article.

On the topic of bringing economic renaissance to East L.A., there was no mention of recently successful light rail projects in Portland, Denver or Salt Lake City, which have brought on billions of dollars in construction. The article also said that Boyle Heights was “isolated from Downtown.” That made me laugh. Actually, it is if you look at their map, which places the center of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. What the…?

Anyway, give it a read and tell me what you make of it.
Here it is.

This one sure slapped me in the side of the head with almost no warning. Apparently, the city of Irvine is going to go ahead and build a streetcar line from the Metrolink/Amtrak station to the “Great Park.” So, a bit of an excursion route as well as a destination route.

I recall reading something briefly about this plan months and months ago, but it fell out of my brain since not a peep was heard about it since then. Please note this is NOT the proposed light rail line going to Huntington Beach proposed a few months ago (and shouted down by NIMBYs). Apparently the money for this 4 mile line is mostly (but not all) in place and the cars could be running by 2012. That is, if I read the article in the LA Times today right. There’s even lip service paid to making this into a county wide system someday if other adjacent cities pony up some cash for expansion. Go streetcars! I’ll be there in 2012 to ride on the first day.

Since I went to the trouble of checking out one of the new Metro Rapid Express lines, I’ll give you faithful readers a Ride Report.

The line was line 920, which has terminals at Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica and at Wilshire/Vermont. This is an even faster version of the very popular Metro Rapid line 720, or at least a portion of it.

Right now the line only runs during rush hours, from 6-10 AM, and 3-7 PM, but when it does run, they’ve got one coming every five minutes. This is about a 13 mile line. Riding the 720, along (almost) this same route, takes 1 hour 16 minutes, according to the published timetable. Riding the 920 took me one hour exactly: 60 minutes. 16 minute savings.

Along the 720, the line has 18 stops. On the 920, the same distance has only 7 stops. (The local stop route 20 probably has…gee, I don’t know…150 stops? It stops every other block.)

I got on at 4th and Wilshire in Santa Monica, the second stop, mere steps from the Pacific Ocean. As I boarded the bus at 3:58 P.M., only one other person was on board the bus with me. I stretched out and luxuriated in comfort, taking up three seats. The next stop was Westwood Blvd., miles away. I waved out the window at the queue of people trying to wave down the bus at Bundy Drive, Barrington, and at the VA Hospital, where almost 50 passengers were waiting to board. Their shook their fists and ground their teeth at the passing bus. The driver had to stop at Barrington due to a red light, and a few upset passengers banged on the door. The driver would not let them on. It was only the first day of service, so I guess they’ll adapt.

At Westwood Blvd., well over 50 people boarded the bus, quickly filling it to near capacity, at least as far as seated passengers went. Some more people boarded at Beverly Drive, maybe 20, and about 10 at Fairfax. A few people disembarked along the way. By the time the bus arrived at its end terminal at Wilshire/Vermont, it was still fairly crowded. The bus driver had to announce several times it was the end of the line. About a dozen people continued sitting on the bus until the driver waved them off in person after walking to the back of the bus. They probably didn’t understand English. It was 4:58, exactly one hour after I had boarded.

I would find this ride to be a near-perfect trip to Santa Monica for me, if only it continued on to one more stop in downtown Los Angeles, either 6th/Hope or 6th/Broadway. As it is, I had to transfer to the Red Line to continue downtown. I would imagine that people using it to go to work downtown from the westside would have the same complaint, and that this line will be extended to downtown some time soon.

SUMMARY: Exactly as I had thought. Speedy, not too crowded and does what the Rapid Bus is supposed to do: save time. My only quibble is the end point at Wilshire/Vermont. That has to be changed.

Here’s some mass transit fun. While leaving the Pershing Square station on the Red/Purple line today, I saw this bizarre subway route map standing next to the escalator. It took me about half a second to realize this was a prop for some upcoming movie shoot. But they did a great job designing this totally fictional system map, which is fascinating. It shows a fake non-place, with some place names from L.A. and others from Washington D.C. Oddly, they’re using the real MTA “Metro” logo though. (Sorry, my camera freaked out here.)

Take a closer look. Meet you at Jack Avenue!

On the back of the map stand was this lenticular map, three maps in one actually, depending on the angle where you stood. This one has place names from New York City. Must have cost a bundle to make this.

The Pershing Square station was playing the part of the 14th Street Station on the Green Line. Okay then. Note Metro logo at left.

At this fake newstand was the security guy, keeping a close dutiful watch on all these expensive sets…oh no, wait…Dude’s reading a magazine.

The funniest part of this was that while I was taking these pictures, a number of people stopped and looked at this map, trying to figure out what the hell it showed and where they were. “Don’t bother homez,” I told the guy, who looked stumped, “that map isn’t real.” He wouldn’t believe me. As far I know, he’s still looking for the Gold Line to City Center Plaza.