MetroRiderLA

[tags]los angeles, blue line, light rail, compton, long beach[/tags]

Metro has announced a planned service delay for the Blue Line Friday night through the end of service Sunday night. Crews are repairing the grade crossing at 124th Street, between the Rosa Parks and Compton stations.

Both tracks will be out of service after 9 p.m. Friday and all day Saturday. Bus bridges transport passengers around the closed section.  On Friday, the last through service trains depart 7th Street/Metro Center station at 8:26 p.m. Friday and Transit Mall station at 8:21 p.m.

On Saturday, trains maintain regular headways.

One track will reopen on Sunday. Service operates every 20 minutes all day. Southbound trains start at 5:05 a.m., with the last train leaving 7th Street/Metro Center at 12:45 a.m. Northbound trains start service at 5:03 a.m., with the last train to Los Angeles leaving at 11:23 p.m. and Wardlow Station at 1:41 a.m.

[tags]los angeles, mta, red line, hollywood, public displays of affection[/tags]

No, it’s not an invitation for voyeurism, you pervs.

Public Displays of Affection is an event hosted by activist organization Global Inheritance, which encourages the audience to arrive at the concerts via public transportation. Last year, there was an event at Union Station.

This time, the fun begins at 7 p.m. Thursday in the courtyard of Hollywood & Highland, the mall named after a Metro Red Line station. Featured performers are Ladytron, Great Northern and DJ Taina. Also on display is TRASHed: Art of Recycling Exhibit.

“Admission” is a transit pass or some proof of payment of a fare.

Transit connections, besides the subway: Metro Rapid Line 780 and local lines 2/302, 156/656, 163, 212/312 and 217; and LADOT DASH lines Hollywood and Hollywood/West Hollywood.

See also:

• MetroRiderLA: Last year’s event at Union Station
• Green L.A. Girl pimps the event

[tags]los angeles, mta, santa monica, big blue bus, bicycle, laist[/tags]

Bus drivers, rightly or wrongly, receive scorn from the public at large for perceived and actual misdeeds. Two incidents this week cast the job in the worst light possible.

In South Los Angeles, Stephen Mark Picart turned himself in to police on Monday for being suspected of killing his girlfriend in front of her children after an argument, reports the Los Angeles Times (with video from KTLA-Channel 5). The victim, 31-year-old Sharon Carter, was the mother of two boys and, according to her relatives, pregnant with a third child. Carter was a driver with Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. Picart drove school buses for First Student.

Meanwhile, LAist is attracting heavy comment and recommendation for publishing the account of a cyclist who had an altercation with a Metro driver in Hollywood. He called the police, only to be arrested. Box, who wrote the article in the third person, said the driver hit him with her bus, and a Metro supervisor said operators are supposed to honk at “road hazards”. On another LAist cycling controversy earlier this month, an SUV-bike altercation led to the citation of the cyclist in Beverly Hills (also written by Box), and leading to LAist being served with a warrant.

[tags]los angeles, mta, los angeles dodgers, baseball, kfwb[/tags]

Image pulled from KFWB-980AM’s Los Angeles Dodgers page.

Discuss.

[tags]los angeles, downtown los angeles, transt coalition, metrolink, commuter rail[/tags]

Michael McGinley, retired chief engineer of Metrolink, speaks at the Transit Coalition meeting 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. He’ll give his perspective on planning projects for the Southern California commuter rail system. The Transit Coalition meets at Philippe The Original, one block north of Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

RSVP with Bart Reed by calling (818) 367-1661 or via e-mail.

Transit access: Metro Red/Purple and Gold Lines, Rapid lines 704, 740 and 745, express lines in the 400-499 series except 450 and 460, most local and limited-stop services to downtown Los Angeles; all Metrolink trains except Inland Empire/Orange County Line, Amtrak; FlyAway; Foothill Transit Silver Streak and Busway lines 493, 495, 497, 498, 499 and 699; AVTA Line 785; LADOT DASH Downtown Line D and Lincoln Heights/Chinatown; Santa Clarita Transit lines 794 and 799; Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus Line 10; and Torrance Transit lines 1 and 2.

Yelp has Philippe The Original rated.

[tags]seattle, streetcar, south lake union, seattle post-intelligencer[/tags]

Jerry Johnson, foreground, and Don Clifton model the “Ride the S.L.U.T.” t-shirts at the Kapow! coffee shop in the Seattle neighborhood of South Lake Union.
Credit: Andy Rogers/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

This is unrelated to anything in Los Angeles, but MetroRiderLA readers could use a laugh once in a while.

Dateline: Seattle.

The unofficial name of a neighborhood streetcar has stuck, and it’s a most unfortunate acronym. The Trolley line is the South Lake Union Trolley. Yes, SLUT.

This is one of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s most read and e-mailed stories.

In reality, the official name of the service is the South Lake Union Streetcar. SLUS. But that’s not nearly as funny. The funnier acronym was just an urban legend, but one that’s enduring. One coffeehouse — how Seattle – is even printing up t-shirts saying “Ride the SLUT,” with a picture of a streetcar to give wearers a point of reference.

South Lake Union Trolley Streetcar Map

See also:

• The Overhead Wire: An inconvenient acronym
• Seattle Transit Blog: Future of Transit in Seattle