MetroRiderLA

“From 1904 thru the 1920s Los Angeles’s rail transit system continued rapid growth, eventually operating trains on 1100 miles of track along with 2800 scheduled trains daily to become the world’s largest rail mass transit system. This photo shows the opening day of Los Angeles’s first subway in 1928. This view is of the west portal where the trains entered and exited the subway tunnels. The line ended at the Subway Terminal Building. The subway part of the transit system ran only under City Center West to avoid the already congested streets above. When service ended in 1955 the subway was carrying 100,000 passengers per day. Today the west portal sections of abandoned subway tunnels are occassionally used by film studios.”

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Credit: XAOC, from istockphoto.com

If I were to pick a birthday celebration that I am most fond of, I would have to say it is July 13, 1996. The best birthday present I ever got was a subway.

It was 10 years ago today that the Red Line extension to Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue opened. Yes, a whole decade has passed by since the subway was extended out of downtown L.A.

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Note: Edited July 10, 2006, to supply the Ride Report with photos from the June 26 trip. Please excuse the camera-phone-grade quality of the pictures.  

Los Angeles riders have yet another Rapid bus available to them. The newest red-bus service is 734, mirroring local 234 along Sepulveda Boulevard between the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station and the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

Line 734 is a brand new service; 234 never had a limited-stop counterpart. Line 734 also has very generous service by Valley standards; 10 minutes during rush hour and 20 minutes mid-day. There’s no weekend service yet.

I took a southbound trip leaving Sylmar/San Fernando Station at around 2:30 p.m., just a few minutes after the Princessa-bound Metrolink train left. I snapped a picture of NABI bus 7867 arriving, and driver John Botley (badge #8899, Division 15) greeted me enthusiastically to take me on a fantastic voyage along Sepulveda.

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This blog is about the “public transit lifestyle.” So where better to talk about such a thing than in Los Angeles?

Huh? Isn’t that utterly wrong? Isn’t L.A. where the car is king? Where you roll unemcumbered at 65 mph down endless empty freeways in your 1960’s convertible, your hair blowing in breeze, as you ride into the sunset with The Beach Boys playing on your AM radio? No. It isn’t. You’ve been watching too many Frankie and Annette movies, my friend.

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