A few news stories from the last couple of days:
[tags]metro news, lacmta news, mta news, public transit news[/tags]
Note: This was posted in error. Read about it here.
Last weekend, on a trip down the Red Line to Union Station in search of Metro materials for this blog, I came across a Metro pamphlet inconspicuously placed amongst rail and bus timetables near the main entrance of the Gateway Center, MTA’s headquarters. This classy grey trifold brochure (#05-2245tr) was entitled “Late Night Metro Rail Schedule Adjustments” with the subheadline, “Effective June 26″. Ignorantly, I grabbed at it with excitement, hoping to read about the addition of truly late night service to our train system. I’ve always been disappointed with the current “late night” service with last trains departing around 12:30am. Seems hardly suitable for a “world-class” city like Los Angeles, a metropolitan area with 16 million people who work and play at all hours of the day. Digression aside, I picked up the pamphlet and began to read,
“Metro Rail will be adjusting its schedules for late night service on some lines to better meet passenger demand.”
Here’s some links to some recent Metro news stories that you all should be aware of:
[tags]metro news, lacmta news, mta news, public transit news[/tags]
According to the Daily News, the Orange Line is reaching capacity due to it’s surging popularity as of late. The article states that ridership in May was 22,000 per day, surpassing the expected 5,000 to 7,000 per day initially forecasted by MTA, and exceeding the ridership of the nearly three year old Gold Line light rail. Rising gas prices are cited as a major reason for the stunning increase in ridership. Read the entire article here.
Having ridden the Orange Line for the first time last weekend (I took it from North Hollywood to Warner Center and back), I am a bit curious as to how the MTA gets its ridership numbers for the “bus that acts like a train”.
According to a recent press release on the MTA website, LA’s metro has won the “America’s Best Tranist Award 2006″ given by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Metro CEO Roger Snoble says of the award,
“We see it as a national recognition of our goal which was, and remains, building the best possible transportation network for Los Angeles County. This isn’t the time, however, to rest on our laurels. We have big challenges ahead but we’re up to it.”
Personally, I think they are a long way from the stated goal, but hopefully this recognition will give the MTA the opportunity to truly make their system worthy of such an award.
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