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ChinesePrivate Funding? How About The Ikea Train?
Added on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Yesterday, Mayor Villaraigosa gave his State of the City address, and although the majority of the speech was about gang crime, he did touch on transit. The Mayor plans on encouraging Metro to look for private funding sources to “build and operate an expanded transit system in Los Angeles.” I don’t know if all that is possible, but there are certainly avenues to get private money into our system, advertising being the most obvious.
In Japan, a monorail train in Kobe has been taken over by Ikea to promote the opening of a new retail store. And when I say taken over, I mean it. The exterior of the train is painted in bright patterns found on Ikea fabrics and the inside of the train has been converted into a mobile Ikea showroom. The seats have been reupholstered with Ikea fabrics and colorful Ikea curtains adorn the windows. It sends an unmissable message, both inside and out.
Could something as wild as this work in Los Angeles?
