Yes, Virginia, There is a Subway in LA!

Los Angeles has many issues surrounding its transportation woes, but rail is not, well, a total loss here.  Folks outside of LA are often surprised when I mention that Los Angeles has a few local rail lines and a pretty extensive commuter train system.  The system is not as extensive as we’d like, but as I rode the Gold Line to Pasadena during the Green Tech Connect Forum, I must say that what we Angelinos have got runs well.

I remember way back in the early 1990s when LA Mayor Tom Bradley opened the LA Metro’s Red Line with much fanfare.  The project took seven years and cost over $1 billion dollars.  Eventually the Red Line expanded to North Hollywood, and since then, four additional lines have opened, including the Gold Line, which runs from downtown LA through Pasadena to Sierra Madre.

Figuring that I was going to a “Green” event, the least I could do was to take public transport to Pasadena.  Unfortunately, our house in Silver Lake is not close to a Metro station:  the closest Red Line station is a hideous 20 minute walk along trash-strewn streets and highway overpasses.  Plus, I’d be backtracking in order to get to Pasadena.

So I drove to the Lincoln/Cypress Station, the closest Metro stop to me that had parking.  I winced as I drove from US-101 to the Pasadena Freeway (I hate that interchange!), parked in one of the ample spaces available, paid my $1.25 (the Metro is an honor system, unlike the “pay or don’t enter system” of DC and the Bay Area) and waited for my train.  The total time door to door?  About 40 minutes, less I had timed the trip better and not getting lost trying to find the station—I drove right by it the first time around!

I ended up taking the Gold Line all 3 days to Pasadena and loved it!  The trains are clean, fast, andreliable, and the parking safe and well lit.  Plus, you get a little tour through the Arroyo Seco, which takes you back a few generations, giving you an idea of when LA was a dusty little Spanish town.

The system has much to work on:  the Culver City/Exposition Line under construction, I’m afraid, may be a joke, and nothing takes you to the West Side of LA, and most regrettably, nada to LAX.  But for folks who are staying in Downtown LA and don’t have a car can see plenty of LA:  the Red Line takes you to great neighborhoods such as Koreatown and Los Feliz, and well, the touristy guilty pleasures of Hollywood.

So hop on the Metro, Angelinos!  You’ll be pleasantly surprised.  And check out the LA Metro system’s web site while you’re at it.