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Metropolitan Transit
Authority (MTA)
Street Cars used to dominate the greater Los Angeles area
serving many communities and locations. These were eventually
phased out in the early 1960's. Today, the (MTA) operates the second largest metro system in the
country. Los Angeles has quite a large metro - but it still needs to be built out
further in sections. Extending the red line down more of Wilshire and or to Santa Monica etc
would be an excellent idea and would allow one access to all the
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west side of Los Angeles via train. Approval has been given to
build out the LA Metro all the way to Santa Monica (their main business
district) and construction is scheduled to start later in 2010 or 2011.
This is going to be a fantastic addition once completed.
The metro does have right away in certain areas, but some residential
areas have been holding up development. When you think of Metro in other
big cities you think, "metro, ok underground". However only sections of
the LA metro are actually underground - much of it is above ground,
i.e., blue line, green line, much of the yellow line. The Metro is quite
easy to use due to the fact that there are not a lot of different lines
and they are so spread out.
California High Speed Rail:
www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov
Approved by the voters of California in 2008, now it must be physically
built. |
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Line Routes
The Red Line runs to the downtown Union Station. This line
covers the San Fernando Valley and runs part way down Wilshire. The
Gold Line covers up to
Pasadena and another part of this particular line into
East LA, opened in late 2009. The Blue Line is a fairly long section covering many cities all
the way down to Long Beach. The Blue Line is above ground the entire way
until you reach Pico/Chick Hern station right next to the Staples Center
where it heads underground to meet up with the Red Line at the 7th
Street Station. The Green Line connects to the Blue Line
about 1/2 way between LA and Long Beach and runs to LAX, LA's
International Airport. The Orange Line is an extension of the Red Line
and runs all the way to Canoga Park in the north. The
Silver
Line covers parts of the downtown area including south and
slightly east and connects into Union Station. |
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More Information
Consider purchasing a one day pass which at press time costs $5.00 or
each trip costs $1.25. This
gives you unlimited rides on any of the metro lines, plus unlimited
rides on any of the Metro buses. There are many Park and Ride metro
locations mostly located outside of the core downtown stops. These are
parking lots located right next to the Metro stop where you can park
your car and then get onto the Metro.
Photo L: Hollywood/Western - Photo R: One of our favorite Metro stops is the Hollywood and Vine
stop - thousands of old movie reels line the ceilings! Both photos below
are from the Red Line.
Please visit www.mta.net
or www.metro.net for detailed
information about using LA's metro, including maps, stops, current
pricing and a list of how much money you save by riding the metro versus
driving a car. Note - a piece of trivia regarding this domain name --> Metro.net - it used to be a small Internet Service Provider in the
Santa Rosa, CA area, until they went under and the domain was bought
by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority several years
back. This is a very interesting read from someone who moved to LA from
NYC and compares the shortcomings of the LA Metro to the NY one:
www.sunilhall.com/ninjakun/lametro/index.htm
To the right is a thumbnail image
of the Los Angeles Metro Map which includes the major
transportation lines and each of the stops. Click on thumbnail for the full
size image.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation also
maintains a huge fleet of public transportation vehicles. Visit
www.ladottransit.com for more information including
schedules and route maps. |
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Metro Link is a major rail
system for the southland and is setup for commuters and services parts of
Los Angeles County, Ventura County, San Bernardino County, Riverside
County, Orange County, and San Diego County. It currently services 7
lines. It connects up with the LA Metro at Union Station (see below). Unlike the LA metro which runs late, the Metro Link
is setup to serve commuters and as a result runs very early in the
morning but may not run that late into the evening (depends on each line). For
schedules, route maps, to signup for Twitter updates and more
information visit:
www.metrolinktrains.com - for a Metro Link map showing all the lines
and stops visit:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/Metrolink.png
Southern California Ride Sharing
are ways to share rides with others, most often for commuting. These
following two joint organizations offer free Southern California
specific rideshare programs.
Commute Smart:
www.commutesmart.info
Ride Match:
www.ridematch.info
Union Station is located on the southern
edge of downtown Los Angeles
near City Hall (by the way the same designers of Union Station also
designed City Hall). Union Station is located at 800 N. Alameda
Street across the street from what is the oldest section
of downtown Los Angeles, Olvera Street.
Union Station is a major railway transportation terminal and serves both
Metro (Red, Purple & Gold lines), Amtrak and Metro Link. In addition, it
also is a connecting point to LAX via the FlyAway
express bus service. There is no free parking in the area, but there
are parking lots on site as well as several small lots within about 2
blocks. Parking is cheaper at Union Station as the external parking lots
are private and typically charge per every 20 minutes until a maximum
amount has been reached.
This will also be the terminus for California's high speed train service
between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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