Taking the rapid out of transit

[saiholmes]

Taking the rapid out of transit
# An Antarctic expedition is tough, but try going to LAX by train or bus.

By Dan Turner, Dan Turner is a Times editorial writer.

LIKE MANY EPIC JOURNEYS of exploration, mine began not out of necessity but out of curiosity — the ancestral human urge to test the boundaries of endurance and knowledge. My quest: to get from my house in the Hollywood Hills to LAX, using only public transportation.

"I had not anticipated that the work would present any great difficulties," said Sir Ernest Shackleton after surviving his harrowing, failed attempt to reach the South Pole in 1915, his icebound ship by that time at the bottom of the sea.

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Nearly a century later, I, like Sir Ernest, would learn the folly of underestimating the awesome power of natural forces — in his case, the treacherous ice floes and brutal cold of the Ross Sea, in mine, the mindless dysfunctionality of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Trains ferry passengers in and out of most big airports across the country, including Atlanta's Hartsfield, Chicago's O'Hare and even San Francisco International. But not at Los Angeles International Airport. It is the fifth-busiest airport in the world, with more than 60 million passengers a year, and more people start their flights there than anywhere else — yet it is not served by any rail line. Like reaching the Pole, getting to the airport using only public transit is a feat requiring courage, fortitude and very bad judgment.

As most of history's great explorers have quickly discovered, a lack of proper equipment can have tragic consequences. Overconfident, I leave the house with only one real piece of survival gear: a cellphone, which, I figure, I can use to call a cab if all else fails. Soon after reaching the bus stop, I recognize my first mistake. The most critical piece of equipment when riding L.A. public transit is — a book. Or a magazine. Or a newspaper. Anything to relieve the crushing boredom.

Twenty-four minutes later the bus arrives. Knowingly, I put $1.25 in the slot and take a seat. Leaving the bus at Hollywood Boulevard, I ask the driver for a transfer. He fixes me with a fishy stare. MTA buses do not issue transfers. You have to buy a day pass, which is $3. I hold out a $5 bill. The driver looks at it as if it's a used tissue. He does not give change.

So begins the 1.5-mile trek to the Hollywood and Highland Red Line station, with not a sled dog or Sherpa to lead the way. Yes, I could take another bus, but I'm still steamed about the day-pass snub. Along the way, I pass a fearsome reminder of the perils of this expedition. A sleek black Lexus has just been in an accident, looking like a seal carcass half-eaten by polar bears.

The MTA had tested my mettle, and I had failed. It would not happen again.

At least I didn't have to contend with bus drivers anymore. Riding the escalator into the bowels of Hollywood, I enter the Mercedes of L.A. public transit, the $4.5-billion Red Line subway. The 17.4-mile system is fast, semi-clean, quiet — a wonder of efficiency with nearly 120,000 boardings a day. It would attract many thousands more if only it went somewhere. Originally planned to run all the way down Wilshire Boulevard, the city's densest corridor, it instead ends with a whimper at Wilshire and Western Avenue, its spine hacked off by community opposition and weak-kneed politicians.

Inside the station, I insert my $5 bill into the ticket machine that dispenses a $3 day pass. Again, the bill is found wanting. The adjacent machine finds it distasteful too. As does the next. Everywhere I turn, my path is blocked.

At last I spot it across the room: a change machine. I insert the bill, gingerly, with Lincoln's face pointed in the instructed direction. The bill disappears like a dogsled falling into a crevasse. "Out of Order," the machine blinks.

Ten minutes later, I wait at a platform, having tracked down an MTA worker to rescue my cash. From here it's 17 minutes to the 7th Street station in downtown L.A., where I transfer to the Blue Line. Eight minutes later, I'm flashing through downtown at 25 mph.

It is on the Blue Line that I discover my second equipment oversight. A man wearing wraparound sunglasses and a backward baseball cap raps at the top of his voice, alternating from English to Spanish and demonstrating an encyclopedic, bilingual knowledge of profanity. By the Slauson station in Huntington Park, I try to puncture my eardrums with my house keys to make the noise stop. I look around at my fellow passengers. They are pod people, staring ahead, seemingly without awareness. Then I notice the wires leading from their ears to devices tucked in pockets or purses. Not pod people at all — they're iPod people.

Several days later — or maybe it's 24 minutes — I'm at the Imperial/Wilmington station in Lynwood, prepared to transfer to the Green Line. Thirteen minutes later, I'm on the train heading toward LAX. At last I can see it up ahead — the LAX/Aviation Boulevard station. But my adventure isn't over.

The Green Line from Norwalk was originally planned to end inside the airport, but in 1995, after the money ran short, so did the line. An $11-billion plan to remodel LAX, approved in 2004, called for a people mover that would carry passengers to the terminals from a big transportation center connected to the Green Line, but when most of the plan was recently scrapped to settle a lawsuit with airport neighbors, so was the people mover. Instead, there is a shuttle bus from the Aviation station.

On the wall of my office hangs a map that is as striking as a landscape by a Dutch master. Titled "Rail Plan to Connect Los Angeles," it is the public transit vision unveiled by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa during his election campaign last year. It depicts a Los Angeles of dreams — a place with trains that go from somewhere to somewhere, rather than from absolutely nowhere to just short of somewhere.

There is a line, as elegant as a Picasso brush stroke, on this marvelous map that runs from Union Station straight to LAX. It is a rail right-of-way that could be turned into a fast, efficient transit route. Like the rest of Villaraigosa's plan, it exists only in fantasy. If he has an idea about how to make the line a reality, he has yet to reveal it. Meanwhile, airport officials will soon unveil a new shuttle bus, called a FlyAway, that will run nonstop from Union Station to LAX. This means that if you can get to Union Station, you will earn the opportunity to creep through the surface traffic around LAX.

Or, like me, you can try taking the trains. My expedition from home to LAX takes two hours and 47 minutes, yet I am flushed with the thrill of accomplishment when the shuttle finally arrives. I am footloose and free, untied to a vehicle in a long-term parking lot. Records are sketchy, but I'm confident that no one else from the Hollywood Hills has ever attempted this journey. After all, they could drive or take a cab to LAX in about 40 minutes. Unlike Shackleton, I have reached my Pole.

Of course, I wasn't carrying any luggage.

[klamedia]

and this is the shit that needs to stop! It has never taken me 2+hours to get to LAX!! And I take this route almost everyday!! Even when the BL is under track work and running with 20 minute delays and the man with no eyes is making his rounds, it never takes that long!! This idiot doesn't even know that the bus driver doesn't make change or that day passes are $3. How did he think he was going to transfer from one line to another??? In all cities in the world, yes even San Fransisco and Atlanta you must ask at the time of purchase for a transfer. This stupid asshole has only heard of SF's train to the plane. Would he say the same about NYC's A train never reaching the airport??? Or that it was only 3 years or so ago that the Airtran finally connected it to the airport?? Before then their were very confusing "A" and "B" busses. No this bitch ass goes to NYC and comes back gaggling about how wonderful it is to take public transpo eventhough in one car on the 2 line their are enough desperate homeless people to fill a gangrine convention. "Oh no, this is just wonderful" he says to his New Yorker friends as his pigtails flutter in the oncoming subway wind. So this bitch came down out of the Hollywood Hills to ride transit but his true motivation was negative to begin with. No matter what,,,, he was going to find something wrong with the transit system even if his bitch ass liked it. If he really wants a train to the plane, get involved bastard and stop complaining! It's your fucking taxes!! In this day of easy online schedules why didn't he find out what time the bus was coming first?? This kind of shit really burns me up!! Fuck him!! A true urban wuss!! I see soooo many people with heavy luggage making their way to the airport everyday. And about the dude rappin'. So what?? Where in the fuck do you live where you don't see shit like people singing freely and rappin' or sometimes just plain buggin' out??? Stay yo stiff ass up in the Hollywood Hills bitch! And the dripping terd says nothing about the time when he was on the 405 and he tried to act clever in his Prius and cut an Escalade off and they shot at his ass!! Bitch!

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by klamedia

and this is the shit that needs to stop! It has never taken me 2+hours to get to LAX!! And I take this route almost everyday!! Even when the BL is under track work and running with 20 minute delays and the man with no eyes is making his rounds, it never takes that long!! This idiot doesn't even know that the bus driver doesn't make change or that day passes are $3. How did he think he was going to transfer from one line to another??? In all cities in the world, yes even San Fransisco and Atlanta you must ask at the time of purchase for a transfer. This stupid asshole has only heard of SF's train to the plane. Would he say the same about NYC's A train never reaching the airport??? Or that it was only 3 years or so ago that the Airtran finally connected it to the airport?? Before then their were very confusing "A" and "B" busses. No this bitch ass goes to NYC and comes back gaggling about how wonderful it is to take public transpo eventhough in one car on the 2 line their are enough desperate homeless people to fill a gangrine convention. "Oh no, this is just wonderful" he says to his New Yorker friends as his pigtails flutter in the oncoming subway wind. So this bitch came down out of the Hollywood Hills to ride transit but his true motivation was negative to begin with. No matter what,,,, he was going to find something wrong with the transit system even if his bitch ass liked it. If he really wants a train to the plane, get involved bastard and stop complaining! It's your fucking taxes!! In this day of easy online schedules why didn't he find out what time the bus was coming first?? This kind of shit really burns me up!! Fuck him!! A true urban wuss!! I see soooo many people with heavy luggage making their way to the airport everyday. And about the dude rappin'. So what?? Where in the fuck do you live where you don't see shit like people singing freely and rappin' or sometimes just plain buggin' out??? Stay yo stiff ass up in the Hollywood Hills bitch! And the dripping terd says nothing about the time when he was on the 405 and he tried to act clever in his Prius and cut an Escalade off and they shot at his ass!! Bitch!

You post is so funny because I said almost the same thing on SSP but with a few less words. I'm going to quote my comment here for you to read.

This guy just sounds like he's not too bright if you ask me, or he's being paid by the anti rail folks. Oh give me a break, you run into all kinds of people in every city when using public transporation, even in european cities (I've seen it myself). This dude act as though San Franicisco had service to the airport always. BART's been in service since the early 70's, and it has taken 30 years before they ever had service to SFO. Chicago hasn't always had service, and they had trains for many many years before either airport had it. Only recently did Mid-Way get it. Same thing with NYC, JFK does not have rail service, you have to take a shuttle to reach the station. In fact I used express bus service to Manhattan, the subway, ferry, and the bus to reach Staten Island. Guess what it took 3 hours, and this was during rush hour when service is the most frequent. Its is also less miles to Staten Island from JFK, than from the Hollywood Hills to LAX.

EDIT: Btw I'm not saying LA mass transit doesn't need improvements. Yet I take offense when its like some of the other cities he mentioned don't have the same issues.

[klamedia]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

You post is so funny because I said almost the same thing on SSP but with a few less words. I'm going to quote my comment here for you to read.

Thanx, I needed to read that. Yep, you said pretty much the same thing I did with less profanity, sorry about that. It's like even when LA does finally do something right, their are these people sitting around just waiting to tear the city down. This kind of civic disloyalty I've never experienced anywhere else.

[LANative]

Originally Posted by klamedia

Thanx, I needed to read that. Yep, you said pretty much the same thing I did with less profanity, sorry about that. It's like even when LA does finally do something right, their are these people sitting around just waiting to tear the city down. This kind of civic disloyalty I've never experienced anywhere else.

I don't even think that idiot is from L.A. Like you said, somebody always has find something bad about L.A. and most of time the bad things they say about L.A. is bull.

[klamedia]

The last thing we need is yet another article from a non-credentialed asshole complaining about LA. This thread should be deleted.

[klamedia]

The last thing we need is yet another article from a non-credentialed asshole complaining about LA. This thread should be deleted.

[Aaron W]

Whoa, take a breath. Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out. Do you need some medicine?

[RAlossi]

Yeah this was posted on SSP and my post was similar. The guy could have easily looked online for fare prices. Who rides a transit system without singles? It's standard. And he shouldn't blame MTA for a car accident (as dramatic as he made it seem, of course.. writers, pfft). He should have brought some reading material or an iPod or something. What was he expecting to keep himself busy with on the plane?

[VansTripp]

Who cares?

Most peole have differnet personal and opinion if like or dislike to take public transportation, just respect their opinion. Gas prices will end up with boom in late 2000's and they will change elements in gas to make keep air clean.

[godblessbotox]

well until this guy is convinced then alot more people wont be taking mass transit because im sure there are plenty more like him in this metro if 17 mill

[dweebo2220]

I really think the biggest downside about living in LA is having to deal with ignorant naysayers from around the world.

And it's too bad people who are FROM here also buy the bullshit..

[svs]

Don't get too upset about articles like this one. They are building public support for completion of the red line and more efficient rapid transit. Although the writer was trying to be amusing (I think), he's right as regards taking rail transport from Hollywood to the air port. Red LIne to Blue line to Green line to bus is not going to cut it, especially if you are carrying luggage.

[Aaron W]

Originally Posted by svs

Don't get too upset about articles like this one. They are building public support for completion of the red line and more efficient rapid transit. Although the writer was trying to be amusing (I think), he's right as regards taking rail transport from Hollywood to the air port. Red LIne to Blue line to Green line to bus is not going to cut it, especially if you are carrying luggage.

That's exactly what I thought from reading this article. I thought the writer, when mentioning other city's transit systems, was doing so to make a point about LA... it needs to catch up. I welcomed the article because for me personally, it seemed to be pro-rail, just not in its current form. His mention of the car accident I felt helped point out problems that result from transit on street level (a reason why subway or elevated rail is best). He mentioned the idotic people (i.e. "weak-kneed politicians") who backed out of the plan to have the Redline subway running down Wilshire. I think if the writer could have his way, LA would be building an extensive subway system. When I read this article, my reaction was one in which I wished for LA to receive more of a push to expand rail (specifically subway as it tends to be more spacious and would give him his precious alone time he seems to want... yeah that complaint was a little strange I thought). I know these things take time, but my hope is that this article will fill Angelinos with more of a desire to get rail expanded quickly so that transit efficiency increases.

However at the same time I don't think LA's rail lines are all that bad. It's better than nothing and certainly much better than the patheticness that is Houston transit.

[klamedia]

Originally Posted by Aaron W

That's exactly what I thought from reading this article. I thought the writer, when mentioning other city's transit systems, was doing so to make a point about LA... it needs to catch up. I welcomed the article because for me personally, it seemed to be pro-rail, just not in its current form. His mention of the car accident I felt helped point out problems that result from transit on street level (a reason why subway or elevated rail is best). He mentioned the idotic people (i.e. "weak-kneed politicians") who backed out of the plan to have the Redline subway running down Wilshire. I think if the writer could have his way, LA would be building an extensive subway system. When I read this article, my reaction was one in which I wished for LA to receive more of a push to expand rail (specifically subway as it tends to be more spacious and would give him his precious alone time he seems to want... yeah that complaint was a little strange I thought). I know these things take time, but my hope is that this article will fill Angelinos with more of a desire to get rail expanded quickly so that transit efficiency increases.

However at the same time I don't think LA's rail lines are all that bad. It's better than nothing and certainly much better than the patheticness that is Houston transit.

Yeah politicians backed out of the Red plan under the ever present NIMBY opposition that they faced in Hancock Park. IF this writer really wants to shine a light on the transit problem I think it would have been more constructive of him to bring repealing Prop A which bans subway tunneling in LA county up. He would have also mentioned the lack of mass transit funds in Arnold's billion dollar bond. He would have come across more pro-active rather than destructive. I think this writer wanted to complain about transit to make himself feel better about driving to the corner store to pick up his cigarettes. Let the people know what they can do to change things. Not infinetly bitching and whining about the same old shit.

[dweebo2220]

agreed, svs. I was simply making a general statement, not necessarily targeted at this cutesy fluff article

[Formersocaler]

Yeah that article was annoying. I mean talk about complaining about everything! He had a problem with the new Union Station-LAX shuttle (too much surface traffic), loud people on the Blue Line, broken machines. Guess what, public transit across the nation isn't perfect. And the glorious BART line to SFO (and Millbrae) has been so underused now only one line (Dublin/Pleasanton) goes there.

I for one am very excited about the Union Station-LAX bus service. I think it will be very popular. I do hope Villaraigosa will do something about the Harbor Subdivision (rail line between downtown and LAX) that will allow Metrolink service. It seems like a no-brainer, and will be more popular than any green line extension IMO

[VansTripp]

klamedia, Are u love to discuss about too many public transportation?

[klamedia]

Originally Posted by VansTripp

klamedia, Are u love to discuss about too many public transportation?

It seems that some people like discussing skyscrapers, others density while others like discussing Kobe's 70+ points in a Lakers game. I like most things urban, I'm assuming like all of us do. My favorite urban things are public transit, particularly trains and densification. I'm really glad to be part of the LA forum where we can talk about subjects as varied as public transit to hybrid cars. From beaches to earthquakes. This forum continues to reveal to me what a special and unique city that I've ended up in. And my absolute favorite part of this forum is that we can laugh at this city with all of its infinite blunders and mistakes and still think it is a very cool place.