Pics of the LA Metro Rail

[soup or man]

Enjoy

The Los Angeles Subway (Red Line @Hollywood and Highland)
http://www.trainweb.org/subwaymark/transit/US%20West/Los%20Angeles/Subway/lax-hr-HolHighland-031704-04.jpg

Red Line @Hollywood and Vine
http://www.trainweb.org/subwaymark/transit/US%20West/Los%20Angeles/Subway/lax-hr-HolVine-031704-05.jpg

Red Line @Pershing Square
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mrlps.jpg

Red Line @Wilshire and Vermont
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mrlwvrmt2.jpg

Another pic of Hollywood and Highland
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mrlhh.jpg

The Blue Line @Pacific
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mblp.jpg

Blue Line @Pico
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mblpico.jpg

Blue Line @Anaheim
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mblanhm.jpg

Green Line @Avalon
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mgljo.jpg

Green @El Sugundo/Nash
http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/images/pict_mglesn.jpg

[savvysearch]

Thanks for the pics. It's supposedly one of the best looking stations in the country.

[edsg25]

Terrific pictures. Thanks.

I have a question here: LA has obviously spent a fortune on the frankly oppulant subway stations on the red line. I'm sure their design does help make the system more inviting to riders.

That said, wouldn't a city like LA, still underserved by rapid transit, have been better off with less expensive stations if the savings could have gone to extending the line(s) westward?

[SILVERLAKE]

Terrific pictures. Thanks.

I have a question here: LA has obviously spent a fortune on the frankly oppulant subway stations on the red line. I'm sure their design does help make the system more inviting to riders.

That said, wouldn't a city like LA, still underserved by rapid transit, have been better off with less expensive stations if the savings could have gone to extending the line(s) westward?

No. The cost of one mile of subway could build a station that looked like the Taj Majal. So, cutting pennies there wouldn't make much a difference in adding more miles of track. In another 20 years, after proper funding, we will have absolutely the second highest ridership.

Lastly, they don't decide to "spend a fortune" to make things look "inviting to riders". It is just how L.A. design is. It reflects the beauty, diversity and serendipitous nature of Angelinos. We take our stations seriously like Paris did so long ago. Building dreary concrete tombs that look like the belong on the east coast or midwest would just not fit here.

[Thinkahead]

A conceptual map of possible rail lines and extensions. Leave any comments you have about them or any other lines that you feel are missing:

RED LINE
-(4 mi) Subway Extension to Beverly Center/Cedars Sinai
-(11 mi) At grade/Elevated Extension to El Monte via El Monte Busway and Alameda East ROW

BLUE LINE
-Completion of Expo Line to Santa Monica
-(2.5 mi) At grade/Elevated Westwood Branch from 405/Expo station. Provides direct connection into UCLA from Westside. Provides first opportunity to provide a line to go up the Sepulveda Pass to serve the valley.

GOLD LINE
-Completion of Gold Line to East LA and Montclair
-(5 mi) At-grade LRT extension to LACC via Sunset Blvd

BLUE/GOLD LINE
-(1.5 mi) Downtown/Central City Connector
Allows Expo Line LRV's to interline with ELA Gold Line
and Long Beach LRV's to interline with Sunset Blvd route

GREEN LINE
-(2.5 mi) Elevated Extension to South Bay Galleria
-(2.5 mi) Subway Extension to Santa Fe Springs Intercity Station
-(10.5 mi) LRT line via LAX/Inglewood and Crenshaw Blvd

ORANGE LINE
-(14 mi) Conversion of Busway to At-grade/Elevated LRT

[soup or man]

^

Did you make that or did you get it off of another website?

I'm liking the Gold Line to Monclair. If I am in Riverside to visit my grandmother, I can take the Rapid from downtown Riverside to Monclair Plaza then take the Gold Line to downtown. Do you know how awesome this will be? Why couldn't LA do this years ago?

[badtz]

That map [2020] would be stellar!!!

[Thinkahead]

I made the map myself. The background was a map I did on Auto CAD and scanned in. The Lines themselves are done using Microsoft Paint

[The Urban Politician]

I love the artwork at the rail stops. Totally awesome!

[klaus]

vermont/beverly

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v412/sepbach/redline3.jpg

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Great map. have you ever seen the transit coalitions website? they have maps and message boards as well and i think you can post your maps on thier site as well. great work with that. it would be so sweet to have all that rail by 2020.

[Palal]

Won't happen :(

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

^ thanks for your insight. im sure you thought long and hard about that one.

[fandango]

Those are very nice looking stations, but the outdoor ones look a little exposed. People might not want to stand in the sun.

[Palal]

^ thanks for your insight. im sure you thought long and hard about that one.
I thought more about it that you thought I did.

The original plan for LA called for 10 subway lines running in a grid-like system. However, because of inefficiencies and government bureaucracy, the allocated money wasn't enough to even pay the Red line costs. Later, voters approved a measure that prohibited any sales tax money to be spent on transportation projects.

But you knew that already. :).

Now consider this: even though 2 light rail lines were built after that (2 in ~15 years, so that's 7.5 years per line), and those lines weren't easy to build with a whole bunch of NIMBYs opposing them!

Now let's see 2020-2004 = 16 (the math seems right, I think). 16/7.5 = 2.13
Well, 3, if you consider the Orange line, that's being built right now.

I just don't see how the Santa Monica line can get buit in this amount of time.

I hope I'm wrong. :)

[Palal]

Those are very nice looking stations, but the outdoor ones look a little exposed. People might not want to stand in the sun.

"Normal people" don't get out on those outdoor stations (sorry if I offended anyone, but it comes from personal experience. I saw someone get shot on the line when I was railfanning last spring).

[soup or man]

^Yeah..umm..you DO know that there is a extremely high demand for a lightrail and/or subway system that streaches all the way to the ocean. Buses are nice..but c'mon now.

And if normal people don't get out on the outdoor stations, explain to me how they get on the trains? Through the roof?

[Palal]

^Yeah..umm..you DO know that there is a extremely high demand for a lightrail and/or subway system that streaches all the way to the ocean. Buses are nice..but c'mon now.
Yes, I do, and I hope they build it. But since when do politics follow the rules of supply and demand?

[Sonic from Padova]

Very beatiful Metrò!!

[CarsonCaliBrotha]

Here's a s**tload of pics I took at the Metro Rail, going up to Hollywood for the BET Awards and going up to Downtown LA for the X-Games.
http://img145.exs.cx/img145/1636/betawards0041rc.jpg
http://img145.exs.cx/img145/5766/betawards0054dn.jpg
http://img147.exs.cx/img147/2411/betawards0075zy.jpg
http://img147.exs.cx/img147/7782/betawards0090nl.jpg
http://img147.exs.cx/img147/5463/pictures0185dw.jpg
http://img147.exs.cx/img147/6476/pictures0207vy.jpg
http://img147.exs.cx/img147/9409/pictures0214su.jpg
Whew, good times. BTW, the trains were *thankfully* pretty empty because it was just a Saturday afternoon I think. Any Metro Rail-goer would know it'd be hell to be cought up in there at Rush Hour times.

[VansTripp]

Los Angeles Public Transportation By 2030
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/577/643futuremetro25.jpg

Awesome, Los Angeles will have biggest public transportation in around 2030.

What you think about it?

[CarsonCaliBrotha]

Yo that pictures old man. They replaced some of that map with other things. Like the North line goes to Warner Center. The Orange Line is being built from the North Hollywood station up there. The Orange Line on that map has too much of an empty gay, I mean I doubt they'd waste so much money for no stops for so long. Same thing with the new section of the Red Line on there, too much money. I agree, that'd be ill if it looked like that. But all the negative factors that could hold them back would mess it up. I mean, think about it, NIMBY, elevating costs, budget cuts, etc.

[VansTripp]

Yo that pictures old man. They replaced some of that map with other things. Like the North line goes to Warner Center. The Orange Line is being built from the North Hollywood station up there. The Orange Line on that map has too much of an empty gay, I mean I doubt they'd waste so much money for no stops for so long. Same thing with the new section of the Red Line on there, too much money. I agree, that'd be ill if it looked like that. But all the negative factors that could hold them back would mess it up. I mean, think about it, NIMBY, elevating costs, budget cuts, etc.

Yeah man, This map can be differnet about new light rail/subway extension. I don't think, they won't follow this map below.

[SoCal Guy]

I sure hope all the plans go through. I love riding on the subway. L.A needs to have more lines for people to get around.

[CarsonCaliBrotha]

I sure hope all the plans go through. I love riding on the subway. L.A needs to have more lines for people to get around.
Yea man, we really do. Most people have to use buses and man, it's nowhere like riding the train. I really hope we got way more rail by 2030.

[LAuniverse]

That said, wouldn't a city like LA, still underserved by rapid transit, have been better off with less expensive stations if the savings could have gone to extending the line(s) westward?

Like he was saying, LA wouldnt have saved much relative to the cost of extending the line. The reason the extension did not occur was not result of lack of funds at the county (MTA) level but rather, a broad-based reluctance of federal lawmakers to open their coffers to what became an increasingly costly undertaking (subways).

And after a series construction snafus highlighted the inefficiencies of a then horribly mismanaged MTA, LA congressmen, with the aid of their wealthy, conservative NIMBYist base, passed a ban on the use of public funding which was the then current model of financing subway construction. So as you can see, cost trimming measures are quite trivial in light of the political hostility.

[lowcostgeography]

how about this plan?

check out this monorail in wuppertal germany

http://www.monorails.org/webpix/Wupprtal.jpg

picture taken from http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Wuprtal.html

this thing is one hundred years old and has had only one accident. they just slapped it on top of a river

now...

http://img110.exs.cx/img110/1996/035uq.jpg

solves the problem of right-of-way and it is probably really cheap to construct. what do you all think?

[VansTripp]

how about this plan?

check out this monorail in wuppertal germany

http://www.monorails.org/webpix/Wupprtal.jpg

picture taken from http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Wuprtal.html

this thing is one hundred years old and has had only one accident. they just slapped it on top of a river

now...

http://img110.exs.cx/img110/1996/035uq.jpg

solves the problem of right-of-way and it is probably really cheap to construct. what do you all think?


No way. I loves LA river.

[Thinkahead]

A conceptual map of possible rail lines and extensions. Leave any comments you have about them or any other lines that you feel are missing:

RED LINE
-(4 mi) Subway Extension to Beverly Center/Cedars Sinai
-(11 mi) At grade/Elevated Extension to El Monte via El Monte Busway and Alameda East ROW

BLUE LINE
-Completion of Expo Line to Santa Monica
-(2.5 mi) At grade/Elevated Westwood Branch from 405/Expo station. Provides direct connection into UCLA from Westside. Provides first opportunity to provide a line to go up the Sepulveda Pass to serve the valley.

GOLD LINE
-Completion of Gold Line to East LA and Montclair
-(5 mi) At-grade LRT extension to LACC via Sunset Blvd

BLUE/GOLD LINE
-(1.5 mi) Downtown/Central City Connector
Allows Expo Line LRV's to interline with ELA Gold Line
and Long Beach LRV's to interline with Sunset Blvd route

GREEN LINE
-(2.5 mi) Elevated Extension to South Bay Galleria
-(2.5 mi) Subway Extension to Santa Fe Springs Intercity Station
-(10.5 mi) LRT line via LAX/Inglewood and Crenshaw Blvd

ORANGE LINE
-(14 mi) Conversion of Busway to At-grade/Elevated LRT

http://image20.webshots.com/21/0/40/74/224504074VNdGPj_fs.jpg

[Yakumoto]

Its pretty much certain that its going to expand to this

http://people.ucsc.edu/~ehellen/pictures/rail.JPG


While most of people's metro concepts focus on the westside, you have to realize that 1. Theyre going to build more in low income areas, that way they are assured ridership, 2. a lot of people don't want heavy construction in their neighborhoods, and rich people have the resources to stop it. Its a shitty system, but thats how it is.

[ssiguy2]

Is the Metro at any point run with traffic down the middle of a street or is it completly ROW on strickly its own tracks with no road crossing at all?

[ssiguy2]

all those freeways encirling the downtown must rally act as a phycological barrior to making it urban friendly.

[Vidiot]

all those freeways encirling the downtown must rally act as a phycological barrior to making it urban friendly.

yep, it is..