So excited! I gotta say, we have the greatest transit authority in the country, if not the world.
They just opened the east side Gold Line, and are about to open the Expo Line to the west side. They are finalizing plans for the downtown connector, the Purple Line extension, the Green Line extension into the south bay. They have gone from zero to eighty miles of commuter rail in twenty years, and are proceeding apace, making this the most rapidly developed commuter rail system in the history of the world.
Soon we will have a system with the same reach as the revered red cars of old, but much, much, better.
And they do a damn good job with the bus system too.
Here is one right winger that appreciates some things that government does well.
I live in Chicago and had to search what “LACMTA” stood for.
The last time I was out there and used it, there were only two lines arranged in a giant cross, but it did allow me to get to the Convention Center from the airport area hotel the morons at corporate travel booked me into.
LACMTA and the helpful cabbie who supplied a handful of blank receipts allowed me to make a profit on that trip.
I’m excited about this, too, but I think it’ll be a long time before we have as good coverage as with the old system, at its greatest extent. OTOH, the off-grade parts of the existing and future rail lines are likely faster than many of the old Pacific Electric routes.
The Downtown Connector could turn out to be huge for local transit. I’m glad someone down there at the Patsauros Tower is using their brain.
People in the rest of the country, for the most part, still think that Los Angeles has no rail transit system when actually it now has a substantial system that is getting larger all the time.
Of course, L.A. is such a huge city that there are still many areas that are not served well. But they’re working on it.