# Los Angeles Question!!!!! Tourists and Locals Welcome!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630 "2000-09-18T17:51:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/1 "2000-09-18T17:51:02Z")
Simple Q: Are there subways in LA?? ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Don](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e95f7d/32.png) [@Engineer\_Don](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Don)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/2 "2000-09-18T18:03:30Z")
Sort of. There is the red line, which is actually a subway, but it is connected to surface rail (blue line) which is more practical for L.A. more horizontal layout. Here is a page with scheduals, routes, etc. [http://www.wgn.net/~elson/larail/](http://www.wgn.net/~elson/larail/) ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/3 "2000-09-18T18:29:13Z")
There is a subway, but as of last Saturday (9/16), most of the operators have gone on strike so it isn’t particularly useful now. There is also a Green Line, which is surface transportation, and it goes almost, but not quite, to the airport. The Blue Line (when the operators aren’t on strike) is usually operating at capacity. The Red Line isn’t as popular. I’m not sure about the Green Line. If you are visiting our fair city, don’t count on using public transportation unless you have a lot of time to kill. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/4 "2000-09-18T18:39:22Z")
Yes, there are subways, (and other light rail), but they do not go anywhere that a visitor wants to go except maybe Hollywood, with the new extension to the Red Line. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/5 "2000-09-18T18:51:41Z")
If you’ve the seen the movie _Speed_, you can see what the Red Line looks like. As Keith has pointed out, it really has no real value to your average L.A. citizen because it only spans the tourist region of L.A… ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/6 "2000-09-18T19:29:41Z")
From my experience of riding the Red Line, the trains rarely run through walls and don’t feature Sandra Bullock strapped with explosives. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/7 "2000-09-18T19:34:04Z")
I thought I said just the opposite. The Red Line only covers the business district along the Wilshire Corridor, and down town. I have used it to go to the Chinese Consulate to get a Visa, and to go to the down town courthouse for jury duty. Not exactly tourist hotspots. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/8 "2000-09-18T22:57:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*There is a subway, but as of last Saturday (9/16), most of the operators have gone on strike so it isn’t particularly useful now. > > There is also a Green Line, which is surface transportation, and it goes almost, but not quite, to the airport. > > The Blue Line (when the operators aren’t on strike) is usually operating at capacity. The Red Line isn’t as popular. I’m not sure about the Green Line. > > If you are visiting our fair city, don’t count on using public transportation unless you have a lot of time to kill. \*\* Last I heard, all three rail lines (at least before the strike), together logged about 200,000 boardings daily. Altogether there are said to be about 500,000 daily public transit users, which would imply two boardings for each person, totalling a million on the average. So the 200K logged by the trains is only a fifth of the total, but that’s still fairly impressive given that the 53 miles in the rail system is only a tiny fraction of all MTA lines, which are mostly bus lines, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/9 "2000-09-18T23:12:27Z")
Personally, I would ride the Red Line if they strapped Sandra Bullock with explosives. Not on my car mind you, but the way she is dogging her last couple of movies, I think it would be justifible. We do have Amtrack trains (the metrolink) wich runs from San Diego to LA and all stops between for I think about 30 bucks round (I could be wrong) ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/10 "2000-09-19T04:18:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vandal \* > \*\*If you’ve the seen the movie _Speed_, you can see what the Red Line looks like. As Keith has pointed out, it really has no real value to your average L.A. citizen because it only spans the tourist region of L.A… \*\* That is what this question is actually all about. My flatmate and I just finished watching Speed. He insisted that LA does not have a subway. “Name one other movie that has ever shown a subway in LA” I could not think of any at all. And there have been so many movies set in LA. I would not accept the fact that the writers of Speed would just add a subway where none existed. But he was pretty sure of himself. Since we just spent the whole movie commenting on all the other garbage in that movie (ie. the bus jump, the magic wheels on the escape hatch when they slide out from under the bus, the bus cormering at over 50mph, etc…) I started to believe that maybe they just might accidentally forget LA has no subway. Hell, if you can forget physics, you can ignore geography, right? Well, just to solve the quick little debate, I turned to you fine people. Thanks again everyone!! ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/11 "2000-09-19T04:51:16Z")
Well, Bear, to answer your question about any movies that show a subway in L.A., I do believe that _Predator 2_ took place in L.A… The movie was made in 1990, but the story depicts a 1999 L.A. (I think that’s right, maybe give or take a year). Anyway, there’s a scene that shows a subway. Of course, it was not operational then. I think (big WAG) construction was in its preliminary stages. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/12 "2000-09-19T05:41:52Z")
Los Angeles had a subway (albeit a very small one) back before WWII. I believe part of the rail transportation system had an underground component and it stretched for a few blocks. The only remnant of it is a place called “The Subway Terminal Building” which is on Olive St. This is a photo of the original subway, circa 1939, although it probably looks like any old subway tunnel. However, it doesn’t look at all like the present day Red Line. [http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013192.jpg](http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013192.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Jorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/13 "2000-09-19T06:26:26Z")
NYC has a “subway”. LA has an “underground light rail ransit system”. - E valavala a tumanu.\* ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/14 "2000-09-19T15:18:08Z")
“Name one other movie that has ever shown a subway in LA” I can name at least two: \*One of the “Lethal Weapon” movies. Someone was stealing weapons from the police impound, and Riggs, Murtaugh, and company (sounds like an investment banker!) after a shootout in said impound chased the bad guys from police headquarters into an under-construction subway station next door, where the gunplay continued. \*By reference only, in “Independence Day.” The character of Will Smith’s wife finds some survivors of the destruction of L.A… One is a man in a suit who says that he took the subway that day for the first time and was in the tunnel when the attack came. IIRC, he exclaims “Thank God for Metrorail!” ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/15 "2000-09-19T17:57:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jorge \* > \*\*NYC has a “subway”. LA has an “underground light rail ransit system”. > > \*\* The Red Line is by no means “light rail.” It might no go many places (and right now because of the MTA strike it doesn’t anywhere), but it is a subway just like New York, Boston, and Washington. Red Line stations are also relatively comfortable places to be in the summer unlike NYC subway stations, as they were designed so there could be air conditioning near the platforms. The big problem Angelenos have is that they don’t know how to get on and off crowded trains. The doors open at some stops and the people getting off sort of stare at the people getting on and nobody moves for a few seconds. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/16 "2000-09-19T19:11:02Z")
My late father was a cablecar/streetcar buff. (Yes, there is a whole subculture of these people.) He was always talking about the streetcars in LA, the “Red Cars”, which he took around town. I think L.A. got rid of them in 1960, or thereabouts. He took a special trip on a Red Car on it’s last day, and saved Red Car tickets. (sniff sniff) He had Red Car videos, and Red Car books. Yes, like I said, there is a whole subculture of these people! So, while not “subways”, L.A. had a rail system for many years, until for some reason it was done away with - much to the dismay of many Angelenos, including my dad. (There is a reference to the Red Cars in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) I remember before my dad’s death in 1988, there was news of a new rail/subway system being built for L.A. He was so delighted, (but a little disgusted, because they should have never gotten rid of the rail system they had earlier). My dad never lived to _see_ the MetroRail, but word of it came out before 1988. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/17 "2000-09-19T23:27:30Z")
The LA subway also played a part in the movie _Volcano_ (I think that was its title–“the coast is toast”) where the La Brea tar pits suddenly became a little more… active. Incidentally, anyone else notice that the streetcar tracks shown outside the Terminal Restaurant in _Who Killed Roger Rabbit_ seemed to be fake? Little more than lines painted on the road? * * * Rigardu, kaj vi ekvidos. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/18 "2000-09-20T00:01:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yosemitebabe \* > \*\*My late father was a cablecar/streetcar buff. (Yes, there is a whole subculture of these people.) He was always talking about the streetcars in LA, the “Red Cars”, which he took around town. I think L.A. got rid of them in 1960, or thereabouts. He took a special trip on a Red Car on it’s last day, and saved Red Car tickets. (sniff sniff) He had Red Car videos, and Red Car books. Yes, like I said, there is a whole subculture of these people! > > So, while not “subways”, L.A. had a rail system for many years, until for some reason it was done away with - much to the dismay of many Angelenos, including my dad. (There is a reference to the Red Cars in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) > > I remember before my dad’s death in 1988, there was news of a new rail/subway system being built for L.A. He was so delighted, (but a little disgusted, because they should have never gotten rid of the rail system they had earlier). My dad never lived to _see_ the MetroRail, but word of it came out before 1988. \*\* I think the Red Cars were pretty much gone, except for the Long Beach line, well before 1960. I live in L.A. and I too think rapid transit can be a wonderful thing. But damn, how the MTA has botched things! Even after adjusting for inflation, our system is costing 10 times as much as San Francisco’s did. Meanwhile the Bus Riders’ Union keeps saying that the rail projects serve middle class white people at the expense of minorities, who use the neglected bus system, and they publish this fantasy repeatedly through their mouthpiece, otherwise known as the L.A. Times. Actually the ethnic breakdown on the rail lines and the bus lines is practically the same…both are mostly used by people of color. All these things combine to discourage further rail development in L.A., and it now appears unlikely that we’ll ever have any rapid transit on the West Side, between the North Valley and Orange County, etc., etc. When the last link of the Red Line to North Hollywood was completed, it was bizarre to hear the mayor and other dignitaries practically falling all over each other to say what a mistake it had been to build, but still just maybe some people might find it useful… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/19 "2000-09-20T02:43:08Z")
The Great One (Cecil, not Gretzky) addressed the matter of the Red Cars: [Did General Motors destroy the LA mass transit system?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_335.html) * * * Rigardu, kaj vi ekvidos. ---
**Author:** ![prleone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@prleone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/prleone)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630/20 "2000-09-20T03:00:15Z")
Subway??? Hell, after living in NYC, Philadelphia, and Boston. THEY have subways. LA’s red line is a joke. But we can’t build a real subway out here anyway. If we did, you’d have to take about sixteen or seventeen escalators to the subway level. I’m sure that would excite the tetonic plates.One thing a lot of people who’ve never been to LA don’t realize is that we all live in the mountains. If you live ten yards from the beach, you’d better be able to spellunk a few hundred feet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeles-question-tourists-and-locals-welcome/33630.md?page=2)