Why LA Metro (Mostly) Isn't a Metro

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

In my opinion the C line (Green Line) is also a metro because it's fully grade-separated. It's basically a light metro like the Docklands Llight Railway

[@LarryLoudini]

Agree. I think grade seperation is the most important factor in enabling rapid transit to be, well rapid😅

[@TheWillystyla]

It still cross other tracks

[@AL5520]

@@LarryLoudini Full right of way (not necessarily grade separated - certainly not with urban systems speed) is the most important factor, but there are others. In this case the C line is built more like regional/suburban rail, which fits with the character of the areas in a median of a highway. It has very few stops with large distances between them (longest one is ~4 mi apart) with park and rides in almost all stations (apart from the two near the airport). That does not sound like any urban metro/subway system I know.

[@mrxman581]

​@AL5520 Nope. It's much more like a metro line. Some of the stations are closer together and it has an equivalent top speed to the LA Metro subway lines at 65 mph. The subway lines also have some stations that are farther apart. Your confusion has to do with how spread out LA is and the service area that needs to be covered by LA Metro so the distances of these lines seem very long by comparison. LA city is 500 square miles and LA County is 4750 square miles. LA Metro is responsible for local metro rail service for all of it. The distances that need to be covered is another reason why LA uses light rail instead of heavy rail subway. It would be prohibitively expensive and overly time consuming. It's also why many of the light rail stations have parking close by. For example I drive about 15 minutes to the closest station and then use the Metro. There are many places now that I no longer drive to. Places like Santa Monica, DTLA, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Hollywood, Exposition Park, etc. It's been great. The opening of the subterranean Regional Connector for the A and E light rail lines was a huge game changer. BTW, the light rail lines in LA are more like subway lines because they all run on dedicated ROWs and all the lines are at least partially grade separated. Some of them significantly so. The C line is completely grade separated. The A, E, and K lines all have subterranean stations, aerial stations, viaducts, at-grade stations, and they have signed prioritization on certain sections of the lines, too. Their top speed is 55 mph.

[@AL5520]

@@mrxman581 The LA subway line (the second line is not an actual line right now) has an average of a station every mile, which is a bit on the longer side but still within the "standard" and just 1 park and ride (the other two are paid parking, which does not count). The average distance between stations on the C line is almost 3 mi - which regional/suburban rail distances, with almost all with park and rides. As for the other lines, a line can be considered fully grade separated (or, at least, full right of way) if there are no crossings at all (or full right of way crossing, like train have). Ridership is also regional rail numbers which is what you get when you spread out stations and count on people using their cars to get to the train and provide poor connectivity to other transport means. Maybe the connection to the airport (also in a in a weird way with a station outside the airport and the need to take a people mover, at a cost of $3.34B, to actually get to the airport) Rapid transit needs to be rapid, which requires full right of way but also high frequency and line that do not have full right of way are more limited with the frequency. There is a way to make fully grade separation section an actual metro/subway by adding a line that only runs in the grade separated section making it a full metro/subway line enabling more frequency but most places do not do it. Another option is to run more lines on the same grade separated section but in this case you get less area coverage. I think LA is doing great work, under the conditions they have, to provide better transit but for a good one you need more than that. When you use light rail to provide regional and local together you get less for both. A city like LA needs a subway system that should be used to densify areas, light rail for smaller areas that requires more than a bus but less than a metro, buses for any other urban rout, regions trains for longer distances and intercity fir long distance. When you try to cram all into one service, due to lower costs, you get something like the C line with station distances of regional rail, park and rides and low ridership.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Do a shot every time Caleb says "We'll get to that". Pershing Square station has neon designed by Stephan Antonakos, paying tribute to the fact that the first neon sign in the United States was displayed at Pershing Square in 1924. The B line serves Universal Studios Hollywood at Universal City/Studio City station (the station was built around the historic Campo de Cahuenga, an adobe ranch house where the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed in 1847, ending hostilities in California between Mexico and the US), and from the station, there is a free shuttle service to the park. It's the same kind of vehicle used on the Universal Studio Tour, or at Disney World's parking lots. It's a trackless train, or essentially just an articulated train-like shuttle bus. While Studio City is an LA neighborhood, Univeral City is not an LA neighborhood but rather its own 415-acre unincorporated area just for the studios and theme park. The Universal City/Studio City station is also in a Metro Micro zone, a zone with microtransit that covers North Hollywood and Burbank, one of the different Metro Micro zones in the area. Other Metro Micro zones they did include El Monte, Watts/Compton, LAX/Inglewood, North San Fernando Valley, Highland Park/Eagle Rock/Glendale, UCLA/Westwood/VA Medical Center, and Altadena/Pasadena/Sierra Madre. Besides Los Angeles, Via launched a microtransit service in Jersey City in February 2020, New Jersey’s first on-demand transit system. Jersey City's goal was "to address transit deserts throughout the city by providing first- and last-mile connections" by creating a Central Zone (that includes downtown and Journal Square) and an Outer Zone (the rest of the city like the West Side, Greenville, Liberty State Park, and the Heights), and only allowing trips either within the Outer Zone or between the Outer Zone and the Central Zone. In 2023, Jersey City’s Via program reached two million rides, with 80 percent of those rides serving minorities that year. However, this service exists around already existing transit services. The NJT 87 route goes between Hoboken Terminal and Gates Ave in Greenville, serving The Heights and Journal Square (a major PATH and bus transportation center) along the way, that route has roughly the same fare as Via, and this one route attracted 2,222,049 riders for FY22, 3.6 more times than the entire Via ridership of 614,245 during that same period. So it's incredibly ironic for Jersey City to go the microtransit route when Jersey City is ALREADY a transit city, close to 50 percent of JC takes transit! Half of Via's riders were simply using it to connect to other transit services like ferries, PATH, and HBLR. Unlike with buses, the cost of demand response escalates in proportion to ridership. If a city can't afford to put more vans, it becomes unusable as wait times grow, and JC have had to pay more for the service each year. And of course, the van won't always go direct to where you're going and will serve others first. In the areas they were trying to "address", in the Heights, the Heights is served by the HBLR's 9th St-Congress St station (the station's in Hoboken, but is connected to Congress Street in Jersey City above the Palisades by elevator), and there are frequent jitneys and NJT buses that have corridors on JFK Blvd, Central Ave, and Palisade Ave with services to Newport Centre mall downtown, Journal Square, and even NYC. And for the southern part of Jersey City, the HBLR serves West Side Ave, MLK Drive, Garfield Ave, Richard Street, Danforth Ave, and Liberty State Park (and they're building a new Bayfront station with TOD development). So the HBLR already exists to connect The Heights and the southern part of Jersey City with downtown, and people can already reliably get to Journal Square as well with the different NJT routes and jitneys/dollar vans. This is on top of all the biking infrastructure Jersey City has built!

[@josephpadula2283]

Well since I am probably the Only person watching this from Jersey City , thanks ! Growing up the bus service was do find I had a choice of 3 busses by just walking an extra long block . Commuted to school by bus with a punch card pass you bought at end of the line ,west side Ave . Now with the light rail at west side Ave I would have 4 ways to get to the city.!

[@RallyingforRail]

One of the things I find infuriating about many light rail systems in the U.S. is that there isn’t even transit signal priority (TSP) at the at-grade crossings. I hear LA is no-different, but people can fact-check me on that one. TSP, at its most expensive, is $35,000 per intersection from what I read, so it’s a low-cost way of improving speed, reliability, and capacity. And yet many of these systems don’t do it!!! Ugh.

[@GirtonOramsay]

The one benefit of San Diego light rail is the lack of intersection crossings, except in downtown. Most street crossings are treated like a railroad crossing and has very consistent timing as a result.

[@bucketcreature]

unfortunately true. intersections are generally governed by city transportation departments such as LADOT, and they're not great at coordinating with Metro (or just don't want to)

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

For Angels games, Metrolink runs an Angels Express for games from Union Station along both OC and IEOC! Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center was designed by the global architecture firm HOK, who've worked on many projects like Baku's Flame Towers, the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Detroit's Little Caesars Arena, Dubai Marina, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Kaohsiung's 85 Sky Tower, the 1985 renovation of St. Louis Union Station, the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, Cleveland's 200 Public Square, The Temple in Independence, Missouri, St Louis's Energizer Park/CityPark, MetLife Stadium in NJ's Meadowlands, and Indira Gandhi International Airport's Terminal 3. You can get to Disneyland by bus from the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center. Disneyland is served by LA Metro, OCTA, ART, and different hotel shuttles. ART travels between hotels to the Disneyland Resort, the Anaheim Convention Center and other locations throughout the Anaheim Resort. Besides ART, Disneyland is served by the Metro Express Line 460 bus, which runs between downtown LA and Disneyland, connecting with different bus and rail lines like Norwalk station on the C Line! For OCTA, Route 50, 43, 46, 83, and 430 all serve Disneyland, with the 430 serving as a link between the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center and the Anaheim Resort district! So for all the people wanting to visit Disneyland, you have different ways of getting to the resort by transit from LA! If Metrolink wants to be a great regional rail system, they should look at the LIRR as a role model! The LIRR own the tracks while privatizing their freight (freight runs 7 trains a day weekdays with 4 trains at night; they run 3 trains on weekends), LIRR runs 24/7 with different schedules depending on destination and time of day, most of their services are electric, a significant portion of it is grade separated thanks to grade crossing elimination projects throughout the years like elevating the Babylon Branch, LIRR services use the Main Line in some capacity, its Main Line is quad-tracked between Queens Interlocking (where the Hempstead Branch splits) and Harold Interlocking, triple-tracked between Divide (Hicksville) and Queens Interlockings, they've been building TOD by the stations as shown in Wyandanch, Mineola, Patchogue, and Ronkonkoma, and the stations have different connections like NICE, SCT, the subway, MTA buses, and the AirTrain. They should also look at SEPTA's Center City Commuter Connection as an example of through-running their commuter rail. The creation of an underground 1.8 mile four-track tunnel in 1984, which also created Market East/Jefferson station, forever changed the shape of transportation in the Philadelphia area by connecting the rail lines of the former Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads and enabling the development of a coordinated regional rail system. SEPTA cut their diesel train services in 1981, thus leading to electric-only lines, and the Center City Commuter Connection lacking the necessary ventilation for exhaust-producing locomotives further sealed the diesel trains's fate.

[@PASH3227]

Freight rail is way more important in LA than in Long Island so getting them to sell their ROW to LA Metro or OCTA is near impossible. The highest ridership line is fully owned by Metrolink but electrification, double tracking and grade separations have been SLOW!

[@Thom-TRA]

I think this was one of your fest videos to date!

[@ClassyWhale]

@@Thom-TRA is that because I roasted Belgium?

[@sammymarrco47]

@@ClassyWhale obviously

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

5:41 Sittin' in my office with a plate of grilled bacon Called my man Dwight, just to see what was shakin' YO MIKE, OUR TOWN IS DOPE AND PRETTY! So check out how we live *IN THE ELECTRIC CITY!*

[@sammymarrco47]

Scranton WHAT?

[@thelaguyinphoenix7837]

I really like that you did some research and history about the SCRTD and their battles with the LACTC. Those boards had to merge because the LACTC funded the RTD and there were constant battles. I did some LA Times research for that. Good job Caleb! See, Caleb did some research!!

[@mrxman581]

Now the fights are between LA Metro and LADOT on issues like signal prioritization for the light rail routes in LA city.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Speaking of the Red Car Trolley, Disney created a replica streetcar line at DCA! When DCA opened across from Disneyland in 2001, the original gate land was called Sunshine Plaza, designed to evoke a sensation as if one were stepping into a California postcard, with California spelt out in big letters, a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge for the monorail, and massive murals depicting CA's mountains. A big metal sunburst stood at the end to reflect solar rays into the area. It even had a replica Western Pacific California Zephyr which housed two restaurants! But in 2007, an expansion plan for the park was announced, and this included reimagining Sunshine Plaza as Buena Vista Street! Buena Vista Street officially opened in 2012. The big California letters were sent to Sacramento for the state fairgrounds. The Golden Gate Bridge was removed and replaced with a replica Glendale-Hyperion Bridge which was seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the original bridge was built in the 1920s and was being constructed when Disney stayed in Atwater Village; Red Car Trolleys used to cross on a bridge next to it), and the sunburst structure replaced with a recreation of the Carthay Circle Theater, symbolically chosen because it was the theater where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first feature-length animated film, had its world premiere in 1937! The replica California Zephyr was given to the Western Pacific Museum. But more importantly, they added a tramway for the land inspired by the Pacific Electric, although unlike the Pacific Electric, they're Brookville Equipment streetcars that are battery-operated, so its trolley poles and overhead catenary lines along its route in the land are just there for decoration. However, due to an expansion of Avengers Campus, in August 2024, Disney announced the Red Car Trolley's closure in 2025. So ironically, Disney is acting like Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But of course, transit wise, Disneyland is most famous for its monorail system, which opened in June 1959 and was the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere! When it opened, it connected Tomorrowland to the Disneyland Hotel station and the hotel's parking lot, but after a significant portion of the hotel was demolished for Downtown Disney, a new station was built as Downtown Disney for the Downtown Disney shopping complex instead of just the hotel. The system actually opened with an incident, as Walt abducted then Vice President Nixon without his security! The monorail was designed by famed Imagineer Bob Gurr (who designed most of Disneyland's ride vehicles like Haunted Mansion and Autopia). Up until opening day, the monorail would not cooperate with them. Gurr and a German engineer worked tirelessly each night on sketching replacement parts and rushing them to Burbank so they could be built. The day before on June 13, the monorail ran as intended for the first time, but they were still worried for opening day. Gurr was in the pilot's seat, with Nixon's family and Walt on board, but the secret service agents didn't get on board as Gurr left the moment Walt told him to. He was worried, with Walt staring at him, that the monorail would break down and he accidentally kidnapped Nixon. Thankfully, it ran as intended. Disneyland also has the Disneyland Railroad. The railroad and the park were inspired by Walt's backyard miniature live steam railroad called the Carolwood Pacific. The railroad's control center barn is now preserved at the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum in Griffith Park. The Lilly Belle locomotive, some of the freight cars, and the caboose are now on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Two pieces of Carolwood Pacific rolling stock is also on display in the Boulder Ridge Villas at WDW's Wilderness Lodge in Florida. When he was a kid in Marceline, MO, Walt wanted to be a train engineer and got a newsie job selling newspapers and candy on Missouri Pacific trains. His brother Roy worked a similar job on Santa Fe trains, and his uncle Mike Martin was a Santa Fe engineer on an accommodation train that ran between Marceline and Fort Madison, Iowa.

[@jazzfan7491]

DCA meaning Reagan National airport in DC?

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

@@jazzfan7491 Disney California Adventure, Disneyland's second park.

[@nlpnt]

@@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un Famously described by Defunctland as "a California-themed theme park located in already California-themed California."

[@mrxman581]

The LRT lines in LA are more of a hybrid design. They have more in common to a subway line than not. For example, the C line is much more like a metro line. Some of the stations are closer together and it has an equivalent top speed to the LA Metro subway lines at 65 mph. The subway lines also have some stations that are farther apart. Your confusion has to do with how spread out LA is and the service area that needs to be covered by LA Metro so the distances of these lines seem very long by comparison. LA city is 500 square miles and LA County is 4750 square miles. LA Metro is responsible for local metro rail service for all of it. The distances that need to be covered is another reason why LA uses light rail instead of heavy rail subway. It would be prohibitively expensive and overly time consuming. It's also why many of the light rail stations have parking close by. For example I drive about 15 minutes to the closest station and then use the Metro. There are many places now that I no longer drive to. Places like Santa Monica, DTLA, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Hollywood, Exposition Park, etc. It's been great. The opening of the subterranean Regional Connector for the A and E light rail lines was a huge game changer. BTW, the reasons why the light rail lines in LA are more like subway lines is because they all run on dedicated ROWs and all the lines are at least partially grade separated. Some of them significantly so. For one, the C line is completely grade separated. The A, E, and K lines all have subterranean stations, aerial stations, viaducts, at-grade stations, and they have signal prioritization on certain sections of the lines, too. Their top speed is 55 mph which is only 10 miles less than the subway lines. It's a uniquely designed system that addresses the challenges LA poses, but in most respects, it works like a metro system for LA.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Yup, if you want to get big transport projects done that'll benefit tourists and residents for decades, the Olympics and Paralympics have always been a good reason to do just that as part of the legacy. For the 2022 Winter Olympics/Paralympics, China built the Beijing-Zhangjiakou HSR, the world's first fully driverless HSR, which connected the different venue clusters, connecting Beijing North with the venue clusters in Beijing's Yanqing District and Zhangjiakou. This shortened the traveling time from Beijing to Zhangjiakou from 3 hours 7 minutes to 47 minutes. It also serves Badaling's popular section of the Great Wall as the underground Badaling Great Wall station, the world's deepest HSR station! For Beijing 2008, the first Chinese HSR line, Beijing-Tianjin, opened 7 days before the games. It reduced travel time between the two cities from 70 to 30 minutes. The Beijing subway also expanded, like Line 8 serving the Olympic Green, or the Capital Airport Express. For Tokyo 1964, the Tokaido Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo opened to coincide with the Olympics, just days before the Games! And besides subway extensions like the Tozai Line, the Tokyo Monorail also opened, connecting Haneda Airport with Hamamatsuchō in the city center. For Nagano 1998 winter games, they opened the Nagano Shinkansen (now the Hokuriku Shinkansen), initially connecting Tokyo with Takasaki in Gunma and Nagano. Since then, it was extended to Toyama and Kanazawa in 2015, and Tsuruga in March 2024. The final section will reach Shin-Osaka, finalized in December 2016 as the Obama-Kyoto route. For Pyeongchang 2018, Incheon Airport opened Terminal 2 for the games. The airport temporarily got HSR trains between 2014 and 2018. The Gyeonggang Line opened in 2016 and 2017, serving Pyeongchang and Gangneung. KTX HSR service from Seoul to Gangneung began in 2017. While NYC wasn't awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics, the failed bid still reshaped the area! Like the Barclays Center, Citi Field, the MetLife Stadium being built in NJ as a 50/50 partnership between the Giants and Jets after the Jets's stadium plan in Hudson Yards failed, Flushing Meadows still building an aquatics center (which would've been the water polo venue) in 2008, and the Hudson Yards redevelopment with the High Line, Javits Center renovations, the construction of multiple buildings and mixed-used developments and 34th Street-Hudson Yards station! For Athens 2004, the modern Athens tram system opened in July (linking Athens city centre with the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic complex, Agios Kosmas for sailing, Kraiskaki Stadium for football, and the Hellinikon Olympic Complex). In addition, the Metro and suburban rail systems built new stations, like Metro's Line 3 extended to serve Athens Airport, or Irini and Neratziotissa on Line 1 serving the main Athens Olympic Sports Complex. Athens International opened in 2001 after a need for a bigger airport to replace Ellinikon International. Ellinikon became abandoned and the home of the "temporary" Hellinikon Olympic complex (which turned one of the hangars into an area and its runways as paths to the venues), said complex became abandoned, and it's all now turned into a big metropolitan park. For Vancouver 2010, the Skytrain had a massive expansion with the Canada Line, connecting Waterfront downtown with YVR Airport and Richmond. It also serves the Olympic Village, which revitalized False Creek, and the Richmond Olympic Oval for speed skating. For London 2012, a cable car was built across the Thames linking the O2 to the Royal Victoria Dock (by ExCeL), a DLR line to Stratford International for the Olympic Park was built, and new Southeastern Javelin HSR trains served Stratford International on HS1 frequently. With the games and thus development centering on Stratford, it catapulted Stratford into becoming one of the UK's busiest stations, and now densely developed. The Jubilee line has served Stratford since 1999 as well as the Elizabeth Line since 2022, and Overground services.

[@295g295]

> 14:46

[@insertchannelnamehere632]

2:13 the good old Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim! A mindblowingly stupid name

[@xraymind]

No more stupid name than San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.

[@rwzytoob31oct22]

Old school former socal resident here. They'll always be the California Angels to me. They'll always be subpar to your world champion LA Dodgers!

[@kjhuang]

It's just Los Angeles Angels now. I dunno if you consider that better or worse.

[@misterinternational]

I like the dude skipping out on paying the fair directly in front of 2 cops at 4:05

[@BK_718]

That’s some NY shit 😂

[@supremewhip]

Neanderthal activities.

[@bluesnail310]

This review was incredibly done and your commentary was hilarious. Thank you for making it and highlighting the lack of rail Los Angeles has. Hopefully, one day, we will have a system similar to the red cars.

[@junkboxxxxxx]

11:07 the RTD logo was another masterwork by Saul bass

[@obrien6320]

We have a majority of honor systems stations, meaning something like 75/80 percent of people don't pay to get on the trains using those stations. Plus having trains stop for red lights at traffic sections is just ridiculous in this day and age.

[@tomo-tawa-linja]

current mood: getting to that

[@NickBurman]

The use of light rail in the LA area is a bit puzzling, however the model used resembles more a German "Stadtbahn" (lit. "City Railway") than light rail proper. In stadtbahns station stops are farther apart and average speeds are higher than thoroughbred LRT. So in the end it makes sense, after a fashion. PE wasn't the only operator in the Los Angeles basin, LA city has the 42" gauge Los Angeles Railway which ran trolleys within LA city limits, at places using mixed gauge with PE. And there was the tiny Glendale & Montrose, connecting the namesake cities to the north of LA. Yes, PE ran a lot in the street, but it did have a lot of private right-of-way, the longest sections being the lines to San Bernardino, Long Beach and Newport Beach. The last two used a quadruple track section from just south of the LA city centre to Watts, where the lines split. And where it ran on PRW, PE could (and did) run fast. Henry E. Huntingdon (PE's founder) had a private interurban car which once (apocryphally, as interurbans didn't carry speed recorders at the time) reputedly hit speeds over 80mph one evening on a trip taking the boss back from Newport Beach to LA. PE was badly hurt not only by cars and buses but also by absentee ownership by parent Southern Pacific (who bought PE from Huntingdon). It essentially threw the towel and ceased investing in the early 1920's when faced by increased car, jitney and bus competition and by the state of California's reluctance in regulating the competition.

[@joshsheep]

real i wish los angeles had more convenient ways of transport.. ps BRAD SHERMAN pls dont stall the sepulveda line i swearrr.

[@mrxman581]

It has a lot more than people realize. 34 years ago it had no metro rail of any kind. LA also has one of the biggest bus systems with more BRT lines in the works.

[@commercialcritic4676]

Great Vid Man!!!

[@pacificostudios]

Should point out that the San Bernardino Metrolink line IS the Pacific Electric as far as Claremont, and essentially ex-PE to San Bernardino. The new OC Streetcar IS ex-PE Santa Ana Branch. Likewise, the K line is largely a revival of the old Yellow Car line on Crenshaw. Much of today's A line between Los Angeles and Pasadena effectively follows another former Yellow Car line, i.e., "Los Angeles Railway." Finally, the future West Santa Ana Branch -- or whatever they are calling it, will be ex-PE east of I-105 or so.

[@jasonwyland5198]

Construction was also featured in the film Volcano.

[@darioprime]

Credit where its due, he correctly pronounced San Luis Obispo's name

[@yorktown99]

My biggest complaint is that Metro (along with its predecessors) has a terrible history of cost over runs, delays, and just general incompetence at actually constructing anything. The portion of the A Line north of Union Station was built by a separate, dedicated agency jointly run by the local cities it runs through. It uses an old AT&SF freight line that narrowly avoided getting sucked into MetroLink.

[@mrxman581]

LA Metro doesn't actually build the infrastructure. They hire companies to do it just like they did with the Foothill Gold line agency. But in the end, the lines belong and are operated by LA Metro. The A line is no different.

[@SamAronow]

12:28 Fun fact: I'm on that inaugural train, aged 7 months. I also feel compelled to characterize Metro as more of an interurban commuter system than an urban transit system, more BART than Chicago L. In addition to the Red Cars of PE, there were also the Yellow (later Green) Cars of LARy/LATL/LAMTA, which closed in 1963. Though they covered a much smaller area than the Red Cars, their ridership was always _many_ times greater. No serious attempts have been proposed to replace those; the closest effort being a glorified tourist loop Downtown that never happened. I have some thoughts about how the city might go about implementing a Muni-style system if they could be bothered. But they probably can't be.

[@bucketcreature]

yes!! the yellow cars are so underrated. not only did they have higher ridership than PE, their tracks were also maintained better in their later history. they were first replaced with trolleybuses before those were replaced with more standard motor buses. also i'd love to hear more about the muni style concepts!

[@junkboxxxxxx]

2:45 the green line is heavy rail subway though it runs on the surface or in flyovers

[@josephpadula2283]

The red car lines were not privatized they were built with stockholder funds hoping to make their money back and a profit . They were private, a company not government owned .

[@janthony21]

Weren't they started by real estate developers appealing to prospective homeowners when most families didn't have cars? 'Why pay more in the city for less, when you can live in beautiful South Central Los Angeles for half the price?' And once those homes were sold... the developers stopped funding them, so they had to fight for funding like everything else.

[@josephpadula2283]

@ I am sure that was part of logic in building it but the Red car system was a major company not some trolley line

[@josephpadula2283]

Going to one developers project .

[@sameoldcircus]

I remember when the Blue (now A) line to opened to Long Beach. My family was excited but never rode it except when my sister and I would go to Hollywood

[@transitengineer]

With a degree in Electrical Engineering, I moved to the Los Angeles area in the early 1980's. So, I had a front seat for the development of Light Rail trains, Subway trains, and commuter rail trains. Grade separation is the key, segments where Light Rail Trains have it they are able to travel just as fast as the Subway Trains. While, I am not sure how it works in other parts of the United States, here in Southern California most of your Light Rail Train and Subway Train riders come from the region's bus system. During the 1984, summer Olympics the city bus systems worked very well to get both visitors and local residents to the various events (smile ... smile).

[@brianhubert8418]

Great video. That really is a tall task for LA Metro and this was a fascinating look at how the story of transit in LA played out. Still hoping LA can turn the corner on being so car-dependent if even just some. It's so imporant for equity, our environment and just makes more sense from a financial standpoint. I wish there was more energy to electrify Metrolink with high-performance trains like the Stadler KISS's used on Caltrain as regional rail with high frequency seems the best option to tie together such a sprawling region. I wonder if top speeds could be pushed up to 100-110 mph to easily match or beat freeway speeds. Also like RM Transit has preached on may occasions lightweight high-performance European EMUs can climb steeper grades making grade seperations from freight tracks and roads easier, less expensive and less obtrusive. It'll also be interesting to see what can be done in terms of marrying transit and urban planning to maximize these investments in transit, make transit, walking or biking the best option for more trips and therefore grow ridership.

[@erik_griswold]

Metro is an agency. They don’t call their rail lines “Metros” but “Rail” as in “Metro Rail”. Seattle’s Metro doesn’t have a Metro, and they run a sewer system to boot.

[@concertino58]

Thank you! Also- for a city to have a “metro” it doesn’t mean it has to be underground. We have 6 Metro rail lines and will be building more. I don’t understand peoples’ obsession with trying to discredit our Metro system.

[@mrxman581]

​@@concertino58They don't bother to do their homework either. The LRT lines in LA are really a hybrid design. They have more in common to a subway line than a more traditional light-rail or tram line.

[@pacificostudios]

Whether metro, LRT, regional rail and even BRT, the main purpose these lines serve is regional connectivity. The new Wilshire Blvd subway is a good example. Not everyone wants to go between DTLA and Westwood or is headed to someplace along Wilshire Blvd. However, even Phase 1 will make access to a host of destinations along 3rd St., Venice Blvd., Pico Blvd., Olympic Blvd., Beverly Blvd., Melrose Ave., and even Santa Monica Blvd. much easier by transit than now. A 10 minute bus ride is nothing. An hour long slog through heavy city traffic is painful.

[@jacktattersall9457]

I have believed since I was a kid that LAX was the World's Worst Airport and no one shall convince me otherwise.

[@kevinwiz]

Hot take: it is a very good airport aside from the clusterfk of ground transportation Hubs for every major airline to connect to the world super easily Never weather delays to deal with Beautiful impressive modernized terminals like Tom Bradley Relatively small footprint makes connecting flights a breeze even if you have to swap terminals Once the people mover opens, LAX will be great

[@tone_bone]

I'm pretty sure toon town was destroyed to make way for the interstate.

[@AMPProf]

AHH YES THE epic Idea that included Ashtrays and Cyborgs and Blades and Runners and EVERTHYING is Taeco bell

[@tommarney1561]

I'd thought that it was San Diego's extremely positive experience with building a light rail line on the cheap that inspired light rail development across the US, but apparently the A line was under development before the San Diego Trolley was open. So, I learned something from this.

[@nerdynerdynoob3733]

Just curious, what happened to the previous LA video from a few years ago? I’m pretty sure it existed at one point

[@ClassyWhale]

I've been redoing all of my oldest videos

[@drdewott9154]

I do hope the future is bright for LA and the LA Metro. That is if they don't put overly expensive high speed crossovers everywhere on their extensions when they're clearly not necessary and absolutely balloon the cost of construction to a far unreasonable extent. If you know you know.

[@realquadmoo]

9:10 omg look RMTransit is full of crap lol Nothing wrong with putting a train in a tunnel, doesn’t matter the kind of train

[@glenmorrison8080]

I ride the A line light rail for many hours each week in my commute, complain about it a lot, and then choose to watch videos about it in my free time hahahah

[@Rickzolo]

Panorama City is indeed one of the places I wasn't expecting you to go.

[@repulser93]

Wow, I wasn't expecting home to get a video.

[@ClassyWhale]

@@repulser93 did I do it justice?

[@Sunset4Semaphores]

Up you go!

[@JJR93]

Isn't there a bus from LAX to the nearest LRT station?

[@ClassyWhale]

@@JJR93 yeah there is

[@marcusrose5943]

The connection is doing testing so should be open sometime next year

[@mentonerodominicano]

Considering the grueling walk from baggage claim to the MetroLink stop, I wouldn't call the Burbank connection direct. 😅

[@LDTV22OfficialChannel]

I used to live in the Valley and the Orange Line was my childhood

[@guretsugu]

4:04 love that you caught footage of a guy fare evading right in front of police officers. Basically an encapsulation of US transit in a nutshell.

[@bucketcreature]

there are too many GM Streetcar Conspiracy cranks; personally my LA transit history favorite event to dramatize is the explosion of the Ross Dress For Less on Fairfax, due to underground natural gas deposits, which prompted some state legislators to fearmonger about the possibility of other methane explosions along the Wilshire corridor. That was ultimately the reason they ended up building the first line to Hollywood instead of along Wilshire.

[@Cupertinorail]

La metro trams and subway have been operating since the 1990s. Unfortunately now the system has been dividing natives and railfans in terms of safety. However their BRT is very safe. In operation since the 2000s. LA metro subway and tram, has been featured in multiple films. The italian job 2003 edition got an old Nippon Sharyo P865 as a cameo so did the movie collateral. I always ride Metrolink when visiting extended family in the OC . LA Caltrain was also featured in my favorite rail documentary (see link) the only time I would see amfleets on the West coast. At one point it was run by Amtrak. Have a good trip old Nippon Sharyo gallery car. They are going to Peru. I guess at 4:39, I can now tell when you will be taking the Caltrain. Lol the blue Amtrak face mask. Fun fact: Charlie Chaplin stared in silent films that used both the SF cable car and the notable red trolleys of the pacific electric. Fast forward to like the 1980-90s it was featured again in Cats Don't Dance and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a pioneer for all pop culture you see now. Think Halloween and being a single guy. RTD is also a very featured brand in a lot of films. Most notably Mathilda and Little Rascals. Diecast bus collects like RTD model buses a lot for some reason. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3nXqH2ohbuJbsk

[@mrxman581]

LA Metro doesn't have trams. It has subways and LRTs. And our LRTs have much more in common to subway lines than tram lines. Trams in the US are much more like streetcars.

[@matthewandrew]

Build rail to San Pedro please!

[@chris1789]

The anaheim station is terrible! It looks great but the actual functional use of the station is secondary to design like that apple mouse you had to charge by plugging in from the bottom

[@TheFrogfather1]

We travelled to Anaheim to visit a well known tourist attraction nearby. We got the Amtrak train from Union Station to Anaheim and then walked over to the ARTIC. Initially we thought it was closed - there was nobody about. Eventually found the information desk. You'd think that with a major tourist attraction nearby there'd be a frequent shuttle service from the station but no: you have to download an app (which is likely to put off at least half potential travellers) and then enter the start (ARTIC) and the end (something so obscure I don't remember it - the lady at the information desk helped) and that summons an on-demand coach which turned up about 40 minutes later and was mostly empty. I'd guess of the n-million folk visiting Disneyland that day we were probably the only ones to arrive that way.

[@edwardjones4870]

I took Metrolink from LA Union Station to Oceanside. I could have walked faster. Of course, I could also have walked faster if I had been driving on I-5 and I-405!

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

would not San-Francisco with Bart and Muni be also a city with heavy metro which is Light-rail dominated?

[@ClassyWhale]

Good question! Mini and Bart are a bit different than LA Metro - Muni is for SF, which is a comparatively small and dense city, and BART covers the whole bay area. It's not an exact comparison, but LA has almost the opposite setup, with light rail tasked with trips that would have been BART type trains in the original plans

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

@@ClassyWhale which is the strangest of the whole story, I mean, maybe I am old fashioned but to me a lightrail is a faster street-car, and streetcars are the slow system filling the gaps between the main railway stations and lines... the reason why LA uses light rail just seems insane and sort of paradoxical(?) I guess...

[@sglenny001]

Unironicly I find it funny your going to Newark-on-Trent since that's where my nana lives

[@flamingvans1135]

The FAA didn't want light rail going into LAX because of flight interference!? Not buying it. Rental car, parking lot and limo concessions didn't want it cutting into their business? Absolutely. Which is why the former Green Line passes over a mile from LAX -- the rest of the way you have to take a verrrrrry infrequent shuttle bus. The line that goes down Crenshaw (Pink Line?) ends 2 miles from LAX. Again with the shuttle buses. Ridiculous, and I hope it's resolved before the 2028 Summer Olympics.

[@janthony21]

That part should be done by 2028. Everything else? Hopefully at least the D (Purple) line to Westwood, so the athletes can connect to the rest of the city easily. The K (Pink) and C (Green) lines now meet up at Aviation/Century, which just opened. The automated people mover (APM) from there to LAX is scheduled to open in 2026. I heard that the laws/contracts require that it runs without people for a full year before they open it up to people. I can't verify the accuracy or reasoning of that; someone told me that over a year ago, when it was originally scheduled to start running (2024). I don't know if it is running without people yet. The K (Pink) line will connect E (Expo) and C (Century) lines down Crenshaw, Florence, and Aviation ... once the stretch from Aviation/Century to Westchester/Veterans comes online. I only started learning about LA Metro when Angel City FC started in 2022, but I'm really enjoying using it when I head to Santa Monica or Hollywood from Long Beach... even if I have to drive from OC to Long Beach to catch it.

[@pacificostudios]

Fun Fact: Pacific Electric and predecessors is the reason why many Los Angeles streets are so darned wide. Huntington Blvd. in East L.A. is a truly visible example; the WB lanes--divided from EB lanes and often on a different path--are ex-PE right of way. San Vincente Blvd., Venice Blvd, Chandler Blvd., Van Nuys Blvd., and Santa Monica Blvd. west of Century Park are all built partly on former PE private rights of way, to name just some major examples.

[@295g295]

4:55 - pre-war ... also Philadelphia/SEPTA

[@josephpadula2283]

Is this some old video reloaded ? I see you are wearing a mask .

[@ClassyWhale]

@@josephpadula2283 yes, but I would still wear one now if I felt sick, and some people still do for their own safety or comfort

[@amigajoe]

Regarding you getting on the wrong line… Metro signage leaves so much to be desired. Sure hope they improve it greatly before the Olympics.

[@curtisalvin]

LA having a similar system to BART makes soooo much sense. Sad that it wasn’t built

[@Martini4466]

No crime. No homeless. No drug addicts. Ah. Excellent editing.

[@PASH3227]

6:58 if you're trying to get to Santa Monica from Little Ethiopia it would've been faster to take a bus down Pico. Once again, didn't do research!

[@ClassyWhale]

I think I did that on the way back! But I wanted to try the train

[@robertbeck168]

I wish they had retained the SCRTD name and Saul Bass logo. It was unique compared to all the "M" metros. Also, as others are mentioning, many light rail systems have heavy rail characteristics with high level platforms and various extents of exclusive ROWs like SF Muni Metro, Buffalo, St Louis.

[@djpetesake]

Yeah take that Belgium!

[@michelangelobuonarroti4958]

"We'll get to that"

[@MassbyTrain]

can you film new stuf slime year of just re editing

[@ClassyWhale]

Yes

[@ficus3929]

LA doesn’t lack density, it lacks transit oriented land use. The land use is such that trip generators are spread out to accommodate arrival by private automobile (look at how many parking lots there are downtown as an example).

[@marcusrose5943]

This is the problem with most mass transit. If they ran to stadiums that would be a mass help. The Dart is Dallas is absolutely packed for the fair and concerts at the AAC but beyond that maybe the convention center. If it ran to Arlington with six flags and cowboy and rangers it would be more highly used for sure

[@tc3693]

LA is not low density it’s actually the densest continual urban area in the US

[@nlpnt]

On average across the whole metro area, yes! The vast bulk of it is tightly packed side-by-side single family homes on postage-stamp lots with relatively few huge estates and you don't really get the McMansions on an acre apiece seen in far-flung exurbs further east, not even in places like Santa Clarita.

[@tc3693]

@ exactly! I wonder why the video doesn’t emphasize how dense la is and how it could support high density oriented transit.

[@alexisdespland4939]

not true both ontarioninternational inthesan bernadino and van nuysairports have metrolink sevices only burbank airportmight have amtracjcoastliners service stop.

[@ClassyWhale]

@@alexisdespland4939 they have shuttle buses. Burbank the trains stop within walking distance of planes

[@noytelinu]

Los Angeles is always going to have problems getting rail done because Los Angeles isn't a city. It is 88 cities in a trenchcoat. Considering all of that it is amazing anything is built at all. I'm myself waiting for the Vermont line to be opened.

[@ttopero]

It’s ALL still commuter rail

[@joshcruz2448]

Because earthquakes

[@TheSalamander5678]

RTD, no not that one 😂

[@azuma892]

Nick Bradley!

[@officialmcdeath]

11:45 A: in a pizza box \m/

[@markkajc]

Cities should just do stuff. Whats the point of electing a whoe bunch of county and city officials if they cant do stuff?

[@Milanfanoftrains]

Idk maybe metro just likes the name

[@antoniogz2]

Your ridership numbers are wrong. LA metro has more than 1 million daily riders which is more than Chicago.

[@ClassyWhale]

@@antoniogz2 that includes buses

[@JoeBoat0T]

AAAAAAA LA METRO MENTIONED!!!!!!!

[@lacmtaroblox]

i think it a imposter

[@peterelvery]

Hi Caleb. Two things 1. I'm repeatedly surprised when reminded of the comparative populations sizes of most US major cities compared to Australia, LA's being smaller than both Sydney and Melbourne. 2. Re airport train services to 2nd cities, the eye-opener for me was arriving in Göteborg, Sweden in the 80s to find a light rail line right outside the terminal door that took me to the front door of my hotel.

[@mrxman581]

Yes, but LA Metro is responsible for providing metro service for all of LA County which is bigger both in size and population to both Sydney and Melbourne. That's one of the reasons the A line is the largest light rail line in the world.

[@peterelvery]

@@mrxman581 Indeed. The population of LA County is roughly the same as Sydney and Melbourne combined but it's area is about 45 times larger in size than Sydney alone. My comment is really about the relatively low overall population density of Australia compared with the USA, especially outside the principal cities.

[@lil5713]

Only thing I wish is that metrolink ran more frequently, especially on weekends where a lot of lines only run 2-4 round trips a day.

[@mrvwbug4423]

I have to wonder if LA Metro would even be able to re-create a modern version of the red car if they had the funding.

[@FranekWich]

Okay, I still have mixed feelings about many transportation decisions made in the US, but after that video, I see that they’re really trying to make public transportation better in LA.

[@jordanjohnson9866]

Nah. /

[@ClassyWhale]

@@jordanjohnson9866 nah?

[@Eric_Cartman97]

LA metro is not the same because my favorite line (the gold line) was discontinued in 2022 and The trains are more Unsafe. Which is why I rarely ride on the A line

[@Geotpf]

Only the name was discontinued. All stations have the same or more service. The section to Pasadena and Azusa was connected to the former Blue Line to form the A Line; the section to East Los Angeles was connected to the former Expo Line to form the E Line.

[@SundayPancakeBreakfast]

Why are you wearing a mask on a train in 2024?? LOL

[@ClassyWhale]

Because it's my choice what I wear?

[@skurinski]

why are you wearing a mask? That's crazy

[@ClassyWhale]

@@skurinski 🤦

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

This was filmed in 2021. Even if someone was wearing one in 2024, who cares? Leave them alone

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

People have immunocompromised systems, they wear masks to be safe. Or if they're sick, they're wear one to keep others safe.

[@RocketTrain-0]

The LA Metro is NOT a metro because most of the lines have grade crossings and most of the fleet are akin to railbuses.

[@mancubwwa]

LA is 8th largest city in America.

[@YveDahl]

its definitely the second

[@greg.anywhere]

There is not a single city (proper) in the US more populous than LA other than NYC. You're thinking of San Diego.

[@mancubwwa]

@YveDahl no. Sao Paulo, Lima, Mexico Coity,New York, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago snd then LA. Definately 8th in America. Second in USA, but that is a different thing.

[@detroitpeoplemover]

Sorry, bud. When people think "America", they think just the USA. That's just how it is. So in the US, yes, LA is second. Also, the Latino definition of "America" is different from what the majority define. It's two continents, North and South America, or the Americas. Not one.

[@Geotpf]

​@@mancubwwaIf you said "The Americas," you'd be right. But you didn't, so you are wrong. America, singular, means the United States of.

[@rynovoski]

If you know about the General Motors thing, why didn’t you include it? It is true. And it really changes things pretty much dramatically.

[@detroitpeoplemover]

Because it's a myth. It's not true. In the case of LA, Pacific Electric was hemorrhaging routes as traffic congestion worsened with growing car ownership levels after the end of World War II. Yes, GM/National City Lines did in fact buy several streetcar systems and did in fact convert several to buses. However, they also kept profitable streetcar systems in operation. The Yellow cars turned a profit till the very end. It wasn't National City Lines owned LATL that killed the yellow cars, but the LA MTA who wanted them gone. If a route had little traffic, using something with greater flexibility but lower capacity makes sense. If you want to enhance the geographic reach of your system, buses are a means of making this happen. And in LA suburbs, their logic was why keep a trolley line when auto ownership soared, and a freeway could do the job as much as a trolley line could. GM wasn't convicted for dismantling streetcars, but for monopolistic behavior. Buying streetcars to dismantle them isn't illegal and GM's purpose wasn't even necessarily to dismantle streetcars. GM was prosecuted for buying transit companies and then having the transit companies be customers for General Motors buses. General Motors was effectively being its own customer. GM didn't sell buses with the intent of destroying mass transit, but they sold buses with the intent of making money selling buses. GM used to be a diversified company that made cars, buses and even trains. GM used to own the rail equipment maker Electro Motive Diesel. Many countries dismantled trams without GM influence. Like Japan and the UK, who only have a small amount of original tram systems remaining. In fact, in the US national city lines only owned 10 percent of transit companies. City governments played a major role in the decline of electric railways. Many cities wanted electric railways or streetcars gone and saw them as a nuisance. Mayor LaGuardia in NYC was very against streetcars. The freeway department in Los Angeles seized Pacific Electric right of way forced them to relocate it. The last red car and yellow car wasn't run by National City Lines owned LATL or by the successor to Pacific Electric Metropolitan Coach Lines, but by the Los Angeles MTA

[@AL5520]

@@detroitpeoplemover It's certainly note a myth, just not the main cause of the demise of streetcars and pubic transit in general (it was more of the last nail) - just one more symptom of the way car makers used their power to make cars the dominant and basically only option. As for streetcars in general, just looking at the map of the streetcar network in LA it's obvious that the problem was, from the start, the sprawling character of the area. Streetcar lines were mostly built by private companies to promote their new real estate developments that were a type of suburbs and the streetcars served as the highways did later - a way to leave outside the city and stay connected by, at the time, rapid transit. Highways did the same but took it to a whole new level and in a far worst way but the sprawling character of LA started before cars with the streetcars.

[@detroitpeoplemover]

@@AL5520 The whole GM thing is most certainly an urban legend/myth that has been debunked. And every time it's mentioned, actual urbanists die inside because it ignores the actual things that led to their demise instead of just blaming it on GM. Streetcars declined because quite simply, they were slow as traffic increased, gas was cheap, city governments like NYC called them a nuisance, and buses were far more flexible. Want to make a streetcar useful? Put them in medians, give them priority, close streets to cars so they're only used by transit and emergency vehicles.

[@detroitpeoplemover]

@@AL5520 People fall for misinformation easily, all the time. And it is the goal of urbanists to combat this misinformation

[@AL5520]

@@detroitpeoplemover This is not misinformation. GM did not buy those companies out of the goodness of their hart nor the will to provide good public transit. That said, and as I wrote in my comment, it wasn't the cause of the demise of the streetcars and the car companies did far worst things to ensure their dominance. I'm not from the US, I live in Barcelona where streetcars were also the main transit system and they were also closed down and stripped apart but it was replaced by an extensive metro system while also preserving and expending regional and long distance rail. In the US you did this and the car industry has a big role in steering the US into this path. So it might not be the big conspiracy theory many talk about but it wasn't as innocent as you make it sound.