Metrolink ran its first trains Oct. 26, 1992 — 25 years ago. I explain how the system started and what happened the first day in Friday’s column.
Category Archives: Public transit
Finding the subway
A reader in Upland (hi, Chris!) who has taken Metrolink to Union Station more than once told me she had no idea how to get to the subway and may not have been totally aware it exists. I described its location to her, but on a recent visit, I thought to take photos. Above is a view in the station, Starbucks to the left, Wetzel’s Pretzels to the right. The subway entrance is between them. A closer view is below.
[Update: As reader John Clifford cheekily points out, out of the frame of the photo just to the left of the Starbucks is, what else, a Subway sandwich shop. Subway to the left, subway down below. What a country.]
Despite the sign, both the Red and Purple lines are down there. You take an escalator, stairs or elevator down and there are ticket machines and turnstiles. With your Metrolink ticket, just tap it on the turnstile button; no other ticket is necessary. From there, descend to the subway platform and use the maps to figure out where you should go, paying attention to the train markings for final destinations.
Chris said she thought I’d once promised in print to write all the particulars of taking the train and subway. I don’t recall that, although I did once write a How to Ride post about Metrolink. Walking you through every step in taking a subway or a bus sounds kind of tedious, and probably I’d leave out some crucial step, as in a recipe where an ingredient is missing. But at least you know where the subway entrance is now and you have some guidance once you’re there.
Update: As several of you noted, when you get off Metrolink and descend the stairs into the middle of the low-slung tunnel, running perpendicular, you can walk either left or right. Left takes you first past the Gold Line entrance and then into Union Station and the subway entrance pictured above. Right takes you to the bus center and to the OTHER entrance to the subways. See below. This one is labeled to reflect both the Red and Purple lines, but both are accessible from either entrance.
Column: In trip to LA, art and courtesy are on exhibition
I made a foray by public transit to LACMA last week with my two Pilgrim Place traveling companions to see the Picasso-Rivera exhibit, a journey that is recounted in my Sunday column. Above, a group of students pauses for an orientation before entering the exhibit.
Column: From Montclair to the Broad Museum by bus
For Sunday’s column, I rode the Silver Streak bus from Montclair to downtown LA’s Broad Museum on Bunker Hill with a couple of public transit pals. It’s kind of a dual review of the bus and the museum. At $4.90 for me for the bus, and the free admission, it was low-cost, although the lunch spot more than evened things out.
Photo above of the Broad by Grace Moremen. That’s Jacqueline Chase and me in the crosswalk.
Column: Azusa to Santa Monica by rail: It can be done
For Friday’s column, I write about traveling the breadth of the Metro rail network, Azusa to Santa Monica, for dinner. It was a long night, but a cheap one. Above, a view of the pavement mentioned in the column, which gives a sense of the effect. Even in the photo, it appears to rise and fall, but it’s flat, really.
Update: Metro’s transportation blog The Source linked to my column with some commentary about the length of my journey compared to NYC rail lines and about (eventual) ways such a trip will be marginally faster. I like the Google map too.
Column: ‘Round, ’round, get around, he got around
In Chicago, Champaign and St. Louis, I got around on a surprising (even to me) forms of transit, including several types of trains and buses. I devote Sunday’s column to the topic. Above, an L train shortens the Chicago Theatre blade sign into something fashionable.
Column: More train trips are just the ticket, readers say
Friday’s column starts off with reaction to my column last week about traveling by train to Camarillo. (I’m getting faster — two days ago I was printing comments about a mid-January column.) After that, a clutch of Culture Corner items, plus a plug for this blog.
Column: Riding the rails from Claremont to Camarillo
What did I do on my week off? The highlight was an extended Metrolink trip: Not merely from home to L.A., but from L.A. to Ventura County. (And back — see photo above.) I tell how it went and how it was scheduled, which was no easy feat, in my Wednesday column.
Column: Some fighters appear to do their training on the train
In Sunday’s column: a Metrolink crime blotter; RC’s Metrolink parking fee rubs some the wrong way; news from Upland (including a Beckham sighting); and a John Wayne movie mentions San Dimas.
Red Car schedule, 1914
At the end of Wednesday’s column on Metrolink cutting the 11 p.m. weekday train from L.A. to San Bernardino, I mention the Red Car trolley schedule from 1914. Below is the full schedule as taken from the July 12, 1914 San Bernardino Daily Sun. (It’s unclear if the weekend schedule was the same or different.) Read more about the Red Cars on Wikipedia’s entry here; the photo above is from Wikipedia too.
SAN BERNARDINO TO LOS ANGELES (times leaving SB/arriving in LA)
6:38 a.m./8:55 a.m.
8:08 a.m./10:30 a.m.
10:05 a.m./12:31 p.m.
1:05 p.m./3:21 p.m.
4:05 p.m./6:30 p.m.
5:08 p.m./7:25 p.m.
7:30 p.m./9:19 p.m.
10:28 p.m./12:53 a.m.
LOS ANGELES TO SAN BERNARDINO (times leaving LA/arriving in SB)
3 a.m./5:22 a.m.
7:20 a.m./9:10 a.m.
9 a.m./11:20 a.m.
11:30 a.m./2:05 p.m.
2:15 p.m./4:35 p.m.
4:23 p.m./6:40 p.m.
7:10 p.m./9:29 p.m.
11:15 p.m./1:41 a.m.
As a point of comparison, here’s the Metrolink schedule for the San Bernardino Line: more trains than 1914, and faster travel times (faster trains and/or fewer stops), but clumped together at rush hours rather than spaced out over 24 hours.