Breaking news! On Monday evening, while heading for the bus stop I saw a lovely and welcome glimpse of the future. A train on the new Expo line tracks!!!! They are just testing, but it was exciting nonetheless. It is going to be so exciting and transformative when this line is done, and phase one opens later this year! (November, perhaps?) I’ll be able to use the subway/metro system to get all the way from my neighbourhood (on the red line) to the stop 5 minutes from my building, after one change downtown. I’ll feel a bit of a deserter if I stop using the bus to do the journey (assuming that the schedule is such that it it quicker than the bus!), but I’ve got to support this line too! After all, by 2015 or so, after phase two opens, I’ll be able to take this train from my office all the way to the beach…!
In the pictures, you can see the train as it passes slowly (being pushed by a lorry… I suppose they have not yet connected the electricity) along Exposition from Vermont, passing in front of USC (behind me) and the Natural History Museum.
jumping up and down a bit in joy.
-cvj
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Glad to see sensible people in LA decided to put back trains along train lines. This was beyond the imagination of Cambridge UK councillors, and consequently we’ve ended up with the ‘Guided Bus Fiasco!’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire_Guided_Busway
-cvj
Yes, I was there late yesterday afternoon for a seminar, and was amazed at the changes in the past year, and at the convenience of the station to the part of campus that I go to. On the way home, crawling past a two-vehicle accident on 110 that reduced travel to one lane, I was wishing fervently that the line had been ready by now. Comes the rail line, I hope I can get down there far more frequently.
Actually, the bus is _very_ comfortable.
-cvj
The bus won’t miss you. Take the most comfortable route 🙂
Can’t wait to visit again – it will be even easier to explore next time! cmj+