anyone who has ever visited los angeles knows it is not the easiest city to get around. i am constantly giving out directions to lost tourists and i blame this problem partially on the inaccessibility of public transportation.
when a friend in west hollywood casually mentioned taking the SUBWAY ?! yesterday i decided to do some investigating because seriously who in the f_ck takes the subway in los angeles?? well apparently my public transportation friend is not alone.
the los angeles underground railway system which combines the red + purple lines has had a weekday ridership of over 150,000-people since 2008. it transports about 9,000 passengers per route mile (who cares) making it the 6th-busiest per length in the united states. the tunnels are earthquake resistant up to a magnitude of 7.5 and are powered by an electrified 3rd-rail.
and believe it or not ellay is actually ahead of san francisco and chicago?! although we are still very far behind the transit systems of enycee and boston.
in 1993 the red line was the first fully underground subway to open in los angeles after 7-years of construction. it was originally designed as one line with two branches but was later redesignated as 2-separate lines:
red line runs from downtown los angeles to HOLLYWOOD and north hollywood and purple line runs along wilshire boulevard to KOREATOWN.
subway riders are currently restricted to the eastside however planning meetings for the WESTSIDE SUBWAY EXTENSION are currently underway. science may one day accomplish this but it has not done so yet . . .
