Hey subway, nice to meet you...

Red Line Train
Originally uploaded by brikmaster.

So it turns out there really IS a subway running under Los Angeles. I have to admit, being a lifelong advocate of public transportation and a native New Yorker, I'm pretty ashamed that I hadn't ridden LA's MetroRail system until last month. I have legitimate reasons though. First and foremost, I have never lived within a mile of a subway station. First I was on the West Side (Santa Monica), which is only serviced by bus. I'm now about a mile and a half away from a subway station, but since there are no park and ride facilities, I never had any reason to use it. However, I was working on a story several Sundays ago that required me to bounce around to several locations downtown. It was a Sunday (free meter parking), so I figured I'd finally give the subway a shot. I parked my car on the street around the corner from the Wilshire/Vermont Red Line station and hopped on. Within only a few weeks, I would have ridden the subway for countless hours to destinations all across Los Angeles, and even into the Valley. It was pretty addictive getting back to the mode of transport that I had always known and loved.

One of the most interesting things about the MetroRail is that there are no turnstiles or gates of any kind. The whole thing is run on the honor system. You buy your ticket from a machine, then walk right into the station. Apparently, officers routinely come through the cars to check tickets, much like on Amtrak, and if you don't have yours, you get hit with a $250 fine. Even though not a single person has checked my ticket since I started using the subway, I wouldn't recommend not paying for your ticket. On weekends, it's only $3 for an all you can ride pass. It doesn't get any cheaper than that.

Wilshire and Vermont
Originally uploaded by iscreamdogg.

Downtown (including Chinatown and Little Tokyo) is particularly well served by the subway system, which means little since hardly anyone here goes downtown. However, with the Grand Central Market and Central Library (two of my favorite spots) within a few blocks of a station, that's a lot of money one can save on parking. For the most part though, MetroRail services a combination of tourist destinations and poor neighborhoods. There's a big station under the Hollywood and Highland shopping complex on Hollywood Boulevard. There's also a stop in the Valley at Universal Studios and North Hollywood. You can even ride the Blue Line all the way down to the Long Beach Aquarium, and the Blue and Green Line trains have the added benefit of riding alongside the snail-slow traffic, which can be quite gratifying.

I don't find myself visiting tourist destinations unless I have company in town. Still, it's nice to know that I can simply drop East Coast friends off at a nearby subway station and let them tackle Hollywood Blvd, Universal Studios and other schlock destinations on their own. It would be so wonderful if the Red Line were extended down Wilshire all the way to the ocean, as new mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has pledged, but that will probably happen right after they open a Georgetown subway station in Washington, DC. The powers that be just refuse to stop thinking that a subway stop is simply an access point for criminals to their neighborhood. That kind of thinking is even more ridiculous in LA, considering everyone owns a car anyway.

It is an interesting cultural study riding the rails here though. With the rare exception of the Hollywood/Highland stop, it seemed like vast majority of riders were either Mexican, Salvadorian, Korean or black. Definitely the domain of Los Angeles' minority population. Now that I've gotten my feet wet riding the subway, I feel like a fool for all those times I paid the ridiculous fees to park at the Central Library or in Hollywood. Though I would never mistake MetroRail for New York's system (the burly Red Line is most reminiscent of the underground portions of Chicago's El), it does give me a new sense of pride when coordinating a meeting someplace in the city to ask "is that place anywhere near a subway station?"

faceless crowd 2
Originally uploaded by BinaryLA.