So How Much Does the Expo Line Actually Stop?

September 27, 2012 5 Comments

The Expo Line has gotten a lot of bad press for being slow. For stopping at lights. For stopping in between lights. Metro says they’re working on it, and having ridden nearly every day since it opened, I believe it’s gotten better. Or I’ve gotten used to it. Really, I think a little bit of both. I’ve accepted that random stops are going to be normal for a while, but I’ve also noticed they’ve become shorter and fewer as time has gone on.

In order to see how much time the train could save if Metro was able to completely eliminate stops (other than those at stations, of course), I did a little non-scientific research. For two weeks, I timed the amount of time the train spent stopped while not at a station. Here’s what I found:

Total Time Stopped

Mon 9/10 Tues 9/11 Wed 9/12 Thurs 9/13 Fri 9/14
OUT to Culver 5:16 3:55 4:22 2:38 2:37
IN to DTLA – – 2:35 2:21 –
Mon 9/17 Tues 9/18 Wed 9/19 Thurs 9/20 Fri 9/21
OUT to Culver 3:19 3:58 3:25 4:32 2:28
IN to DTLA 3:33 3:12 4:06* (2:26) 6:59 –

There are some holes in my data, as I didn’t ride Expo home every day (I told you this was non-scientific), but the surprising thing to me came in comparing the outbound and inbound trips. The Expo Line has mainly gotten bad press for it’s stops while heading inbound, or towards Downtown, but on many days, it stopped just as much or more on the outbound trip.

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Who Says LA’s Not a Football/Transit Town?

September 6, 2012 Leave a comment

When I think of the great things that have happened in my world so far this year, there are a few that immediately come to mind… Aside from getting engaged (which obviously tops the list), it’s hard not to recognize the greatness of the Metro Expo Line opening and the USC football season starting.

When the Expo Line opened in April, it dramatically changed the way I commute to work from Downtown LA to Culver City. It gave me time to read every day, something I had seriously been missing, and put me on my bike at the end of the ride, getting me out in the beautiful Los Angeles weather, if only for a few minutes each day. It also saved me a ton of gas money, stress, and wear & tear on my car. And it wasn’t just for work, I’ve written before about some of the great adventures I’ve had on the Expo Line. Ridership is already above predictions for this point in time, and on it’s way to meeting projections far into the future. It’s crowded even late into the night… And yet people say LA isn’t a transit town.

An Expo Line train with a USC Football ad waits at 7th Street / Metro Center Station.

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The Secrets of Metro Rail Operations

July 25, 2012 4 Comments

Last night, I went to the meeting of the Transit Coalition at Metro’s Headquarters. It was being billed as a place to “learn the secrets of metro rail,” and while I don’t know how much of this was secret, it was incredibly informative.

Bruce Shelburne, Metro’s Interim Executive Director of Rail Operations spoke and took questions for nearly two hours. Here are some of the best takeaways…

Special Event Service

With the fast-approaching college football season and the new Expo line passing by the Coliseum, Metro is heading into regular special event service for the first time. They’ve run extra trains or longer trains for events here and there, but nothing with 100,000 attendees directly off a light rail line, and nothing with the regularity of USC home football games. Shelburne says this will be a “gamechanger for us at Metro.”

USC Football at the Coliseum, plus the Expo Line, is a “gamechanger for Metro.” (Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri on Coliseum Wikipedia Page)

So far, the plan is to have trains running every 6 minutes in both directions on the Expo line for much of the day, hours before and after the games. There will be staff at every Expo station. Other lines will also have increased service and added staff at key stations. Metro is actively working with USC to get information on where fans come from and scheduling/staffing accordingly (this fan will be taking the Red/Purple Line from Union Station to the Expo Line — Fight On!). Service will be refined throughout the season.

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Expo Line Review: First Rides and First Impressions

May 3, 2012 3 Comments

The following is my first-impression account of the Expo Line after one workday trip in each direction. I wrote it last night while commuting from Culver City to Downtown.

I’m sitting on the Expo Line, literally zooming past cars on the street (and they’re not even in traffic) as I write this. I rode the length of the line on Saturday during the grand opening, but even more significantly, I rode it on the first workday Monday morning to my office in Culver City. Today is my first day riding the return trip from work.

There were cars in this photo when I clicked the button, but by the time the iPhone’s shutter snapped, we had already flown by them. They were moving quickly too.

To be honest, I was slightly surprised at how many people were on it Monday morning. Of course, it wasn’t full like the other lines during rush hour, but the number of people on my train did seem to rival the other lines during off-peak hours. For the first real day of service, that seems like a major success. The numbers will always grow.

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