Category Archives: Inside Metro

Summer Metro Motion now on YouTube

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Catch a preview of Metro Rail’s 20th birthday in Summer Metro Motion — Metro’s quarterly cable TV show featuring stories about transportation issues and achievements across Los Angeles County.

Through old footage and new, Summer Metro Motion celebrates the 20th birthday of Metro Rail – the first line in Metro’s modern rail system — which has grown to 79 miles in just 20 years, making it one of the seven largest urban rail systems in the United States.

Metro Motion also includes a celebration of the Foothill Extension of the Metro Gold Line from Pasadena to Azusa and an interview with L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who helped bring the Dodger Stadium Express to Los Angeles.

And finally there’s a photo gallery of beautiful images along the Metro Gold, Blue and Silver lines, courtesy of L.A. Inc.’s recent photo scavenger hunt.

Metro Motion is co-produced with Santa Monica City TV (16).

Part I is embedded above. Here are the links for parts two and three.


Bus service changes, plus a new Rapid line hit L.A. this Sunday – download the new schedules today

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This Sunday, June 27, is Metro’s bi-annual service “shake-up” where bus routes are adjusted, timetables are tweaked and some lines disappear while others are born – all in the name of trying to enhance service and efficiency. And, quite frankly, to make Metro’s service more financially efficient, too.

The big news is that Metro is introducing a new Rapid line, 733, which will travel between downtown L.A. and Santa Monica along Venice Boulevard. It will run seven days a week from 5am to 11pm.

During the rush hours, buses will run every 10 minutes and the trip from Union Station to the end of the line in Santa Monica will take about and hour and a half. Bus will run every 15 to 20 minutes during the off-peak hours, when the end-to-end trip should take about an hour.

Late night service will be provided by the non-Rapid Line 33.

Timetables for Rapid 733 and the rest of the routes (including 30/31, 33/333, 66/366, 152/353, 176, 177, 202, 217, 222, 246/247, 268, 287 and 720)  affected by Sunday’s shake-up are now online – so head over to Metro.net and check out the schedules to plan ahead.

Metro celebrates Dump the Pump Day tomorrow

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Dump the PumpTomorrow is National Dump the Pump Day – a day set aside to encourage people to try public transit instead of driving. The idea, one we like to promote around here on a daily basis, is that switching to transit can save you money and reduce your oil consumption. Of course, reducing your oil consumption has recently become a much bigger deal thanks to the BP oil spill and all the national attention it’s received. In April – just days after the oil spill began – we wrote about a report from the Federal Transit Administration that showed that transit had significantly less carbon emissions that driving. Well over a month later and with oil still spilling in the Gulf, the report has more relevance than ever.

Of course,  it’s hard to switch to transit without the proper infrastructure in place but luckily in L.A. great strides are being made to change that. Tomorrow at 10am Mayor Villaraigosa will join Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem and Metro director Pam O’Connor and other Metro officials at the East Portal of Union Station to present a large interactive model showcasing the planned transit improvements in L.A. County – transit improvements that officials hope will transform L.A. from the car capital of the world to the transit capital. An ambitious goal to be sure, but thanks to growing support for the 30/10 initiative it’s a goal that may actually have a chance.

Also, the 20th anniversary of Metro Rail will be celebrated. It’s hard to believe that L.A. went without urban rail for almost 40 years until the Blue Line opened in 1990.

Of course, infrastructure is just one part of the equation, the public has to be willing to “dump the pump” and hop on transit as well. Even opting to ride just once a week can make a difference both financially and environmentally.

Dump the Pump Day Metro Showcase [add to Google Calendar]
Mayor Villaraigosa and Metro officials showcase L.A.’s transit plans.
When: 10am
Where: East Portal, Union Station, 801 Vignes Street
Nearby Rail: Red/Purple Line/Gold Line Union Station

Metro Rail maintenance team takes first prize at APTA Rail Rodeo 2010

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The Metro maintenance team poses with their awards at the APTA Rail Conference. Photo: Metro

The Metro maintenance team poses with their awards at the APTA Rail Conference. Photo: APTA

In Vancouver this past weekend the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) held its annual Rail Conference – an event which includes the International Rail Rodeo. The Rail Rodeo is a competition that puts rail operators and maintainers to the test, and shines the spotlight on these hard working men and women.

While Metro didn’t take top honors – the Denver RTD had the highest combined operator and maintainer scores – our maintenance team did take first place in the maintenance competition, beating out Denver RTD and Philadelphia’s SEPTA. Congrats go out to maintenance team members Glen Abraham, Ronnie Burt, and Eric Czintos for their awesome rail troubleshooting skills.

Vancouver’s transit agency, TransLink, runs a great agency blog called The Buzzer Blog which has extensive coverage of this years APTA Rail Conference and some more pictures from the Rail Rodeo.

Contest to see who can make best video promoting mass transit

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Metro is among several local transit agencies sponsoring a contest to see who can produce the best short video promoting mass transit. The grand prize is a one-year EZ transit pass.

Please spread the word. This is a good chance for aspiring videographers, filmmakers and actors to add something worthwhile to their portfolios. And if you need some ideas, check out these videos produced for a recent “Dump the Pump” contest by the American Public Transportation Assn. The above video was the winner.

Here’s the press release and here’s a link to learn more about the contest.

CONTEST INVITES TRANSIT RIDERS TO CREATE SHORT VIDEOS ON WHY THEY LOVE TRANSIT

Do you love public transit? Do you have a video camera? Metro and other Los Angeles  County transit operators invite you to exercise your creativity and show the world what you like best about riding buses and trains in L.A. County. You might win a free EZ transit pass for one year.

To enter the Transit Flicks Video Contest, simply create a video of up to two minutes in duration that explains how transit helps you and encourages others to try it. Judges will select finalists, which will be posted on the web in mid August. The public will then be asked to select the winners by voting for their favorite video.   Continue reading →


Naming Metro Rail lines with letters instead of colors – it's not a new idea

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Recently we asked readers to choose their favorite color name for the Expo Line. While Aqua received the bulk of the votes, many readers suggested that maybe it was time to move away from color names to a naming convention that used numbers or letters instead. It’s a logical suggestion, and one that Metro has actually considered in the past.

In fact, in 2003, when Metro was first launching its new branding and logo, rail maps and schedules were introduced that featured rail lines labeled by their color names and letters. Here’s the legend from the 2003 map showing lines A, B, C and D:

Legend from 2003 Metro Rail map featuring lettered lines

This was a trial program that lasted for much of the year but was eventually scrapped due to complaints. Perhaps it was an idea that was ahead of its time, but it’s likely to be looked at again by Metro as the rail system grows.

Martha Welborne hired as Metro's new chief planning officer

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Metro CEO Art Leahy announced today that Martha Welborne has been hired as the new chief planning officer for Metro.

Welborne is an architect who has been working with the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca firm in Los Angeles (here’s the firm’s bio of her) and also has been serving as the managing director of the Grand Avenue Committee, among other accomplishments.

She has worked in mass transit circles for quite some time. In 1999, Welborne arranged for a trip to Curitiba, Brazil, where Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Supervisors Zev Yaroslvasky and Yvonne Burke could see firsthand that city’s famous busway system.

As a result, Riordan pushed for the beginning of the Metro Rapid bus lines and Yaroslavsky led the agency into developing the Orange Line busway in the San Fernando Valley.

Here’s the memo from Leahy:


Lonnie Mitchell hired as Metro's new chief operating officer

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Lonnie Mitchell, Metro's new chief operating officer.

Metro CEO Art Leahy announced today that Lonnie Mitchell has been hired as Metro’s chief operating officer.

Mitchell has been serving in that role since December. “Lonnie performed exceptionally well during that time period,” Leahy wrote in a memo to Metro staff. “I look forward to him working quickly to solidify operations, improve performance and help make Metro the world class operation I know it can be.”

As COO, Mitchell oversees bus and rail operations with an annual operating budget of $1.48 billion  and nearly 7,500 employees.

Here is Mitchell’s bio, as provided by Metro:

Lonnie Mitchell was appointed Executive Officer, Procurement and Material Management, in July 2000 after completing a 30-year career in the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. In December of 2006, Mitchell’s position was upgraded to Chief Administrative Services Officer, responsible for Procurement and Material Management, Administration, and Information Technology Services. In December 2009, he was appointed Interim Chief Operations Officer. Prior to joining the MTA, Mitchell was Vice Commander of the Navy Exchange Service Command in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He was responsible for oversight of information systems, financial operations, contracting, human resources, training and planning for the Navy Exchange System, a $2 billion worldwide retail and services operation.

Mitchell is a 1969 graduate of Washington State University, where he earned a BA in Economics. He earned a Masters in Acquisition Management at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.

The Metro Art Docent Council's inaugural Thursday night Art Tour is coming this week

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Metro Art Tour

The Metro Art Docent Council has been giving free Metro Art Tours of the Metro Rail system on the first Saturday and Sunday morning of each month for over a decade now – introducing over 30,000 people the wide variety of public artworks along Metro’s growing rail system. Starting this week, Metro is adding a Thursday night tour to the monthly schedule.

The Thursday night tour is still free and requires no reservation – just show up at the street level entrance of the Hollywood/Highland Red Line Station at 7:00 p.m. and prepare yourself for a two hour tour of the various art works commissioned through Metro’s art program. Metro’s trained Docent Council volunteers lead the tours and have a wealth of knowledge about the art.

A few more interesting notes about the tours:

  • Metro is the transit agency in world with a volunteer art docent program
  • For many it’s their first introduction to transit and they then often become ambassadors/transit advocates
  • The tours bring new understanding of the individual artists, the variety of ways that they work with the local communities and the process of creating art for public spaces
  • The wide variety of works reflects the cultural diversity and depth of Los Angeles

Wondering if the art tours are really all that? I can’t comment because I’ve yet to go on one, but the Saturday/Sunday tours have garnered an overall 5 star rating by online reviewers over at Yelp.

Still want to know more? I’ve posted a YouTube video I found of one of the tours after the jump. Continue reading →