Enter stage right: Hunter the T-Rex from the Natural History Museum. Photo by Gary Leonard.
Expo Train Operator Sheila Celestain keeps hold of one-half. Photo by Gary Leonard.
Hunter welcomes the Mayor and a train-full of dignitaries to Expo Park, where dinosaurs roam free but take rail safety very seriously. Photo by Luis Inzunza.
From left, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, with inaugural train operator Carolyn Kelly. Photo: Luis Inzunza
First graders from Science Center School lead officials in the Pledge of Allegiance. Photo: Gary Leonard
Enter stage left: The USC Marching Band. Photo Gary Leonard
Categories: Events, Transportation News
Agreed. I rode this morning and it was a painfully slow journey. I was really pleased with the speed between La Cienega and Crenshaw where the intersections are gated (with the exception of the largely useless Farmdale station) but the stretch from Crenshaw to 7th/Metro was unbearably slow. I’m a bit of a transit junkie so I knew from the construction and testing I’d be a little disappointed but even the people simply enjoying the pageantry of opening day knew we were stopping way too long and too often for this to be useful. I was actually embarrassed for Metro. Without some sort of plan for signal synchronization and priority, this is a colossal waste of money. I love that it’s open but we have to do better. The way it ran on my journey to Downtown LA, it’d be faster to get off at Vermont and run/bike to Downtown LA from there.
There are too many stops at traffic signals! What is the plan for signal pre-emption? (Please tell me that there *is* a plan…)
W00t!