One of the more endearing features of my tiny office at Metro is that it’s often treated as (or mistaken for) a closet. Thus I was hardly surprised yesterday to find that the two above photos had magically been deposited in my space although I don’t recall asking for old photos of what appears to be the RTD softball team.
The RTD and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission merged to form the MTA (aka Metro) in 1993. Based on clothing, facial hair, regular hair the wearing of sunglasses indoors and transit agency history, I’m guessing the photos are from the summer of 1990.
UPDATE: Three colleagues surmise these photos are probably from the mid-1980s, having noticed fresh hats from the ’84 Summer Olympics. Also, they may have been taken to promote RTD clothing items sold at the time.
SECOND UPDATE: One of the people in the photos works at Metro! She writes: “Yes, we were modeling not playing baseball on the company team. Back in the day, RTD had an employee store and they had just gotten in some company wear with the logo and they called for some employees to come and sport the wear/gear for advertising purpose. Those were the good ole days!”
And why am I posting them? Well, I have other decor in mind for my work crib and I’ve love to unload these on someone who would actually value them. If you recognize yourself — or your former hairdo — drop me a line at hymons@metro.net.
P.S. sorry about the glare on the photos. I didn’t have time to take good photos of the photos.
P.P.S. Yes, there was once upon a time two giant agencies overseeing transit in Los Angeles County. If you’re thinking “that sounds like a good recipe for creating a big bureaucratic mess,” I’m thinking the same thing.
Categories: Employees, Inside Metro
Steve, sorry to burst your bubble but from experience the RTD was a far better ran agency and provided better service which was only curtailed when the LACTC threatened to withhold operating funds. Their, LACTC, philosophy was and some within the MTA still is ‘ better service means more passengers which reduce the amount of money that can be spent on non public transit related projects.’
As I pointed out before, there are many employees making decisions concerning service and the equipment that is related to said service who have no practical experience and base their decisions on common standards which in many instances will not work in this environment or just wrong to begin with. A example of this is terminals being reconstructed that cannot accommodate all of MTA’s buses that previously could be accommodated in the old terminals. Or purchasing new fare boxes that have been proven to be to tall blocking the bus operators right side front view which resulted in numerous bus vs pedestrian accidents.
That’s totally rad.
“Yes, there was once upon a time, two giant agencies overseeing transit in Los Angeles County. If you’re thinking “that sounds like a good recipe for creating a big mess,” I’m thinking the same thing.”
And it still is. In addition to Metro, we still have DASH/Commuter Express run by LADOT, Metrolink, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Culver City Bus, Torrance Transit, Gardena Municipal Bus Lines, Long Beach Transit, Foothill Transit, Montebello Bus Lines, etc. etc.
Each with different fare structures (flat rate on Metro, distance based on Metrolink), transfer rules, passes or no passes, discounts for seniors, students and the disabled, etc. etc.
If it were me, I’d merge everyone and have everyone on the same fare structure and fare pricing.
Let’s face it: it’s never gonna happen. Legalization of same sex marriage is going to happen faster than consolidating these multitudes of transit agencies into one.