Here are a few questions for all of you who live in South Pasadena or in the vacinity:
- Do you use the Gold Line? If so, why and how often?
- If you do ride the Gold Line, do you use it to commute on a regular basis?
I take the train on Thursday and Friday to Union Station and then a USC tram to get to the university. It's about a 20 minute trip from the Mission stop to Union Station; the tram ride is usually 15 to 20 minutes. The whole trip is about ten minutes longer than it would take to drive through normal morning traffic, but the return trip is about fifteen minutes shorter than the creep home across the parking lot that is the 110. All in all, considering that I can read and--more importantly--that I don't have to drive, I consider it a success story for public transportation in Los Angeles. I realize that there are a lot of people for whom it is not so convenient. When I first moved here, I got a job in Hollywood. When my car broke down, it was a two-hour journey to get to work: a thirty minute walk from Alhambra to the Mission Gold Line stop, twenty minutes on the Gold Line, twenty-five minutes on the Red Line, and a thirty minute bus schlepp down Sunset. Does anyone have any success and/or horror stories?
Unrelated note: I added a Merriam-Webster search box to the bottom of the sidebar to the right. Just in case you're leaving a comment and need to know how to spell, say, recrudescent.
6 Comments:
I have to agree, Jill. It is a nice experience to step off the train on Thursdays, walk into the Farmer's Market and think, This is my community.
i use the gold line and other trains to get around and i like it. i wish tho that they had later lines at nite. so i could use public transportion to get to shows and other activities that are downtown in the evening. also those damn bells i listen to all day and nite arent the most pleasant thing either. but all in all public transportion is a good thing. to bad its so far behind here in cali.(moved here about a year ago from philadelphia pa)
I work a few days/week in Hollywood, and I *really* wanted to take the Gold Line and make it work.
But, after several attempts I found:
It was 90 min. door-to-door whereas driving is 20-60 min.
Coming home at 7:00 there was often not a seat available.
There are some scary people on the red line. Not that I feared for my safety, just that it was extremely unpleasant at times.
So I'm driving. It's worth the extra expense to have predictable comfort and save 30-70 minutes each way.
td, I don't blame you for not wanting to ride the Red Line--for all the reasons you listed. If you're going downtown, though, I think the Gold Line works rather nicely.
I take the Gold Line to get to USC, and my husband takes it to get to his Metrolink train which goes to Riverside. Yes, it takes longer than driving, but we hate driving, and we hate what cars do to the environment. We used to live downtown so we didn't have to drive at all (but poor health drove us - no pun intended - up here).
By the way, we took the red line at all hours and never were nervous. It just takes riding a while so you get used to it and realize nothing's going to happen. We would even get off and walk a couple blocks to our loft near skid row at midnight or later and never saw anyone.
Feminarian, I agree. The Red Line is not as dangerous as it is uncomfortable. I guess my main beef with it is that it can take an hour to get to Hollywood--even during peak travel hours.
So downtown pollution took its toll on you?
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