Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Current MTA Improvements
To be fair, a few areas have improved lately with respect to public transportation in Los Angeles. On MTA's side of it.
It appears that subway connections have been symmetrized between the Purple Line and the Red Line at Wilshire/Vermont, at least since a while back, according to one fellow who confirmed that the Metro Red Line train now defers departure until transferees from the Purple Line from the upper level (or, was it lower?) have had time to board that train. That was also the case when I last tried it. Finally some common sense is seen in such basic area.
Moreover, Metro Rapid buses appear to run on more and more major arteries, and not only Wilshire blvd anymore. They now run on many main routes, and at the same time hold about twice as many passengers as before. It clearly shows that action has been taken and at least partly replaced the blatant neglect of the past.
Another major confusion that lasted for years was that of the Metro Red Line and Purple Lines on which passengers frequently got confused as to whether the train was the North Hollywood train or not. The train operators now seem to alert passengers upon boarding them which train they're on. That's also a very basic area, as riders frequently boarded the wrong train and had to go back to catch the right one, which never was really obvious.
Well, those are a few improvements, and there are probably others. Whether they're sufficient or warrant a tripling in fare hike is another question though. Is MTA's budget gap's partial, and presumed remedy, let alone not guaranteed, worth hundreds, if not thousands, of riders not being able to afford it at all? Aren't there better ways to fix it. A partial hike would be very understandable, but not this brutal doubling; tripling in a short period of time, and as if the services were that good.
It appears that subway connections have been symmetrized between the Purple Line and the Red Line at Wilshire/Vermont, at least since a while back, according to one fellow who confirmed that the Metro Red Line train now defers departure until transferees from the Purple Line from the upper level (or, was it lower?) have had time to board that train. That was also the case when I last tried it. Finally some common sense is seen in such basic area.
Moreover, Metro Rapid buses appear to run on more and more major arteries, and not only Wilshire blvd anymore. They now run on many main routes, and at the same time hold about twice as many passengers as before. It clearly shows that action has been taken and at least partly replaced the blatant neglect of the past.
Another major confusion that lasted for years was that of the Metro Red Line and Purple Lines on which passengers frequently got confused as to whether the train was the North Hollywood train or not. The train operators now seem to alert passengers upon boarding them which train they're on. That's also a very basic area, as riders frequently boarded the wrong train and had to go back to catch the right one, which never was really obvious.
Well, those are a few improvements, and there are probably others. Whether they're sufficient or warrant a tripling in fare hike is another question though. Is MTA's budget gap's partial, and presumed remedy, let alone not guaranteed, worth hundreds, if not thousands, of riders not being able to afford it at all? Aren't there better ways to fix it. A partial hike would be very understandable, but not this brutal doubling; tripling in a short period of time, and as if the services were that good.
