Happy 20th Birthday, (M) Green Line!

That's A Wrap: The Green Line, wearing a promotional wrap reading, "Metro Green Line Open Summer '95." was the first line to feature wrapped rail cars.

Twenty years ago today, Bill Clinton was president, Richard Riordan was mayor, most of us kind of started recovering from the Northridge Earthquake, Michelle Pfeiffer's Dangerous Minds was the #1 box office hit, and TLC warned everyone to not go chasing Waterfalls.

And the Metro Green Line opened on a warm, sunny Summer Saturday.

Truth be told, The Green Line is probably the overlooked middle child of the entire Metro Rail system (which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, BTW...). It lacks the edginess and maturity of the Blue Line, lacks the heavy crowds and underground nature of the Red Line, and unlike the Purple, Expo and Gold lines, doesn't take people to interesting places like K-Town, the Westside or Pasadena and the Eastside, respectively.

The line was given the designated color of green to reflect the green freeway signage along the 105 Freeway, which it runs down the center of, and to represent the "green" environmental concession that created the rail line to the communities impacted by the construction of the freeway during the early 1980s to early 1990s.

The Green Line also never lived up to its planned expectations: Inspired by Vancouver, Canada's SkyTrain, it was supposed to be the first fully-automated driverless rail transit line in the United States. But the transit workers' unions cried foul, and the driverless plan was eventually dropped.

It was also supposed to serve the suburban gateway communities of southeastern Los Angeles County with the aerospace industry jobs of El Segundo...only to see the Cold War end just as the concrete was starting to get poured, which is the main reason why it's been dissed as "The line to nowhere." And we all know it was supposed to serve LAX at some point, what with the large concrete structure next to the Aviation Station veering northward (which will finally see use once the Crenshaw/LAX Line opens in 2019).

So, sympathizing with overlooked middle children everywhere (Or maybe The Militant is just saying that to hide the fact that he wasn't a middle child), The Militant is dedicating today's blog post to the Metro Green Line's grand opening 20 years ago today!

It was the first Metro Rail grand opening The Militant attended via Metro Rail; he may have driven to  an unspecified free parking spot in DTLA (it no longer exists, sorry), and taken the Red and Blue lines to the Imperial Station (now called the Willowbrook or Rosa Parks station), where the Blue and Green lines met.

MTA CEO Franklin White speaks at the dedication ceremony. And there were balloons.

There they had a dedication ceremony at the park & ride underneath the 105 Freeway with all of them dignitaries, and they had these large colored balloons strewn above the podium area.

The Militant distinctly remembers there was a small Bus Riders Union protest there and he even got into a little debate with a privileged wannabe-Marxist white guy BRU lackey who was trying to proselytize to The Militant -- a person of color of unspecified ethnicity -- that Metro Rail was somehow racist. Yes, the Green Line, which serves lily-white, wealthy communities like Lynwood, Willowbrook and South Los Angeles. Really now. At some point The Militant asked Privilege Boy a "gotcha" question and he couldn't give an answer. Ooh, moted, sucka!

Anyways, the speeches were done and we all got in the long-ass line, up the stairs to the platform to ride the train.

Always a joy to finally see the train come after waiting in line on Opening Day.

The trains looked exactly the same as the Japanese-made vehicles on the Blue Line. In fact, the trains made their home at the Blue Line's yard near the 405 in northern Long Beach for a couple years before the Green Line got its own yard facility a few years later.

Also, the cars were packed, mainly because for the first few years due to a lack of cars (and lack of riders), the Green Line ran single-car trains. It wasn't until sometime in early 1997 when the new, rounded Siemens P-2000 vehicles entered Green Line service and the line finally had two-car trains.

Back then you can have a clear view to the front window.

The Militant and his accompanying operatives rode their first Green Line train from the Imperial station to the "I-105/I-605" station (now just called the Norwalk station).

There, there was basically nothing, except a small fair at the Park & Ride lot where he got some free Metro Rail swag. But then it was straight back in line to the train going the other direction.

Nothing to see here in Norwalk really.

The Green Line has been criticized for not going all the way east to link with Metrolink's Norwalk station, which would have been a real awesome thing and connected commuters to places like Orange County and the Inland Empire, but all of the plans and funding for the Green Line was already in place by the time Metrolink was first conceived in 1990, and opened just two years later.

We're in El Segundo! Please check if you didn't leave your wallet behind!

After some monotonous riding in the middle of the Century Freeway, it was time to head to the western section of the line, which The Militant was waiting all day to see. It was nice, sleek, elevated, almost monorail-like, passing over a bunch of sprawling business parks with well-manicured landscaped lawns.

These futuristic-looking stations look like you're in a toy or something.

We arrived at the Marine Avenue station, now called "Marine/Redondo Beach," in the extreme northeastern reaches of Redondo Beach -- you can smell the sea, and feel the sea breeze, but you still can't see the sea (unlike in Mar Vista...). How deceptive. The Militant wanted his King Harbor freshly-boiled crab NOW!

The end of the line, then as it is now.

It was time to head back to the Blue Line. There wasn't much to see here either, though there was a cool burger joint just a block or so away on Marine. And then there was the end of the line, a yellow bumping post to keep trains from falling off some 40 feet below. Twenty years later, though there's talk of extending the Green Line to the South Bay, there are currently no solidified plans to extend it in either direction.

Today the Green Line is the 5th busiest line in the Metro Rail system, carrying some 39,000 riders each weekday. Despite what it never became, it was the first rail transit line in the United States to go from suburb to suburb, avoiding the city center. It was the first Metro Rail line to open in its entirety, with no future phases or extensions to follow. It was also the first light rail line in the Metro Rail system to be totally grade-separated (and the only light rail line on the Metro to have zero automobile collisions!). The Green Line also had the first "wrapped" rail vehicles on the Metro Rail system, and though it was never automated, it was the first Metro Rail line to use the automated station call announcements, which are standard systemwide.

If the Metro Rail system map is an upside-down stick figure, The Green Line represents the arms. And you can't do too much without arms, so let's give props to the Green Line on its 20th birthday today! Happy Birthday, Metro Green Line!

The Militant's 25th Anniversary Ultimate (M) Blue Line Tour!

Happy 25th Birthday, you Millennial, you!

Today marks the 25th Anniversary of Los Angeles' Metro Rail system, which began with the July 14t, 1990 opening of the Metro Blue Line, Los Angeles County's first modern train transit system, and the first rail line to serve the area in nearly 30 years.

You may or may be familiar with The Militant's Angeleno's award-winning Epic CicLAvia Tour posts, highlighting various points of interest along the various open streets routes, but did you know The Militant has done the same for the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Gold Line and the Metro Expo Line?

This time around, to celebrate a quarter century of Metro Rail, The Militant offers his Epic 25th Anniversary Metro Blue Line Tour, which points out historic, surprising, and off-the-beaten-path locations on or very near our first light rail route. Even if you've been a regular Blue Line commuter for the past 25 years, if you think you know the Blue Line, guess again!

1. 7th St/Metro Center Countdown Clock
1993
7th St./Metro Center Station,  Downtown Los Angeles

Riders waiting at the outbound platform at the 7th Street/Metro Center station may or may not have noticed a peculiar digital countdown clock situated on a pole in the middle of the tracks. It seems to count down regardless of whether there’s a train or not. What is it for?

In 1993, to speed up Blue Line travel times, the street signals along Flower Street and Washington Blvd. were synchronized to give priority to light rail trains along those streets. This timer clock allows train operators to time their exact departures in accord with the street signal synchronization, so that when the white light under the clock is lit and the train begins to depart under normal operating speed, the train will encounter a continuous series of green lights.

2. Pico Station
1990
Pico and Flower Streets, Downtown Los Angeles

Pico Station is where it all began; it was the first operational station in the history of Metro Rail. The station was the site of a public dedication ceremony kicking off the opening of the line (See The Militant's exclusive archived video of the event here). The Blue Line on opening day in 1990 was somewhat shorter than the line we ride today. For the first two months of operation, the Blue Line only ran from Pico Station to the Anaheim St. Station.

Back then, it was just located in a far-flung region of Downtown. It wasn’t until the late 1990s when the Staples Center was built that the South Park section of Downtown started to become revitalized. Today, the recent upgrades of the Blue Line stations have also given the station a minor facelift.

The station also has the shortest name of any Metro Rail station in the entire system (Well, okay, it's tied for 1st place along with Soto and Lake).

3. Flower Junction
2010
Flower Street and Washington Blvd, Downtown Los Angeles

The first surface-level "junction" track that switches trains among the Blue and Expo lines is located here. A few months after the Expo Line opened, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered Metro to replace a section of rail within the switch track that would potentially cause derailments.

The other junction track on the Metro Rail system is the one north of the Wilshire/Vermont subway station. Future junction tracks will be built west of the Metro Green Line Aviation Station (serving the Green and Crenshaw lines) and another switch track as part of the Regional Connector under Little Tokyo.

4. Olympic Auditorium

1924
1801 S. Grand Ave., Downtown Los Angeles

This historic venue through the years, easily seen from the nearby Blue Line Grand station, has hosted boxing matches (including the boxing competitions for the 1932 Olympic Games), wrestling bouts, roller derby events and concerts. The match sequences from the original Rocky movie was filmed here, as well as Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" and Janet Jackson's "Control" music videos.

For the past decade the venue has been owned by a Korean Christian Church known as Glory Church of Jesus Christ (hence the large Jesus mural on its south wall).

5. Site of Washington Park and Chutes Park
1893
Washington Blvd and Hill Street, Downtown Los Angeles

The first permanent baseball field in Los Angeles isn't Dodger Stadium, nor was it South Los Angeles' Wrigley Field nor the Fairfax District's Gilmore Field. It was here at Washington Park, located near Washington and Hill, where the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels of Los Angeles played from 1893 to 1925 (the first Washington Park stood from 1893 to 1912; the second was in use from 1912 to 1925. It was torn down in the 1950s. William Wrigley, the team's owner, left Washington Park after he was denied permission to build an underground parking garage. He then moved his Angels to his own Wrigley Field in 1925. Washington Park it was also one of the home venues of the USC Trojans football team before the Coliseum. Adjacent to Washington Park was an amusement park named Chutes Park that stood on the land where the municipal courthouse now stands.

6. Tacos El Gavilan/Site of 1st McDonalds in Los Angeles
1957
1900 S. Central Ave, South Los Angeles

What is currently a taco stand at the southeast corner of Central and Washington was once the first McDonalds in the city of Los Angeles (and the 11th McDs in the entire chain) which opened in 1957. As you may or may not know, McDonalds originated in San Bernardino in 1940 by the McDonald brothers, and was later taken over by Illinois businessman Ray Kroc, who turned the unique Southern California hamburger chain into the gargantuan unhealthy corporate chain we know today. The trademark side arches were present on this building (and a single arch present on the corner sign) up until the early 2000s. But hey, tacos are more healthy for you than McDonalds junk, so eat up.

7. Washington Blvd Buddha
c. 1941
1600 E. Washington Blvd, South Los Angeles

On your southbound Blue Line ride, look to the right just before the train curves towards the Washington Station and look for the "Hanson Tank" sign. To the left of the sign, and right above the main doorway is a tiny cubby-hole featuring a Buddha statue. Years ago, a Militant Elder told The Militant Angeleno that the buddhas were placed there to give Japanese Buddhists a clandestine place to worship after December 7, 1941. The Militant covered this location in an early MA blog post in October 2007.

8. Washington Tail Track
1989
Washington Blvd and Long Beach Avenue, South Los Angeles

Due across the street and due north of the Blue Line's Washington Station, there's a stretch of track that diverges from the Blue Line route that seems to head off into oblivion. The track is one of several along the Blue Line route that function as an emergency storage track for broken trains or so-called "gap" trains to replace trains that have been taken out of service due to technical issues.

The tracks follow the original Pacific Electric 4-track "speedway" alignment that led to the Pacific Electric Building at 6th and Main streets in Downtown Los Angeles. In fact if you follow the Washington Tail Track north to 16th Street, you can still see the old Pacific Electric tracks partially buried under the pavement!

The Washington Tail Track is rarely used nowadays, though in March the track was used to temporarily store the new Kinkisharyo light rail vehicle which was being tested on the Blue and Expo lines at the time.

9. Amoco Junction
1904 (discontinued early 1980s)
Long Beach Ave., south of 25th Street, South Los Angeles

About 6 blocks south of the Washington Station, look to your right and you'll see tracks in the street mysteriously end at the fence that protects the Blue Line tracks. Look westward and you'll see an abandoned rail right-of-way. That was, until 1958, the Pacific Electric Air Line trackage which went all the way to Santa Monica (and until the early 1980s as Southern Pacific freight track), and functions today west of Figueroa Street as the Metro Expo Line. During the Pacific Electric era, the Downtown-bound trains from Santa Monica headed all the way to Amoco Junction (named after the American Olive Company factory nearby) to join the 4-track "Speedway" trunk line and head north.

10. Site of South Central Farm
1994 (demolished 2006)
41st St between Long Beach Ave and Alameda St, South Los Angeles

This large, empty plot of land just east of the Blue Line tracks, a half-mile north of the Vernon Station was home to the 14-acre South Central Farm run by community members between 1994 and 2006. Acquired by the City of Los Angeles in 1986 via eminent domain from private landowners, it was originally slated for use as an incinerator site, a plan dropped due to community opposition. The City allowed the neighboring nonprofit Los Angeles Regional Foodbank to run the site as a community garden. Over 300 low-income families from nearby communities turned the land into one of the largest urban farming projects in America over 12 years. But in 2001, the land's former owner sued the City for breach of contract, because the incinerator plant was never built. Eventually the City settled with the landowner in 2003 and they began the process of re-claiming the plot, eventually evicting the farm in 2006. To this day, the land lies vacant.

The controversy attracted the support of various celebrities, public officials and philanthropic organizations, including a failed attempt by The Annenberg Foundation to purchase the land, but it did galvanize the community and led to the rise in urban farming activism, especially in the South Los Angeles area.

11. Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park
2000
5790 Compton Ave, South Los Angeles

A few blocks west of the Blue Line's Slauson Station lies one of the best-kept secrets in South Los Angeles -- Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park, an 8.5-acre surreal green oasis in the 'hood, featuring ponds, native plants, hiking trails, picnic areas and even wildlife. This former DWP pipe yard was converted into a re-created natural park, named after the late African American congressman who represented the area for 28 years, in 2000 by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which trucked in actual dirt from Malibu mudslides to the site to form the park's terrain. The park is popular with local residents seeking refuge from urban life, and the park is also popular with members of the local Audubon Society, who frequent the park to do bird sightings and bird counts.

12. Slauson Junction
1904
Slauson Ave and Randolph St, South Los Angeles

When passengers rode the Blue Line for the first time in July 1990, they were thrilled to have the train suddenly shoot up the elevated structure, with a towering view of the area below as the train stopped at the Slauson Station. While stopped here, you can see a piece of the Blue Line's Pacific Electric heritage by just looking to the east: The unmistakable curved "wye" tracks heading eastward formed another major junction to the PE's Long Beach Line trunk, as the place where trains bound for Fullerton, La Habra and Whittier diverged from the quadruple-tracked "Speedway."

Francis Nixon, the father of President Richard Nixon, was once a Pacific Electric motorman who navigated his Whittier-bound trains through this very junction.

13. Col. Leon H. Washington Park
8908 S. Maie Avenue, South Los Angeles

There are many parks that line the Blue Line route, but this one is unique for two reasons. As you head southbound and depart the Firestone Station, look immediately to your right and you'll see a park and recreation center. It's a Los Angeles County-run park called Colonel Leon H. Washington Park, named after the founder of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper (originally called The Eastside Shopper), the city's premier publication in the black community. The other reason is that the rec center here is a popular spot for NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Durant and others to play pick-up games and compete in the Nike-sponsored Drew League, a weekend summertime program where the biggest stars in basketball play with and against locals from the community.

14. Watts Pacific Electric Station
1904
1686 E. 103rd Street, Watts

Adjacent to the Blue Line's 103rd St/Watts Towers station is a mustard-colored building that was once the Pacific Electric's Watts depot. A popular stop along the old PE Long Beach Line, the building survived not only the PE's abandonment, but was the only wooden structure that was not set on fire during the 1965 Watts Riots. After a renovation project in the 1980s, the Watts Station has functioned since 1989 as a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customer service center.

15. Dominguez Junction/Watts Towers
1903
Graham Ave and 105th Street, Watts

In the Pacific Electric era, this junction, where the overhead pedestrian bridge is located today, marked the end of the four-track "Speedway" which had express trains from 9th and Hooper streets in Downtown Los Angeles go to/from Watts in the center tracks, while the outer tracks handled local stops Dominguez Junction is where trains along the Long Beach trunk line headed west to Torrance, southwest to San Pedro and southeast to Santa Ana via Bellflower.

Directly adjacent to the former Santa Ana tracks are the famed Watts Towers, built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia (who actually called his sculpture "Nuestro Pueblo") between 1921 and 1954. There is definitely a direct relationship to the Pacific Electric: Rodia used the rails on the PE Santa Ana tracks as a fulcrum to bend his steel bars into shape, enabling him to build his masterpiece.

16. Metro Rail Operations Center/Connector Track
1990
Willowbrook Ave at the 105 Freeway, Willowbrook

At the nexus of the Blue and Green Lines, just east of the Willowbrook Station is Metro's Rail Operations Center (ROC), where all of the 87-mile rail system's signaling, dispatching and security systems are manned and monitored. The building also houses a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department station, as part of their Metro system security operations.

Adjacent to the ROC is a non-revenue connector track that allows light rail vehicles to transfer between the Blue and Green lines for emergency or service purposes. The single track also allows light rail vehicles based out of the Metro Green Line yard in Torrance to move to the Long Beach yard, which houses a paint shop and heavier maintenance facilities. But in case you're wondering, the track is not equipped to handle revenue service from, say Long Beach to Redondo Beach.

The Willowbrook Station is due for a major renovation in the near future.

17. Blue Line Farmers' Market
2013
275 N. Willowbrook Ave, Compton

If you're a regular Blue Line commuter and need your fill of fresh, locally-grown produce, get off at the Compton Station on Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. and visit the weekly certified Blue Line Farmers' Market. Started in September 2013 to combat food desert concerns in the local community, the market has become a hit with locals and commuters alike.

There are currently 24 weekly certified farmers' markets at or near Metro Rail stations, visit them regularly!

18. Compton Creek and Rancho Dominguez Adobe Museum

The first waterway the Blue Line crosses isn't the Los Angeles River, but one of its tributaries, Compton Creek. You can see the 8-mile stream before approaching the Artesia Station and immediately east of the Del Amo Station. Be on the look out for horses, as there's an equestrian trail alongside it. The equestrian and cowboy culture of Compton actually predates its street gang reputation by several decades, and in fact lives on today in the form of a youth equestrian program called the Compton Jr. Posse.

Also located along Compton Creek, midway between the Artesia and Del Amo Stations east of the Blue Line tracks is the Rancho Dominguez Adobe Museum, highlighting the Spanish-era land grant roots and early California history of the Compton and Carson areas. Worth a bike ride from either of those stations!

19. Alameda Corridor
2002
Along South Alameda Street

Midway between the Artesia and Del Amo Stations is what appears to be a highway, which is actually Alameda Street. adjacent to it are a set of railroad tracks -- both the street and the tracks form the Alameda Corridor, a ground transportation system opened in 2002 that allows trucks and trains to easily access the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- important gateways for importing and exporting for not just Southern California, but the entire United States. Toys from China and cellphones from Korea pass through the Alameda Corridor in the form of intermodal shipping containers en route to Chicago or other U.S. destinations. The corridor began construction in 1997 as a way to consolidate the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads onto a unified, high-capacity, mostly grade-separated track to and from the port area. North of here, the tracks run in a trench alongside Alameda Street to railroad yards  southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

20. Blue Line Yard
1989
4350 E. 208th St., Long Beach

Sandwiched between the 710 Freeway and the Los Angeles River is the Metro Blue Line Yard and Shops, otherwise known as Metro Division 11. It is here where Blue and Expo Line cars make their home and are cleaned, painted and serviced. Cars from other light rail lines also visit this yard for work that can't be performed at their respective home yards. Blue Line trains also stop near the yard regularly on a mini-platform to allow operator crew shift changes.

21. Pacific Electric Abutments
1901
East Bank of Los Angeles River, North Long Beach

As soon as your Long Beach-bound Blue Line train crosses the Los Angeles river, look to the right side of your train and you'll see about four concrete abutments next to the tracks. Those were part of the Pacific Electric Long Beach Line infrastructure -- the abutments supported the old Long Beach Line bridge that crossed the Los Angeles River.

22. North Long Beach Junction
1904
Long Beach Blvd, north of Willow Street

Look to the left after your train leaves the Willow Station and you'll easily see the now-paved-over right-of-way that diverged from here that formed Pacific Electric's Newport-Balboa Line, which reached the PE's southernmost point in Balboa Island. The line today supports parks and bikeways, as well as this bridge in Long Beach that still exists today, which The Militant covered in 2011.

23. Long Beach Loop
1990
Long Beach Blvd, 1st Street, Pacific Avenue and 8th Street, Downtown Long Beach

The first "extension" of the Metro Blue Line opened in September 1990 when the Long Beach Loop was completed, allowing Blue Line trains to run in a clockwise-loop around Downtown Long Beach before heading north to Los Angeles (Before September 1990, Long Beach Transit shuttle buses painted like Blue Line trains provided interim service on the Long Beach Loop). Early operation scenarios for the Blue Line planned for "Loop Only" trains (the original rolling head signs of Blue Line trains had such a designation) that ran continuously through the Long Beach Loop, but in reality they never had a need to happen.

24. Long Beach Bikestation
1996
223 E. 1st St, Downtown Long Beach

In 1996 the nation's first-ever Bikestation opened here in Downtown Long Beach, just yards away from what was then called the Transit Mall Station (now the Downtown Long Beach Station). It was a one-stop facility for bicycle commuters and recreational cyclists alike, as a place to park, maintain, rent or purchase bike accessories. In 2011, the operation moved into its current, very orange, expanded facility. The Bikestation was a pillar of Long Beach's bike community and bicycling infrastructure, which includes protected cycle track bike lanes, bike paths and several marked bike lanes across town.

25. Pacific Ave. Tail Track

1990

Pacific Avenue and 8th Street, Downtown Long Beach

Here is the southern-end counterpart to the aforementioned Washington Tail Track. This track was also designed to temporarily store bad-order or malfunctioning trains, as well as supplemental trains to fill in service gaps made from out-of-commission trains. It is also rarely used.

75 Years Of Union Station

Today was the 75th birthday of Los Angeles Union Station, and Metro, the station's current owner, threw a massive celebration there in the form of an early National Train Day event.

Like previous NTD events, there were entertainment stages, the classic Fred Harvey Restaurant space was opened up, a model train layout was on display, and people got to climb inside real ones.  This time around, we were given a glimpse of the station's future, in the form of wayfinding signs, interactive touchscreen displays, a photographic exhibit, and overall cleaning up and renovation of the station's original fixtures.

Known as "The Last Of The Great Train Stations" built in the United States, Union Station was not only the culmination of points west, but the great national rail travel era, which would soon give way to the airplane in the decades to come. The station was originally built in 1939 as a shared facility for the three major western railroads that served it: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, as before then, each railroad had their own station in the vicinity (all surrounding the Los Angeles River, incidentally).

Today, the station is no longer shared by three private railroads, but by three public transportation agencies: Metro, Metrolink and Amtrak, and after the "dark ages" of the 1970s and 1980s, the station experienced a revival in the early '90s when Metrolink and the Metro Red Line began serving the station.

Here's some pics from Saturday's 75th anniversary celebration:

Chuggington, the cheap substitute for Thomas. But iz cool.

This swing band played in the Harvey House restaurant space and brought it, 1939 style!

People dressed up in '30s-'40s cosplay. And they looked sharp. 
Can we please bring this look back?
If hipsters wore this instead, they would be hated less.

A big oversized iPad installed in the terminal now gives information about Union Station. 

People waited in long lines to walk through the classic old-school passenger cars!

And here's an old-school MTA bus! Wonder if it accepts TAP cards...

THE MILITANT WANTS TO RIDE THIS TRAIN RIGHT NOW.

A Look Back At The 50th Anniversary

But this wasn't the first anniversary party for the classic Mission Revival/Streamline Moderne railroad terminal. Twenty-five years ago, the station, then owned by a company called Catellus, threw a golden anniversary bash on the weekend of May 6-7, 1989 to celebrate 50 years of service.

And The Militant was there!

Well, technically, it was the Mili-Teen, the younger version of The Militant, who hadn't quite earned his camo yet, but his interest, curiosity and pride for his hometown were nonetheless burgeoning even back then.

It was a similar event as today, but unlike today, the tracks weren't as active as are now. Back in the '80s, you'd have a handful of Amtrak trains roll in and out, and that was it for the day. On the positive side, and maybe because of the lack of activity on the platform tracks, it enabled the three railroads associated with Union Station's history to put some classic and modern trains on display.

The Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific all brought in some old-school steam streamliner diesel engines for public display, and some of them were set up where people can even walk inside! The steam locomotives were especially impressive, their whistles blew as loud as ships, probably echoing all over Downtown Los Angeles at the time.

One train display, though, changed The Mili-Teen's life. He had already known about the Metro Rail subway already being dug below the station, which has been under construction since 1986. But he knew its opening would be, like, eons away, sometime in the next decade.

But at the front of Union Station, he saw a 15-foot-long mockup of what looked like a rail vehicle. It was white with black trim, and blue stripes. It said "Los Angeles" on the front, but it looked nothing like the Metro Rail subway cars he'd seen in renderings.

He approached the information table and was pleasantly surprised to discover this was another rail line being built in town, that it would go to Long Beach, and best of all, it would open within next year!

It blew The Mili-Teen's mind.

The pamphlet called it "The Los Angeles-Long Beach Rail Transit Project." He saw the future. The world hadn't yet experienced the power of the phenomenon known as "Hammer Time," (though the MC wasn't totally unknown at the time). He knew people would be riding this thing before the subway opened. He then set himself on a quest to learn more about it...and the rest is history.

For The Mili-Teen, the 50th anniversary celebration of Union Station was a life-changing moment. He was able to experience both the past and the future on that day.

The Militant is proud to share some pictures from The Militant Archives:

This may or may not be a picture of the Mili-Teen!

There were some old school streamliner locomotives on display!

Even better - there were some old-school steam locomotives on display too!
Don't call it a "choo-choo," the whistles sounded like steamships!

A glimpse of the future: The Mili-Teen had his first encounter with the Metro Blue Line at this event!

Here's film footage of Union Station's 50th anniversary in 1989 filmed by K. Rutherford:

Happy 10th Birthday, Metro Gold Line!

Remember "Discover Gold?"

A decade ago today, The Metro Gold Line, Los Angeles' first light rail line in the 21st Century opened on one hot Saturday. Originally planned as an extension of the Metro Blue Line to Pasadena, it's the only direct transportation link between the Los Angeles and Pasadena downtowns (The 110 Freeway ends short of it).

The Militant, who has yet to miss an opening day for a Metro Rail line, was there, and remembered waiting in a long-ass line that snaked around the Gateway Plaza parking garage (the one some of you park in to ride the Dodger Stadium Express bus to games). It took nearly forever, but The Militant got on his train, rode all the way to the Sierra Madre Villa station, where the celebration had already ended in the parking structure there, and headed back.

Old-school Gold Line vehicles, now since replaced with the silver/gray Italian-built Ansaldobreda trains.

A few things have changed since Opening Day; the original 13.5-mile line is now nearly 20 miles long, having been extended from Union Station to East Los Angeles back in 2009. Originally an under-performing line due to its apparent slowness (something the Expo Line knows all too well), it now carries over 42,500 riders per day. Also, the orange-striped white Siemens light rail vehicles no longer run on the line, having been moved to their new tours of duty on the Green, Expo and Blue lines. And a few of the stations have changed their names: Lincoln/Cypress (originally Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park), Heritage Square (originally French Ave), Highland Park (originally Avenue 57) and South Pasadena (originally Mission).

Long-ass lines that day in the parking structure!

The future's bright for the Gold Line: In just two years it will be extended even farther into the SGV, terminating in Azusa with a station near Azusa Pacific University and Citrus College (The Militant won't miss that one fo' sho!). And by the next decade, the line will function as it was originally planned, when the two-mile Regional Connector tunnel is completed under Downtown Los Angeles. But alas, most of what the "Gold Line" is known for will no probably longer be named as such. Potential plans for the line may likely integrate the Union Station-to-Azusa section into the Blue Line, leaving the Eastside segment remaining Gold (and turning the Expo line into "Gold") in the process.

If you're feeling nostalgic for re-living the line circa 2003, take The Militant's Ultimate Gold Line Tour, which came out in 2009, and shows you places of significant interest along the old school Union Station to Sierra Madre Villa route.

Happy Birthday, Metro Gold Line! Here's to many more years, in whatever form you may or may not become!

Red Line 20th Anniversary Contest Winner Announced!

Last week the Metro Red Line celebrated its 20th anniversary serving the subterranean commuters Los Angeles, and The Militant put on a little contest to commemorate it.

Entries were simple: Submit a one-paragraph anecdote on one of your experiences riding the subway.

And today, we have a winner, selected from an anonymous and unspecified panel of judges: Congratulations to Heather Johnson of Koreatown for winning the priceless package of Metro memorabilia!

Here's her entry:

A few years ago when I still worked in downtown LA I commuted via Red Line to the Civic Center station. I was dozing off in my seat when I had a weird feeling that I was being watched. Turns out, I was! A street artist was sketching me. When I got off at my stop, he gave me the sketch for free. It's actually quite a likeness. The sketch is currently on my wall and I keep getting told I should frame it.

Her account could be construed as either sweet or creepy, however you want to view the situation. But it nicely described the forms of human interaction that have only really occurred in the past two decades, something that rarely happens on the bus, and can never happen in a car.

We have some other great stories worth sharing, though!

Being a Clippers season ticket holder, I take the Red Line downtown to every game. Most days I take the Red Line the train is full with blank, tired faces, maybe a couple of conversations happening, nothing spectacular. One day, I invited my friend, who came from out of town, to the game. He had never been on the train before. We get in the train car and there are people getting down. Someone had a boom box blasting some funk and people were dancing. It was a party all the way town to 7th. We get of the train and my friend says "Man it must be fun to ride the train to every game.

-- Sean Baello, Los Feliz

Thanks, Sean. And if we do get to see a Clippers Parade this June, can you tell your fellow Clips Fans (diehard and bandwagon alike) to take the train for that one?

Every May Day protest, riding the red line with protest signs and wearing shirts with specific messaging, I end up having some genuine conversations with folks on the train. Folks ask what the sign are about, why am I protesting, what is May Day etc. and I answer their questions to the best of my capabilities.

More often than not, they'll see me wearing a shirt that reads, I am undocumented. That'll get the conversation started and it give me the opportunity to talk about not being a legal resident of the US, the work I do organizing with the immigrant community and putting a face to the issues folks have with immigration.

By the end of the conversation, folks leave with a little knowledge about what's going and they got to hear it from someone who is personally invested and affected by it.

-- Erick Huerta, Boyle Heights

Dude, Erick...that was more than a paragraph. But hey, a great example of how transit spurs human dialogue. Thanks!

One time, I was riding the Red Line towards Union Station, and a man with a very old and ragged-looking accordion came on. He gave a really good performance, and some people in the car, including myself, applauded him.

-- Joshua Insel, Studio City

Okay, that was shorter than a paragraph. But thanks for sharing, Joshua! BTW, was the accordion player accompanied by a woman carrying a baby and asking change from the rest of the passengers? Those are the first Metro Gypsies! How European...

There are many great experiences I've had riding the Red Line. I remember taking the Red Line with my grandmother for the first time in 2001 and there began my love for riding this train. I’d never been on a vehicle like this before. I had a great view while sitting in the front. I could see the beginning of each tunnel we passed through. I took in my surroundings and was aware of the speed of the train and in awe of the engineering it took to build this train. I saw that some seats were removed to accomodate bicycles. I saw that people from all walks of life came to ride. I met the train operator and ever since then, we would exchange greetings and small talk everytime I rode the train. I’m passionate about the Red Line, because it has impressed me from day one and has been part of my daily ritual. The Red Line has become such an important part of my life because it is the only way I get to explore our great city.

-- Marc Caraan, Burbank

Thanks, Marc! "I saw that some seats were removed to accomodate bicycles. I saw that people from all walks of life came to ride." Next time you see angry people wearing yellow shirts handing out fliers telling people how "racist" the subway is, remind them of what you just said.

And finally, this most honorable of honorable mentions:

Photo provided by Chase White

When waiting on the Red Line, I ran into this gentleman, who I actually had seen before on the bus. It wasn't Halloween. He happily let me take his picture. I asked if he was an emergency room nurse. He said "No, I'm a head nurse."

-- Chase White, Highland Park

Thanks for all your entries! Didn't win? No worries! The Militant will throw more cool contests like this, so stay tuned and STAY MILITANT!