The Benefits of Mass Transit

Despite its shortfalls and the criticism voiced by many of the residents, public transportation in Los Angeles has greatly improved over the past few decades. We are convinced that the system will improve significantly over the next ten years paving the way to for Los Angeles to become a model system for counties with spread out suburbs.
             In April of 1993, the California State Legislature created the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) by merging the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Rapid Transit District. The LACMTA is commonly known as the Metro or MTA. It is responsible for operating the Metro bus fleet and the Rapid Bus lines. It also operates a network of three above ground rail lines and one underground subway with two branches. The above ground rail lines are the Green Line, Blue Line and Gold Line. The underground subway has a Red line and Purple line. The central base of operation for all the rail lines is the Union Station near downtown Los Angeles. When we visited the Union Station, it was a dynamic experience where you could see hundreds of people traveling to different destinations just like an airport. Each line serves a different destination. The Green line goes east from near LAX connecting with the Blue line and on to Norwalk. The Blue line connects Long Beach to Central Los Angeles. The Gold Line goes from East L.A. to Pasadena. The Red Line runs from Union Station in downtown to Hollywood and North Hollywood. The Purple Line goes from the Union Station to Koreatown.
             Aside from operations of the MTA, the Metrolink provides a broader servicing area by serving numerous stations in train various Southern California counties. The network of these mass transit operations aalso interact with municipal transit lines for the various surrounding cities to Los Angeles including Culver City, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Commerce, Torrance and others.