L.A. Metro Trains to Run Until 2 a.m. on Weekends
Haaaaaaallelujah. Metro's big announcement today is better than all its 2012 ribbon-cuttings combined:
Nanette Gonzalez/LA Weekly Party time.
The transportation authority's official blog reports (with three exclamation points!!!) that, beginning in late July, "all Metro Rail lines will run until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. That includes..."
"... the Red/Purple Line subway, the Blue Line, Expo Line, Green Line and Gold Line."
And one bus -- the Orange Line -- will now be running until 2:40 a.m. Here are all the specifics so far:
• Trains will run every 20 minutes between midnight and 2 a.m.• The Orange Line will run until 2:40 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights in order to meet the last trains at the North Hollywood Red Line station. The Orange Line will also run every 20 minutes between midnight and 2:40 a.m.
• The plan at this moment is to begin late-night service on the weekend of July 27-28 but Metro is also working to determine if late night service is needed on the Silver Line, as well as working with Metrolink on the possibility of extending their service to connect with Metro's.
Metro will provide more details on scheduling later in the month and there will be a considerable p.r. push to let everyone know about the new service.
Currently, most lines shut down between about midnight and 1 a.m. (We're pretty sure today's announcement means that the last train leaves at 2 a.m., not arrives, but we've contacted Metro for confirmation.)
Now this is democracy! We don't care about no $100 billion bullet train to nowhere, nor the mayor's decades-off "Subway to the Sea" -- we just want to be hauled home wasted on a dirt-cheap boxcar with a makeshift stripper pole!
So from here on out, we'll just have to remember to leave the bar by around 1:45 a.m., and we're good. A commenter at the Metro blog puts it best:
"As a person who has spent hundreds of dollars in taxicab fare in order to get from Union Station to Pasadena after the last 11:53pm Gold Line train has left, this is a huge advancement. Now I won't have to leave the West Side at 10pm in order to get home in a timely manner. Huzzah!"
And in one fell swoop, the most transit-challenged city on Earth has earned itself more party cred than renowned subway havens like London and Paris. Best Friday ever.
The Bus Riders Union to declare Metro's new late night rail service as "racist" in 3...2...1...
— Militant Angeleno (@militantangleno) July 13, 2012
[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
