FIRST PERSON-I have been riding mass transit in Los Angeles regularly since 1992, mostly buses, there is no light rail or subway in my neighborhood. This builds a lot of transit experiences on Metro, a lot of it good and some bad.
And despite some rather unpleasant and just strange experiences, I remain committed to riding mass transit due to my great concerns on environmental degradation from vehicles, including air pollution and climate changing carbon gases from vehicle exhaust, and vehicle waste becoming part of the poisonous urban run-off into the Pacific. The quickest way to reduce pollution is to shift to driving less and riding mass transit.
Another big advantage to riding mass transit is I'm not driving as much in the insanity of gridlocked Los Angeles.
The shift from vehicle dominant commuting to one more mass transit orientated has taken time to adjust. Impediments include fighting the dominance of car culture, the devaluing of mass transit riding, and Metro's signage. A recent trip to downtown Los Angeles was another case of signage gone bad leading to multiple unnecessary train rides, including one which shook me.
I was returning from a piano recital at the Colburn School, downtown Los Angeles. The return trip would be one I've done many times day and night: a subway ride from the Civic Center Station, an exit at the 7th Street Station, a walk upstairs and then a transfer to the Expo Line to the Culver City Station.
For this latest trip, as I exited the subway at the 7th Street Station and walked quickly upstairs, there was the Expo Line-Culver City train at the platform. I made quick appraisals to be certain: The train was the newer model trains used on the Expo Line, and the side electronic marquees listed Expo Line-Culver City. This was excellent. I quickly scanned the TAP card, rechecked the marquee to make sure it was the Expo Line, and boarded. I began reading.
After a few minutes the train pulled out from the station. I made calculations to when it would arrive in Culver City, and then how long the drive home would be. I sat in a perimeter seat, the ones that face into the train. Across from me was the electronic marquee box which posted on the train's exterior "Expo Line," which I saw. Inside the train the box repeatedly ran the same message: a warning to stand clear from the train doors. This makes no sense since the marquee box is five feet from the doors, and is not seen while standing at the train's door.
I read a newspaper, and once above ground to get reception, read e-mails on my iPhone. In the darkness of the night, the lights inside the train create mirror surfaces so it is very difficult to see outside the train. Since the Expo and Blue Lines share tracks in to and out of the 7th Street Station, announcements are to be made inside the train repeating which line is which. If the rider is on the wrong train, they are to get off at the Pico Station and wait for the right train. I did not hear this on this trip.
A few minutes into the ride, things felt strange. The familiarity of the Expo Ride was not there, but since I got onto the train marked Expo Line, I went back to reading. Then, almost subconsciously since I was reading, came the announcement for the next station, and it was a jolt, it was for the San Pedro St. Station. This station is not on the Expo Line, I was on the Blue Line. I've ridden the Blue Line numerous times, and knew I needed to get off now before the train travelled any further south. I would exit at the San Pedro St. Station, take the Blue Line north to the Pico Station, exit and then transfer to the Expo Line to Culver City.
As I left what I thought was the Expo Line but was really the Blue Line, I read the train's marquees to make sure I read them correctly. The head marquees on the front of the trains were clearly listing Expo Line Culver City. I had not made a mistake. I hope to go into more detail of the inadequate, incongruous and just plain bad signage at Metro stations and trains, and some unbelievable Metro operational procedures in a future column.
Upon exiting, I was met with a miserable San Pedro St. Station. It was around 10:30PM, and it was dimly lit. The station's lights cast a grayish hue, and the street lights were no better. This is an isolated station in a mix of light industrial and residential apartments. There was one other person at the station waiting for the next train. Two women in the night, both holding large paper cups, walked onto station and then left. One checked the contents of a pizza box left on the station.
Angered that I had ridden an incorrectly listed Metrorail, I waited for the northbound Blue Line. After about ten minutes I saw the approaching northbound Blue Line train, and calculated when I might possibly arrive home after waiting to transfer to the Expo Train at the Pico Station, the Expo ride to Culver City, then the drive home.
The train approached, and I felt some relief. However, upon entering the Blue Line train I was not prepared for what I encountered: the train was a filthy mess. There was trash on the floor throughout the car: discarded hamburgers and buns, shells from nuts, food wrappers with food stuck them, paper cups, newspapers and more.
I've ridden the Blue Line numerous times before, and all of the Metrorail lines, day and night, and while there may be some litter on light rail trains and subways, the trains overall have been clean.
The rides have been decent and sometimes quite good.
But I've never seen a sight like this. It was disgusting, and angering. I do not know if this trash was only for this one train, or the standard for every Blue Line train at night. Either way, it curls the lips with disgust.
I think we all know that a few can make it bad for many. I know that most transit riders would not trash a train like this, but have to suffer through it. The riders looked downtrodden, and the trash was just as much an insult to them as it was to me.
In the greater scheme of things, trash, while not good, may not be as bad as the poisons from chemical plants and coal ash ponds spilling into rivers in North Carolina. Trash is not the sky darkening airborne pollution from burning coal and vehicle exhaust. However, trash does cause damage when it makes its way into the oceans, and attracts vermin, and stinks, and is a deplorable sight on a light rail train. It numbs the human spirit.
The trash in the train, left by a few to the detriment of many, was disgusting, disturbing, horrible. It was more, it was an outrage, a shameful situation. Though I had my anger and disgust with the trash, it was greater towards the fact that it was not cleaned along the way. Where was Metro to keep the trains clean?
Why aren't there people to pick up the trash in the train along the route and at the stations? Where were the sheriffs who patrol the trains and stations as they do during the day? Are they on a 9-5 schedule? The Blue Line runs from around 4:00AM to 1:00AM, yet rarely at night do I see sheriffs on the trains or at stations.
Take those cleaning up the freeways for community service and put them on the trains with a broom, cleaners, rags and pick-up buckets to clean the trains. Have them accompanied by sheriffs to back them up and ticket those trashing the trains.
My anger at Metro boiled, but after a few hours it turned to a simmer, and I realized that this is not solely Metro's fault, it is also society's fault.
Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle is the founder and director of Home Boys industries which takes in gang members and tries to reform them and pivot them to productive lives. It is successful, but it takes money. In his recent Los Angeles Times editorial he noted the difficulties of funding Home Boys Industries. He defiantly stated that if his cause was for cats or dogs or horses, he would probably not be facing such financial difficulties, but since he is trying to help other human beings, people who have fallen and are now trying to right themselves, funding is precarious.
He is right, if this was a train of trash with animals, PETA and other animal rights activists would be all over the news on the cruelty, yet when people are assaulted by this trash, there is not a whisper in the news.
This trash, left for how long on the train, was not solely Metro's fault, but they do share responsibility. More money must be dedicated to maintenance of trains and buses. This past Valentines Day Metro held speed dating meetings on the Red Line. The money and hours devoted to this frivolous, completely non-related to mass transit project should have been used in cleaning trash off the trains.
If Metro wants to attract more riders and retain them, it is not through gimmicks like speed dating, but creating a clean atmosphere every day on every train and bus.
In addition to Metro's share of responsibility in allowing deplorable conditions for riders of the Blue Line, by far the dirtiest trains I've seen are on this line, it is also our fault, it is society's fault, it is the fault of Southern California, which does not devote enough funds to maintenance of mass transit and to create a decent environment for the riders.
I picture the trash in the trains, and the riders of poor means having to endure it, and I picture money spent on gleaming freeways, and that a second, more expensive bridge was built over the 405 Freeway at Mulholland Drive to placate the locals who live in neighborhoods of million and multi-million dollar mansions. Why do we as a society spend more money in neighborhoods who already live the life of luxury, yet devote inadequate money to keep trains clean traveling through poor neighborhoods? These people deserve to ride mass transit in decency, not sit in trains with trash.
I remember the faces of the riders on the Blue Line, resigned to trash on their commutes, and compare that to calls to put, at great expense, segments of other light rail projects underground or elevated, when at-grade running of the trains is sufficient.
Funding must instead be used to great good to police and constantly clean the Blue Line, and all rail lines, at all hours, so that people can have the basic right to a clean and decent ride on a train.
I think I may have gotten on the right train after all. I missed the Expo Train, and instead saw a train of tragic truth. I am ashamed that my fellow transit riders tonight, and the night after, and the night after, and into the future will have to endure trash in their train ride.
This is not just Metro's fault, but all of our faults. This is a shameful situation.
(Matthew Hetz is a member of Los Angeles Council District 11 Transportation Advisory Committee, a bicycle rider since 1965, a driver since 1975 and a dedicated transit rider since 1992.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 14
Pub: Feb 18, 2014