Western Railroad Discussion > Question About So Cal Rail Commuting

Could someone enlighten me about rail commuting in LA ? My understanding about LA was that jobs were much more dispersed geographically then say NY or Chicago where there are LOTS of jobs in the core of the city and people flock to downtown by rail everyday to get to work. Are people who ride MetroLink destined for downtown LA to work or is downtown more of a transfer point for public transportation to destinations elsewhere in the city ? I guess what I am getting it has how rail communting could be successful in LA if all lines lead to one location (downtown) but destinations (i.e., jobs) are dispersed. Thanks.

I did some commuting by rail a couple of years ago while doing some contract work...

I boarded in Orange and got off the train in Norwalk. Perhaps 30-40 folks got off the train there. I live in Orange and there are a fair number of 'station cars' that sit at the station at night; commuters arrive in Orange in the morning, usualy from Risverside & San Bernardino, climb into their station cars, and go to work in central Orange County, reversing the process in the evening.

Unlike large east coast cities, the os Angeles basin does not have a 'bellows' comuting pattern. People do not go in and out like air in a bellows. Rather, they need to travel across the commuter catchment area, not travel to its dead center. The majority of the folks do go to Union Station downtown, because that is where the train goes, and there is transit there as well as a subway stop.

For some folks it is very convinient. In my case, the subway's first stop is opposite the courthouse. Thus for me it is a good way to get downtown. The bad news is that Metrolink does not offer mid-day service and I need to pay a higher fare to ride Amtrak back to the office after my court appearance.

Jobs are far more dispersed in the west than in NYC, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Chicago. We have areas in west LA that are not near any rail lines and a bus trip would entail considerable time. Office space is often more affordable in the suburbs and more convinient for customers and employees.

That's a fair summation, the only time I had a job near the RR, Metrolink didn't have early enough service to be usable.
Now I watch them from my hilltop as they race hither and yon, wondering how long til they figure out the rest of the equation.


TCS - gold line service to nowhere in particular

There is some concentration of jobs in Downtown LA, especially State and Federal workers. I know that State workers can get a subsidy if they use public transportation to get to work, and anyone working in downtown LA will pay high parking prices. At Glendale, the first stop north of LA serving both the Oxnard and Lancaster Metrolink lines, I see about the same number of people commuting to Glendale and their jobs and commuting away from their homes in Glendale to work elsewhere, so we do have unusual commute patterns.

Barry Draper

You pretty much hit it on the head... L.A. is not nearly as centralized as say, Chicago, or even NY. Off the top of my head, I can think of maybe 7 distinct areas that many people would probably define as being a "downtown". This is besides the official downtown. Plus you have the psychological thing to deal with out here... You're basically considered a second class citizen by a lot of people, if you ride a bus or train. I think they expected the lightrail to help distribute those people to the secondary areas. But doing a transfer is probably a big turnoff to a lot of people. I think the bottom line is, it works for some people who happen to be in just the right situation, but I don't think it will ever compare to other cities.

Dave
Los Angeles, CA

-Rail Radio Online-Home of the "TrainTenna" RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/railradioonline
-------------------------------------------------
-The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Photo Archive & E-Mail List-
http://eje.railfan.net