The Djinn Descends (to the Red and Blue Line)

I grew up riding buses and subways. I did it for 27 years, through grammar school, high school, college and law school. This was the 60s and 70s and the New York trains and buses, but particularly the trains, were no bargain for the regular rider. These were the days of aged cars and even when they were updated, the graffitti (which people insisted on calling art, as they still do today rather than the thuggery it is) so covered everything, including the windows, so you couldn't even see your exit station name. In those days, train riding was like being sucked into the vortex of a cesspool.

When I came to Los Angeles, I rode the buses for a short time until I could afford a car, and after that, circa 1982, I was no longer a rapid transit (that too was an oxymoron in new York; rapidity eluded the MTA in them there days) consumer. I have spent the last nearly 30 years happily ensconced in my various cars (I have had four altogether). Even traffic did not deter me, the memory of my days on the cramped, urine smelling, hot (or cold in winter) cars remaining fresh in my mind.
 
I won't say that I swore I'd never ride in another train, but I can tell you I sure as heck was never planning on it. 

Life changes, and I won't bore you with the details, but a recent opportunity actually "requires" me to have some familiarity with the still developing LA system. So, today, I descended into the bowels of the Hollywood and Highland station and took my first red line train to Union Station.

It was not horrible. In fact, it was a retro experience, but on newer, less bumpy, less smelly trains. I even saw someone cleaning a station!  Unheard of in a city long ago and far away.

It felt almost as if there had been no intervening years since I had travelled an underground regularly. I found myself doing what I used to on the way to school or work in the Big Apple.  I dozed warily.  I mean there are still a lot of people even in this driving city, in the subway, and just this weekend they had their first ever murder, a stabbing, and well, it was at Hollywood and Highland, on the train. So, warily is a watchword in public transit, like it or not. Still, I am remarkably still used tot that, and I had no particular concern, and I was intrigued by the smoothness of the ride and the fact that the lights did not go on and off as they used to when I rode as a child, adolescent and young adult in New York. I got on the train at 8:17 and I was at Union Station in less than a half hour. I even had time to get my morning cup of coffee before my appointment. 

But it was not over, this sojourn into this earthly netherworld.  As part of my education, we rode the rails again, the Red and the Blue line, with several wonderful LA Sheriff's Deputies who showed us some of the behind the scenes things we need to know about fares, tickets, tapping (you'd only understand that if you actually ride these trains) and the general background of the still novel system in LA. I went past my old office building inside one of the trains (as it went above ground toward Long Beach) instead of outside as has been my usual view. The Blue Line is actually the first line in the City of LA and they have since increased the width of the trains for more comfort.

The thing is, I didn't hate it.

There are issues though as some of you know. The stations are often far away from where people live and so, I had to find a space near Hollywood and Highland to park my car (for free as it would defeat the purpose of using transit if I had to pay 20 dollars to park). I had almost given up and was about to drive to downtown LA, when I found the perfect spot, safely away from the bad men towing folks who were parked against the signs.  So, I cannot say that I will rush to ride the rails once more but, I am no longer an opponent.