SIGNS OF TROUBLE ON METRO-I just returned home from a trip to Downtown Los Angeles. I parked at the Expo Line Culver City Station, took Expo to the 7th Street Station to the subway and got off at the Civic Center Station for a social function at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration.
The return home was the reverse. I took the subway from the Civic Center Station to the 7th Street Station. After climbing the stairs from the subway to the light rail platform I turned and saw a train on the tracks. If this was my train, it was ideal. A very short wait, and off I’d go. However, the sign on the middle of the three cars listed “Los Angeles.” I wanted “Culver City.”
It was rather odd to see the Los Angeles sign on a train already in Los Angeles, at the 7th Street Metro Station, so I rightfully assumed it was for the Blue Line which shares the tracks and station with the Expo Line. The Blue Line runs between DTLA and DTLB (Downtown Long Beach.) So, if the train was in Long Beach heading north, the sign for the train car should read “Los Angeles;” it just needs changed to “Long Beach.”
The front marquee of the last car of the train was dimly showing “Long Beach.” Yes, this makes sense, I thought, the train at the platform with doors open, ready to roll, should be going to Long Beach. However, the station monitors listed the Culver City Expo Train departing in three minutes, and the Long Beach Blue Line departing in seven minutes. This didn’t make sense. The train at the platform said Los Angeles and Long Beach, but it wasn’t due to leave for seven minutes. The Culver City bound Expo train was leaving before it -- in three minutes. The Expo train should have been the one at the platform -- but that train showed “Los Angeles and Long Beach.”
I walked to the front car that had signs for “Culver City.” There were three cars on that same train, each with a different designation. This was quite confusing. A fellow rider said the one at the platform was the Expo for Culver City. Maybe…I wasn’t sure.
I tried to track down a train operator to confirm this. A few shouts to him and a thin reply was returned…yes, it was the Expo Line. Three different cars, three different destinations, one train. It was almost impossible.
This is one of Metro’s weakest points: confusion created by their signs.
I don’t know if this is due to carelessness, ignorance, not caring about the riders or the inability to properly run a rail line. But this is not the first time this has happened to me with this train at this station.
It cannot be that difficult to make sure that when a train pulls up to the platform, it is ready to roll. That means it must have clear, uniform and non-conflicting signs on each car. Every sign on every car must have the same correct designation.
This is becoming a joke. A sad, repeated bad joke. How hard is it to make sure that when a train pulls up to the platform to pick up and carry riders to their destinations that every sign on every car for that train has the identical and correct designation? I mean, how hard is that?
(Matthew Hetz is co-chair of the Los Angeles Council District 11 Transportation Advisory Committee, a bicycle rider since 1965, a driver since 1975 and a dedicated transit rider since 1992. He is the Executive Director and President of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra, and is an Instructor at Santa Monica Emeritus College. He is an occasional contributor to CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected]) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 88
Pub: Oct 30, 2015
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