The last time I was in Santa Monica, there was no Metro. The corner where the Santa Monica station is located was the Sears Automotive Center. Things sure changed!
Great the regional connector is finally open. Not so great is, how incredibly slow those trains are - even on the newly built tunnel tracks. Not to speak of those hundreds of traffic lights that are not optimized for or controlled by the arriving trains. In a modern city those traffic lights would give the light rail the righti of way as soon as a train comes closer to the intersection.
They definetely must priorize traffic lights to light rail over cars to improve speed. Unfortunately they didn't eliminate all the level crossings along the entire route.
theres been many ppl trying to off themselves, jumping into the tracks bc they see something shiny or pushing ppl onto the tracks of the subway system, so instead of installing platform screen doors, they make the trains slow down. before the panny, the subway used to zoom into the station
The light rail lines on LA Metro are partially grade separated as you can see from this video. Many of the grade separations happen in areas with the busiest intersections or where the geography doesn't allow for surface travel. The trains are not as slow as you imply. However, signal prioritization is being studied and I'm sure will eventually be implemented. From what I've read, many of the traffic lights would need to be replaced in order to implement the technology.
I took the same ride on opening day at around 5:30pm on a Friday. It took me one hour and five minutes to travel from Santa Monica to the Indiana station. Had I driven that same distance it would have taken me 1.5 stressful hours during rush hour on a Friday.
0:00 santa monica 0:16 metro passes 1:49 17th st smc st (santa monica college) 2:40 railroad crossing 3:13 railroad crossing 3:32 railroad crossing 4:19 railroad crossing 4:22 26th st begmont st (in santa monica) 4:31 railroad crossing 5:11 railroad crossing 6:58 expo /bundy st 7:49 railroad crossing 8:49 expo/ seguleda st 9:24 railroad crossing 9:54 railroad crossing 10:00 westwood ranco park st 10:34 railroad crossing 11:38 tunnel 12:52 palms st 13:42 railroad crossing 14:14 culver city (cuver city California) 15:59 la ciegnega/ Jefferson st 16:50 railroad crossing 17:28 expo/la brea st 18:28 farmdale st (explotion blvd) 18:51 railroad crossing 19:10 another metro pass 19:26 railroad crossing 19:47 expo Crenshaw st (connects to k line) (explotion blvd) 20:55 railroad crossing 21:15 railroad crossing 21:43 railroad crossing 21:51 metro pass 22:42 expo/ western st (explotion blvd) 25:03 expo /Vermont st (explotion blvd) 25:54 expo park/usc st (explotion blvd) 26:23 underground 27:31 metro passes 27:32 jefferson /usc st (explotion blvd) 29:38 railroad crossing 29:41 lattic/ortho institute st (los angeles) 32:19 metro a line passes 32:26 railroad crossing 32:30 pico st 32:38 railroad crossing and metro a line Subway time: reganel connecter time! 33:54 7th st metro center st (los angeles) 35:31 grand ave arts bunker hills st (los angeles) 37:12 historic Broadway st (los angeles) 38:48 little tokyo arts district st (los angeles) 40:30 metro pass 41:22 pico/ aliso st (east la) 42:28 marachi plaza st (east la) 43:54 soto st (east la) 46:21 railroad crossing 46:38 indiana st (east la) (boyle heights) 47:10 railroad crossing 50:13 metro passes 50:16 marvilla st (east la) 51:36 east la civic ctr st (east la) 53:05 atlantic st (atlantic) (east la) finale Ncie vid freind
It would be interesting to see,just how much the Pacific Electric/ Los Angeles Railway,track maps,would coincide with the current LAMTA maps! Definitely,the current LA system is the old PE on steroids! Thanks for the trip,and nice photography 📸!! Thanks 😊 🙏!
Back in the day, the PE Venice line would pick up lots and lots of passengers in the heart of downtown. I remember reading that at least one stop would have hundreds and hundreds of people boarding. All the cars, all the LA Railway streetcars, everyone just came to a halt. I would have loved to have seen that in action. Today, I think 30:55 , the junction at Flower and Washington is similar. There are a lot of 3 car trains crossing a very busy intersection. This neighborhood is only growing. I am at a loss to name another intersection that blocks so much traffic. Maybe someone can think of one.
LA Metro has already green lit phase two that will extend the line to the city of Whittier. They will also rework the existing Atlantic station and move it underground similar to what they did for the new Little Tokyo-Arts District station. They will continue the route underground along Atlantic and build another underground station at Atlantic and Whittier Blvd. From there it will travel to the Citadel Outlet Mall where they will build another underground station towards the rear of the Citadel. After that it will come out to the surface along Washington Blvd and a few more stations will be built. Some at grade and possibly a aerial station or two. They have approved to build the route through the first four stations. It seems this phase 2 will be divided up into two parts because of the funding timelines.
@@mrxman581The E Line extension to Whittier would definitely a waste of money with a low estimated ridership. Nearly 6 billion dollars (the most expensive light rail project in the system) for no more than the proposed 20k daily riders. A BRT is a better option; even though it is slightly slower, it will much cheaper and reliable than rail. I would either parallel the BRT via the E Line extension or divert via Whittier Bl as the corridor is much busier and have more frequent bus service than Washington Bl in which it only runs 30-60 minutes weekdays and Saturdays with a low service-span. I’m aware Sepulveda Pass rail is more expensive; however, it is more overdue and needed for the city. Plus, the ridership would be over 100k, so it is really needed.
When they designed the Regional Connector, couldn't they have banked the tracks on the curves or something, so the trains wouldn't have to slow down so much?
Do the cab rides of the new A Line (Blue) (a.k.a. "Pasadena and Foothills Blue Line") from Long Beach to Azusa and the new E Line (Expo/Gold) from East LA to Santa Monica.
Time for Calgary to step up to the plate with modern train systems and a working time coordinated transit system with seemless transfer stations! Won't be in my time unfortunately!
How do the trains get their traction power in the tubular tunnels? While it wouldn't be a problem in the square tunnels, I don't see how the overhead pantograph pickups eould work in a round tunnel. Forgive me if this seems an inane question, but doe to the windshield visor I can't really see what's overhead.
That type of application,third rail on the overhead was/is used in Grand Central Terminal in New York! Many locomotives of the NYC,and New Haven had mini- Pantagraphs,so they could navigate the puzzle switches,in the Terminal! See Mr. Dougherty's track maps of GCT,will give you an idea,of the complexity of the layout! Thank you for the forum! Thank you 😇 😊!
What’s up with the frame rate in the mirror on the right? Looks like GPU shader compilation causing crazy stutter. You sure this isn’t a leaked version of GTA 6? 😂 Edit: now I see it isn’t a mirror, it’s a screen showing a camera feed from the external platform camera. That explains the stutter.
@@losangelesrailway3505let’s say this is an A train, turning left. There is an E train in the opposite direction, both at this crossing. If the crossing was grade separated, both trains could pass at the same time. But since the crossing is grade level, one would have to wait for the other to clear
@@DnD_Robb404If you're referring to the wye at Flower and Washington, there are plans to grade separate it. Once it's grade separated, they can run the trains on both the E and A light rail lines more often.
@@mrxman581 it should’ve been grade separated from the beginning Edit: I’m talking about the intersection at Alameda/1st, the one depicted within the timestamp, I’m not sure if they have room to grade separate Flower/Wahsington
@@DnD_Robb404If this were to happen, It wouldn't take longer than 2 minutes. It may seem like it may take forever for a train to pass by, but it doesn't take long at all. Sorry for taking almost a year to reply lol😅
Due to prohibitive costs. Remember, the LA Metro is mostly funded through increased sales taxes approved by voters from both LA city and county. In the USA, if extremely difficult to get substantial funding from either the state or federal governments. There are many more transit projects that will also need funding in the near future. It's more important to build out the Metro system first than to fully grade separate the lines that you do build. If all lines were grade separated today, our Metro system would be half the size it is today. That scenario would be much worse.
Wow these trains are really slow! Slowing and stopping at every little curve, even straight sections just painful! I would be curious to compare the average speeds with some similar crosstown trains like the S-Bahn in Berlin. Sure, during street crossings slow is understandable, but for grade separated right of way these things should be much faster. It's a shame.
In terms of priority I would Remove the speed limit at farmdale grade separate pico to south of the Washington flower junction. Elevate the Crenshaw station Extend the underground portion to Indiana station.
@@flattrain5834 correct they probably would not grade separate right now. But I could see them sometime in the (distant) future add them after new projects come online.
@@ronnyrueda5926The reason these lines are not fully grade separated is due to cost. There is only so much money available for a hell of a lot more projects that will need to get funded. Metro has designed these light rail lines very very well. There are only two places in the system that would make a ton of sense to grade separate. The one you mention last, the Indiana station. That should have been underground. The second is on what is now the A line as you're coming into Pasadena from LA. There is about a half mile section where it goes through a residential street and it slows down significantly. So much so I thought it was going to stop but it doesn't. It might be the slowest section in all of LA Metro.
All the light rail lines run on dedicated ROWs. They don't share the same part of the street with vehicles. Vehicles only cross tracks at intersections. Vehicles can't drive on top of the tracks like they do with streetcars and trams.
It's a great line you pass and see cool places but gotta say the smell is just to horrible, this is because of the many mentality challenging homeless people that ride or sleep in the train, smells like urine which can ruin the experience plus some of the stations like in downtown or the starting one in santa monica is just too filthy. A solution to this imo is having more security or police in the stations making sure no one does some crazy shit and making sure everyone behaves normally this reducing the bad odor and the feeling of being scare for your live while using this train as with others in the city.
![VTA Light Rail Green Line Ride (Winchester - Old Ironsides) [CAB VIEW]](/img/1.gif)
I like how the E line now goes underground then surfaces for one station then back under. Great cab view :)
The last time I was in Santa Monica, there was no Metro. The corner where the Santa Monica station is located was the Sears Automotive Center. Things sure changed!
I live in santa monica for 14 years. The santa monica station opened in 2016. Times are changing 😂
Great the regional connector is finally open. Not so great is, how incredibly slow those trains are - even on the newly built tunnel tracks. Not to speak of those hundreds of traffic lights that are not optimized for or controlled by the arriving trains. In a modern city those traffic lights would give the light rail the righti of way as soon as a train comes closer to the intersection.
They definetely must priorize traffic lights to light rail over cars to improve speed. Unfortunately they didn't eliminate all the level crossings along the entire route.
theres been many ppl trying to off themselves, jumping into the tracks bc they see something shiny or pushing ppl onto the tracks of the subway system, so instead of installing platform screen doors, they make the trains slow down. before the panny, the subway used to zoom into the station
@@choco1490the two subway lines are different. This is a light rail line and they have always operated in this way.
The light rail lines on LA Metro are partially grade separated as you can see from this video. Many of the grade separations happen in areas with the busiest intersections or where the geography doesn't allow for surface travel.
The trains are not as slow as you imply. However, signal prioritization is being studied and I'm sure will eventually be implemented. From what I've read, many of the traffic lights would need to be replaced in order to implement the technology.
@@mrxman581 I've taken both, ofc heavy rail is faster but both slow down considerably when they near stations
I took the same ride on opening day at around 5:30pm on a Friday. It took me one hour and five minutes to travel from Santa Monica to the Indiana station. Had I driven that same distance it would have taken me 1.5 stressful hours during rush hour on a Friday.
Super interesting! Really nice to experience this with you. Thanks!
Thanks!
0:00 santa monica
0:16 metro passes
1:49 17th st smc st (santa monica college)
2:40 railroad crossing
3:13 railroad crossing
3:32 railroad crossing
4:19 railroad crossing
4:22 26th st begmont st (in santa monica)
4:31 railroad crossing
5:11 railroad crossing
6:58 expo /bundy st
7:49 railroad crossing
8:49 expo/ seguleda st
9:24 railroad crossing
9:54 railroad crossing
10:00 westwood ranco park st
10:34 railroad crossing
11:38 tunnel
12:52 palms st
13:42 railroad crossing
14:14 culver city (cuver city California)
15:59 la ciegnega/ Jefferson st
16:50 railroad crossing
17:28 expo/la brea st
18:28 farmdale st (explotion blvd)
18:51 railroad crossing
19:10 another metro pass
19:26 railroad crossing
19:47 expo Crenshaw st (connects to k line) (explotion blvd)
20:55 railroad crossing
21:15 railroad crossing
21:43 railroad crossing
21:51 metro pass
22:42 expo/ western st (explotion blvd)
25:03 expo /Vermont st (explotion blvd)
25:54 expo park/usc st (explotion blvd)
26:23 underground
27:31 metro passes
27:32 jefferson /usc st (explotion blvd)
29:38 railroad crossing
29:41 lattic/ortho institute st (los angeles)
32:19 metro a line passes
32:26 railroad crossing
32:30 pico st
32:38 railroad crossing and metro a line
Subway time: reganel connecter time!
33:54 7th st metro center st (los angeles)
35:31 grand ave arts bunker hills st (los angeles)
37:12 historic Broadway st (los angeles)
38:48 little tokyo arts district st (los angeles)
40:30 metro pass
41:22 pico/ aliso st (east la)
42:28 marachi plaza st (east la)
43:54 soto st (east la)
46:21 railroad crossing
46:38 indiana st (east la) (boyle heights)
47:10 railroad crossing
50:13 metro passes
50:16 marvilla st (east la)
51:36 east la civic ctr st (east la)
53:05 atlantic st (atlantic) (east la) finale
Ncie vid freind
In 32:19 I messed up sorry it's e line
It would be interesting to see,just how much the Pacific Electric/ Los Angeles Railway,track maps,would coincide with the current LAMTA maps! Definitely,the current LA system is the old PE on steroids! Thanks for the trip,and nice photography 📸!! Thanks 😊 🙏!
Back in the day, the PE Venice line would pick up lots and lots of passengers in the heart of downtown. I remember reading that at least one stop would have hundreds and hundreds of people boarding. All the cars, all the LA Railway streetcars, everyone just came to a halt. I would have loved to have seen that in action.
Today, I think 30:55 , the junction at Flower and Washington is similar. There are a lot of 3 car trains crossing a very busy intersection. This neighborhood is only growing. I am at a loss to name another intersection that blocks so much traffic.
Maybe someone can think of one.
Yah thanks to GM for ruining that. Lucky they have their strike now.
Sometime in the near future we will be able to connect to the K Line at Crenshaw and ride all the way down to the SODA BARRRRR!!!!!!
They gotta extend the line from Atlantic station
In the future, The E Line will extend to Whittier
Eastside Phase 2 Project
LA Metro has already green lit phase two that will extend the line to the city of Whittier. They will also rework the existing Atlantic station and move it underground similar to what they did for the new Little Tokyo-Arts District station.
They will continue the route underground along Atlantic and build another underground station at Atlantic and Whittier Blvd. From there it will travel to the Citadel Outlet Mall where they will build another underground station towards the rear of the Citadel. After that it will come out to the surface along Washington Blvd and a few more stations will be built. Some at grade and possibly a aerial station or two. They have approved to build the route through the first four stations. It seems this phase 2 will be divided up into two parts because of the funding timelines.
@@mrxman581 Metro is extra waste of money imo
@@Lucrativecris good thing a majority of LA city and county voters have the opposite opinion. Good day sir!
@@mrxman581The E Line extension to Whittier would definitely a waste of money with a low estimated ridership. Nearly 6 billion dollars (the most expensive light rail project in the system) for no more than the proposed 20k daily riders. A BRT is a better option; even though it is slightly slower, it will much cheaper and reliable than rail. I would either parallel the BRT via the E Line extension or divert via Whittier Bl as the corridor is much busier and have more frequent bus service than Washington Bl in which it only runs 30-60 minutes weekdays and Saturdays with a low service-span.
I’m aware Sepulveda Pass rail is more expensive; however, it is more overdue and needed for the city. Plus, the ridership would be over 100k, so it is really needed.
I am glad you were able to make another cab view!
Why don’t you videos anymore?
Im glad you made a cab wiew
0:39 - the red dump truck, it was pretty close. I am sure accidents will happen. American drivers need gates to stop them from running red light.
When they designed the Regional Connector, couldn't they have banked the tracks on the curves or something, so the trains wouldn't have to slow down so much?
I like the full ride you flimed
Do the cab rides of the new A Line (Blue) (a.k.a. "Pasadena and Foothills Blue Line") from Long Beach to Azusa and the new E Line (Expo/Gold) from East LA to Santa Monica.
I mean it would be great if it gets done going the opposite direction for both lines. That's fine if it's not necessary.
I am going to do opposite ones in the future
They should add that DLC for Train Sim world 3 in realistic, now that would dope Af.
That would be pretty cool
Great Video! It would be nice if there were gate crossing to speed up service. However, it's a great video!
Wish the P865/2020 were still around to run these routes for one last time.
These trains are manually operated right?
Yes
Cool video
11:50 why is it going so slow though that tunnel? It should be flying through this area... It's all fully concrete
There is a curve
Time for Calgary to step up to the plate with modern train systems and a working time coordinated transit system with seemless transfer stations!
Won't be in my time unfortunately!
I'm honestly shocked they'd make the tunnels more well lit than the stations.
Thanks for this video! Can You make this line in opposite direction, please?
I like all waves 🙋♂️
The metro E line from Santa Monica to Atlantic Station
Thank you. I wish that had been in the description.
I know
35:08 glitch?
please stand clear, the doors are closing
Wow to Atlantic station ave
Good Video .
How do the trains get their traction power in the tubular tunnels? While it wouldn't be a problem in the square tunnels, I don't see how the overhead pantograph pickups eould work in a round tunnel. Forgive me if this seems an inane question, but doe to the windshield visor I can't really see what's overhead.
In the new tunnel sections there is a metal rail on the ceiling. There is enough clearance on the side
That type of application,third rail on the overhead was/is used in Grand Central Terminal in New York! Many locomotives of the NYC,and New Haven had mini- Pantagraphs,so they could navigate the puzzle switches,in the Terminal! See Mr. Dougherty's track maps of GCT,will give you an idea,of the complexity of the layout! Thank you for the forum! Thank you 😇 😊!
How come Metro Trains have 2 different horns? What are they for?
00:37 that red truck took the red light
Do you call these train, I was always know to light rail as Tram or Streetcar.
We call these light rail
They did not have $500 for a distinctive chime and took a Windows "something went wrong" chime? Hilarious and shameful.
Was this the P2550 train cab view or the P3010 cab view?
3010
Ridership seems pretty weak. When was this filmed?
after june 16
June 23
Close to the water
Very nice video Nick
What’s up with the frame rate in the mirror on the right? Looks like GPU shader compilation causing crazy stutter. You sure this isn’t a leaked version of GTA 6? 😂
Edit: now I see it isn’t a mirror, it’s a screen showing a camera feed from the external platform camera. That explains the stutter.
I’m surprised they didn’t put a better version in. That’s actually a camera on the side of the train, not a station camera. It’s a mirror substitute
Are you going to do C and K lines?
日本人の皆さん2:53を見てください。驚く事にデカデカと日本語で文字が書いてあります😂
39:25 A grade crossing, really? That’s gonna seriously hold back trains in the future.
Explain?
@@losangelesrailway3505let’s say this is an A train, turning left. There is an E train in the opposite direction, both at this crossing. If the crossing was grade separated, both trains could pass at the same time. But since the crossing is grade level, one would have to wait for the other to clear
@@DnD_Robb404If you're referring to the wye at Flower and Washington, there are plans to grade separate it. Once it's grade separated, they can run the trains on both the E and A light rail lines more often.
@@mrxman581 it should’ve been grade separated from the beginning
Edit: I’m talking about the intersection at Alameda/1st, the one depicted within the timestamp, I’m not sure if they have room to grade separate Flower/Wahsington
@@DnD_Robb404If this were to happen, It wouldn't take longer than 2 minutes. It may seem like it may take forever for a train to pass by, but it doesn't take long at all. Sorry for taking almost a year to reply lol😅
Why dont Americans build w dedicated track for their metros.
Budget
Due to prohibitive costs. Remember, the LA Metro is mostly funded through increased sales taxes approved by voters from both LA city and county. In the USA, if extremely difficult to get substantial funding from either the state or federal governments.
There are many more transit projects that will also need funding in the near future. It's more important to build out the Metro system first than to fully grade separate the lines that you do build. If all lines were grade separated today, our Metro system would be half the size it is today. That scenario would be much worse.
Will the driver yell at me if I record the front window
The first attempt of this Video the operator told me not to film
can you show your wig wag?
Pinkie promise next vid
Are the stations always this empty?
35:00 wth why did it say that?
Wow these trains are really slow! Slowing and stopping at every little curve, even straight sections just painful! I would be curious to compare the average speeds with some similar crosstown trains like the S-Bahn in Berlin. Sure, during street crossings slow is understandable, but for grade separated right of way these things should be much faster. It's a shame.
Good.
I had to check carefully, but I think I saw a passenger on one of those stations. Amazing.
Is a light. rail train
They need to update the ugly jingles. Sounds so outdated.
The station cops almost outnumber the passengers.
A light rail is a train you know
5:45 that is a tiny platform rofl
🚊🚊🚊🚊📹📹📹 40:43
It's pretty slow. On a lot of straight dedicated sections it is only going 25 mph.
The top speed is 55 mph. And it reaches that speed in some sections.
This is so old.
Is sad they miss the opportunity to eliminate all the level crossings. From Santa Monica to Downtown should be Faster and safe.
Not really possible, way to expensive. I would at least like to see priority on the crossings though.
In terms of priority I would
Remove the speed limit at farmdale
grade separate pico to south of the Washington flower junction.
Elevate the Crenshaw station
Extend the underground portion to Indiana station.
The grade separation is not realistic, adding gates instead of traffic lights are helpful.
@@flattrain5834 correct they probably would not grade separate right now. But I could see them sometime in the (distant) future add them after new projects come online.
@@ronnyrueda5926The reason these lines are not fully grade separated is due to cost. There is only so much money available for a hell of a lot more projects that will need to get funded. Metro has designed these light rail lines very very well. There are only two places in the system that would make a ton of sense to grade separate. The one you mention last, the Indiana station. That should have been underground. The second is on what is now the A line as you're coming into Pasadena from LA. There is about a half mile section where it goes through a residential street and it slows down significantly. So much so I thought it was going to stop but it doesn't. It might be the slowest section in all of LA Metro.
Way too many announcements and such a slow system for a big sprawled out city like LA
You ought know that the announcements are for joining passengers, hence the repetitious nature of them.
If your train is driving on the road in the middle of traffic you’ve fucked up.
All the light rail lines run on dedicated ROWs. They don't share the same part of the street with vehicles. Vehicles only cross tracks at intersections. Vehicles can't drive on top of the tracks like they do with streetcars and trams.
It's a great line you pass and see cool places but gotta say the smell is just to horrible, this is because of the many mentality challenging homeless people that ride or sleep in the train, smells like urine which can ruin the experience plus some of the stations like in downtown or the starting one in santa monica is just too filthy.
A solution to this imo is having more security or police in the stations making sure no one does some crazy shit and making sure everyone behaves normally this reducing the bad odor and the feeling of being scare for your live while using this train as with others in the city.
What's the top pay for these operators?!
Cool video