Metro is looking into connecting the three light rail lines that hit downtown -- Gold, Blue and the soon-to-be Expo -- so that one day, a commuter may be able to travel from Long Beach to Pasadena or from East LA to Culver City -- all without transferring. Eric Richardon from blogdowntown reports that the two alternatives that Metro is currently looking into differ in cost by only $150 million. That's surprising considering one is......

Photo by delara-photos via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr DID U C OPRAH 2DAY? OMG SO GR8! OOPS G2G, PPL R B-TING SUM GUY UP TTYL! Pasadena ain't your ashtray. So tonight their city council meets to vote on a massive smoking ban that will prohibit puffers to indulge in their habit in almost any public place. Hey, what's the latest on the upcoming SAG/AFTRA contract talks? Deadline Hollywood Daily has an......

Whoa now. If a Metro Blue Line vs. pedestrian incident early this morning downtown at Grand Avenue and Washington Boulevard leaving a 19-year-old man in critical condition was not enough, then hear this. A few hours later at 1:00 p.m., a Blue Line train was involved in a crash with a vehicle at Third Street and Long Beach Boulevard in the harbor city. "Investigators said the woman, who was driving a Ford Focus, turned in......

Photo by Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA via Flickr It was originally reported back in December that Metro was looking into gates and turnstyles for railways at the cost of $30 million. Today, in an opinion piece by LA City Beat, they say it's now $80 million and that there is no need to spend money on this project: This morning (Thursday, February 28), the Metro board is scheduled to give final approval to an......

Update, 5:05 P.M.: One of the patients is in critical condition according to ABC7 on air news. The Los Angeles Fire Department reports that the all patients are from the bus including the driver. Yesterday it was a close call with the Blue Line, but today is the real deal. An Orange Line Metroliner bus has collided with an automobile on the 12700 block of Chandler Blvd. between Coldwater Cyn. and Whitsett. No further details......

KNX1070 is reporting that "a police manhunt is ongoing West of a Washington Mutual bank at Ventura and Topanga Canyon in Woodland Hills. Authorities are searching for two armed kidnapping suspects." Things were something close to touch-and-go late this afternoon on the Blue Line near 5501 S Long Beach Ave when a female pedestrian fell near the tracks as a train passed by, but did not have any direct contact with the train itself.......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist UPDATE: Seven Grand is a 21+ bar. We apologize for any inconveniences. There's no better way for LAist to have its first ever public event than next Tuesday, a day where Los Angeles, and all of California for that matter, votes, taking part in one of the greatest Presidential primaries ever. For the Democratic party, California carries more weight than any other state -- that's huge in itself. Locally, several......

Last night's powerful rains beat down on Los Angeles, and Southern California in general, with a vengeance. Widespread power outages, mudslides, and flooded roads are just some of the consequences of the overnight downpour. Most of the road flooding occurred in the San Fernando Valley, reports the Daily News: "Among them, Forest Lawn Drive between Memorial Park and the Los Angeles Zoo was closed because of excessive run-off, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Jason Lee......

As reported earlier this week, on New Year's Eve, there will be all night Metro rail service. As one commenter pointed out, the news was actually broken in a press release where it was buried with not much detail given:“The Tournament of Roses parade and game is the biggest venue for Metro Gold Line service all year, with upwards of 60,000 train boardings on a single day,” said Pam O’Connor, Santa Monica City Council member......

Earlier this month, Metro announced the usual free rides on Christmas and New Year's Eve special that they do every year. Tonight, we received a short and brief, but extremely exciting e-mail: "On New Year's Eve Monday, December 31 (into Tuesday, January 1), all Metro Rail lines will run all night, every 20 minutes." Yes, that's all it said. No further details were mentioned (we're sure they are forthcoming, we are curious what "all night"......

Our trust and honor system on the subway, at the light rails and over at the Orange Line has been stripped away. Last Thursday, Metro voted to install the first phase of gates at stations, 275 to be exact (what's going to happen to those TAP Here machines that are everywhere?). The original intent behind the current honor system is "to buck East Coast practices and reduce operating costs," according to the New York......

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend, who lives in the NoHo Arts District, about bars in proximity to the Red Line and she mentioned a dream that many share: "You know it was also be sweet if the subway was extended to 1 a.m. or later. We could bar hop into Hollywood and back!" Little known to many, the red line actually has one train that travels beyond 1 a.m. I explained this......

A water main break has closed the northbound and southbound lanes of Sepulveda at Century and is estimated to reopen at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning according to a press release just released by Caltrans:Los Angeles – The Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announces that a Department of Water and Power (DWP) 36-inch water main break has caused the closure of northbound and southbound Sepulveda Boulevard at Century Boulevard in Los Angeles. Estimated duration of the......

If Heath Biter failed to give you a rotten feeling about the Kings' chances this year, how does a 5-1 drubbing to a division rival treat you? To make matters worse, the points weren't taken by, say, the San Jose Sharks or Anaheim Ducks - two Pacific Division sides boasting some of the best odds of winning the Cup. Instead, the LA players had their asses handed to them by the Dallas Stars, a......

The LA County Fair comes to end tonight, and if you can't make it or county fairs just aren't your thing, there's plenty of festival happenings today around Los Angeles:Swerve Festival @ Barnsdall Park National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival Feast of San Genaro Italian Festival Abbot Kinney Festival Grand Avenue Festival West Hollywood Book Fair Just Lives Festival Santa Clarita Street Arts Festival Polska Parafia Bazaar SGV Greek Festival Nigerian Independence Day Celebration......

Too many train crashes! Today saw the second Gold Line crash this month, this one being the worse of the two. The Blue Line was involved in a crash earlier this week as well as a Metrolink train yesterday. Tennie Pierce, the city firefighter who claims co-workers fed him dog food-laced spaghetti settled with city council today for $1.43 million dollars. Will it be a cozy night indoors as it rains outside? Yep. Pretty......

Have you entered LAist's contest to win Arcade Fire tickets yet? Head on over and comment to become eligible: are you a wine drinker or a beer drinker when at the Bowl? Or, are you like some people we know who bring in a couple of forties and a bucket of fried chicken? An infant was shot and killed last night in MacArthur Park; the baby was hit by a stray bullet while his......

Many are aware of Damien Goodmon's inspirational transit project, Get LA Moving. Now, with the advent of the Google 'My Maps' Feature, anybody can dream up their Los Angeles transit plan. And that's what Chris Gerstle has done by creating the Dodger Blue Line:My conceptual subway line: "The Traffic Dodger; Dodger Blue Line.". Features access to many popular attractions, notably: Dodger Stadium, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, Hollywood, L.A. Live, Staples Center, Convention Center, Union......

Here we are on the day Metro makes another set of changes that they refer to as "Service Enhancements." And yes, these are enhancements, but that does not mean service cuts, excuse us, "discontinuations," are happening too. For the new toy collection comes the Rapid Express system. It's not local service, it's not rapid service, it's express. That means only a handful of stops for peak hour riders to endure between Wilshire/Vermont Red Line......

Last year, when the Amgen Tour of California cycling race finished in Redondo Beach, Floyd Landis was the golden boy in the golden jersey, the winner of the seven-stage race down the California coast. A couple months later he went on to win the Tour d’ France. Sort of. He crossed the finish line first but may have had a little help from a needle in doing so. Landis says that is not the......

Next for the New York Times in LA: Gangs "At twilight on Friday, in the heart of the territory of the latest notorious Los Angeles gang, a woman in a passing car calls out a tip to Officer Dan Robbins, sending him racing toward a corner and a man he believes is a member of the 204th Street gang." (New York Times) Occidental College claims Obama "U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is usually described as......

"It's insulting to take the bus" Wad at MetroRiderLA bemoans dumb people who write to the Daily News (MetroRiderLA) USC study explains the obvious, but for good measure According to a recent USC study, children who grow up near freeways will have double the risk of stunted lung development. So basically, it's saying that if you take the bus, you are not to blame for dead and deformed lung children (CBS2) Hope they add......

December 17th seems to be a big day for the MTA (maybe everyone gets to go on vacation on the 18th?), but whatevs, LAist is never one to pooh-pooh progress, particularly regarding public transportation in this fair city. The MTA announced today that the Valley will get a new Rapid line on Reseda Blvd. between Northridge and Tarzana - welcome Line 741! The 364 won't be a Rapid per-se but will be a "limited......

Over the weekend, the anonymous "scribes" at Martini Republic voiced a complaint common to many: "The City of LA’s continued shakedown of its own citizens continues apace. The foto-tickets cost about $365, and are very tough to fight (a day off work, a drive to Compton), even though cops snicker when they see that one has popped up in your life: 'Those lights are almost always wrong,' they say." Will someone explain to me......

Two killed, two injured when a Metro Blue Line train smashed into a car yesterday morning - CBS-2 Although once one of the best juvenile detention systems in the country, LA now has one of the worst, and it has only gotten scarier in the last ten years. The Board of Supervisors is partially to blame, the Times says. In the last year, county juvenile facilities operated by the Probation Department have erupted in......

So what would you do if this guy hops on your Metro train and starts spouting verses from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"? As an Angeleno, your first inclination is to ignore the guy -- or maybe call security. But put down the cell phone if you happen to hear haikus rushing through LA's train system tonight. The Poetry Society of America and the Metro Art Program have banded together to celebrate......

At 10:25am this morning, it's Norooz — Persian New Year. There was an advance celebration at City Hall on Friday and the Downtown News has the story of the holiday, which is little-known outside of the Iranian (or "Irangeleno") community. The Daily News reports that DWP workers racked up $51 million in overtime in the last half of 2005. The DWP says it's cheaper to pay existing employees overtime than hire new staff. It's......