Times are tough, and one passenger aboard a Metro Red Line train appears to be in dire need of funds. A video uploaded to YouTube yesterday by ThatKidProductions60 captures one man's desperate attempts to sell passengers presumably stolen shoes from a popular department store. more ›

More Than Red Cars, a blog examining "the obscure, offbeat and half-forgotten transportation history of Southern California," recently ranked L.A's Metro Rail stations by their Walk Score, a number assigned to a location illustrating its proximity to amenities like grocery stores, coffee shops and eateries. more ›

If you are headed out to celebrate the arrival of 2012 tonight, and your starting and end points offer convenient access to the Red, Blue, Purple, Gold, Green, or Orange Metro lines, you pretty much have no excuse to not take public transit tonight. more ›

If public transportation is a viable option for your holiday travels, you may want to consider hopping on a bus or train. Be warned, Metro and Metrolink are operating on abbreviated schedules starting tomorrow and throughout the weekend. more ›

Not all Angelenos appreciate our Metro system, but police say there is one demographic that seems to be taking the "Go Metro" advertising campaign to heart: criminals making a getaway. more ›

The hottest trend among cartographers is grabbing data from NextBus and using it to create maps that help visualize just how long it takes to get around on public transportation in whatever city you choose. The digital cartographer Eric Fischer released a visualization of the Los Angeles Metro system. more ›

As a result of two recent stabbings on the Metro Rail, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department has increased the number of deputies on trains. Department members say both the Gold Line and Red Line attacks are unusual. more ›

Metro has its hands full right now, improving L.A.'s transit systems, making transit construction projects more eco-friendly plus conducting community outreach for LAX transport developments. Though the transportation authority's bandwidth must be stretched pretty thin, they still managed to upgrade the Metro bus riding experience. more ›

File this under Not at All Surprising: 84% of commuters in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana region drive themselves by car, truck, or van, between home and work. The data comes from an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey, reports the Los Angeles Business. Sheesh. No wonder we wigged the eff out about Carmageddon! more ›

Sometimes reading the fine print does prevent misunderstandings down the line, but this one just seems kind of sneaky: Metro's TAP fare cards actually expire 3 years after they are activated. Transit blogger (for Metro!) Fred Camino learned this the hard way, as he explains on The Source. more ›

Over at the Huffington Post, writer Lila Nordstrom has a piece up that bemoans the fact that Angelenos don't walk more. She argues that not only is driving an accepted cultural norm here (true), but that walking in a city is a challenging skill that needs to be learned. She writes: more ›

From its introduction, Metro's TAP card has had limited functionality, with riders being able to only load long-range passes instead of single-use options like a day pass, or load on cash value for per-use fare deductions. However, the tides are turning--about on par with the turnstiles--and now some machines at Union Station are offering riders the option to put a variety of values on newly-purchased TAP cards. more ›

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is taking a serious look at the safety of the Blue Line which is the most dangerous of the five rail lines, according to ABC Local. How dangerous is it? Since the Blue Line opened in 1990, it has been linked to 101 fatalities and 875 collisions. more ›

Beijing, China--you know, the place that had that 60-mile and 10-day long traffic jam--might be able to teach Los Angeles a few things about traffic, and vice versa. At least that's the plan according to a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority executive who is planning to team up with someone in a similar role in Beijing on a project "that will lead to an exchange of technical expertise and joint research projects," reports the Daily News. more ›

A major decision to extend L.A.'s small subway system is coming in late October and before that, officials must meet with the public to gather input. That starts tonight with a series of meetings that continue tomorrow, Wednesday and twice next week. Environmental documents were released earlier this month detailing what the five alternatives -- down Wilshire to the Santa Monica, perhaps with a West Hollywood spur, etc -- under consideration would be like. The board will have decide upon one for staff to thoroughly vet before construction can begin. more ›

A fare system that would be based on the time spent riding public transit or distance traveled instead of the current per boarding price will be discussed at a Metro committee meeting on Thursday, according to Damien Newton at StreetsblogLA. It's just a report that studies what other transit systems have done, but if something were to go forward, it's rife with challenges, including updating the controversial TAP system. Currently, it costs $1.50 per boarding or $6 for a day pass on most of the system. Some routes include a confusing zone charge. more ›

As work crews hit the home stretch on finishing the first phase of the Expo Line between downtown Los Angeles and Culver City, one politician is calling for more accountability. Unlike many Metro projects, the Expo Line is currently under the control of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority and doesn't have any objective and critical oversight. more ›

There's still a long way to go on these projects, but they took a big step this week. The Federal Transit Administration last week signed off on Metro's draft environmental documents for the Westside Subway Extension and downtown's Regional Connector. more ›

For the past week, the blogger Chewie at Straight Outta Suburbia has been conducting a fun exercise by using Walk Score to calculate the walkability of every Metro rail stop (and the Orange Line busway). If you're not familiar with the web tool, it "calculates the walkability of an address based on the distance from your house to nearby amenities" and "measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking." more ›

There's been a more aggressive Beyond Coal movement going on in L.A. this year and this month, news comes of a Beyond Cars one. At LA Beyond Cars: A Global Perspective on Rail and Space exhibit at The Jewel Box in downtown, a party will be held on August 18th where organizers are challenging attendees to use alternative transportation. more ›

As the Expo Line's Phase I, between downtown Los Angeles and Culver City, sort of nears completion, the final plan for Phase 2 to 4th Street in Santa Monica was released last Friday. more ›

The Metro Board of Directors today approved using light rail on the 8.5-mile Crenshaw route between LAX and Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards. Other options included doing nothing, beefing up current bus service in the area and developing a bus rapid transit system that would begin at Wilshire Boulevard. more ›

Despite a recommendation from a city council committee (.pdf) to once again run trains into the wee hours of night, late-night subway service this holiday season will not happen. The culprit? The economy, of course. more ›

A little dispute is happening in Orange County near the L.A. County border. Residents are starting to get sick of the over-and-over-again mentality of once again widening a freeway (two lanes this year, another two in ten years). The problem is along the 405 Freeway between Irvine and the L.A. County border where 300,000 people commute daily. more ›

The Gold Line's Eastside Extension is opening this Sunday, allowing for car-free travel between East L.A. and Union Station. Here's a look at the timetable (.pdf). more ›

With the opening of the Gold Line Eastside Extension this Sunday, it's been quite the foodie fever here on the internetz. It's almost feels as if the six miles between Union Station and East L.A. never existed. Nevertheless, the laying down of light rail tracks means people are ready to explore the tastes and wonders there are to offer and with no car in tow. Here's what others are saying. more ›

Metro staff yesterday recommended that the Crenshaw Corridor be light rail, not a rapid bus line. This comes after urging of many, including County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents the area. more ›

The Gold Line's Eastside Extension is opening on November 15th, but how does one get to the light rail line? Other than the big connections at Union Station (Red Line, etc), what other bus lines connect to it? more ›

Metro this morning finally announced the long-awaited opening of the Gold Line's Eastside Extension between downtown Los Angeles to East L.A. After the traditional inaugural ride with government officials and media in tow the day before, the six-mile line will be open to the public with free rides on Sunday, November 15th. more ›

In a unanimous vote, the Metro Board approved the Long Range Transportation Plan this afternoon. The document will guide transit planning in Los Angeles County for the next 30 years. One amendment was introduced and ultimately approved as well. Among a number of changes it brought, the most notable is a commitment to try to open the Gold Line Foothill Extension from Pasadena to Azusa before 2017. more ›