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Angels Flight Down For Routine Repairs, Fare Expected to Double
Photo by melissssaf via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
The best fun you can have for 25 cents in Los Angeles for one minute could soon be twice as expensive, when Angels Flight reopens after undergoing repairs, and the fare is doubled.
The historic funicular railway in Downtown has closed for several weeks for "routine maintenance" reports City News Service. Repairs and upkeep will included replacing worn rails, and some carpentry and painting work on the rail cars, dubbed Olivet and Sinai.
When Angels Flight resumes service up Bunker Hill, however, the fare is likely to be 50 cents a ride, though Angels Flight Railway President John Welborne suggested they may have "a special 25-cent discount fare available for riders who are Metro pass holders."
The railway operates as a non-profit, and while they can turn a buck from movie shoots and donations, the fact is, they aren't making enough money with the fare they currently offer.
Angels Flight recently observed their 110th anniversary, and offered penny rides--one minute each way--up and down Bunker Hill for one day in honor of the occasion. The railway is the shortest in the world, and has a storied past, which includes being out of operation from 1969 to 1996, and safety issues and even a fatality when it resumed running in its current location, a half block south of where it originally stood.
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