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Ah, prom. The lovely late-puberty moment where the vestiges of your high school ego float away before you embark on the deflating wonder that is Real Life. Seniors get to look like the older kids one last time before becoming babies in college, chaperones relive the horror of their own high school dances, and most DJs play utter trash to the quasi-enjoyment of (possibly) sober teens. What else could everyone want? What could possibly make the experience better than it already is?
Trains. The answer is always trains.
Guaranteed to reinforce how lame your own prom was, two local high schools chartered special Metrolink trains and even a Red Line Metro train to take their students to prom this year. Golden Valley High School students took Metrolink from Santa Clarita to Union Station before taking a specially chartered Red Line train to Madame Tussaud's in Hollywood. A.B. Miller High School students took Metrolink from Fontana directly to Union Station, where their prom was located.
Scott Johnson of Metrolink tells LAist that schools are mandated to transport their students to and from prom to ensure student safety, and the skyrocketing prices of chartered buses make the train an economically viable option. Metrolink offers this service every year, but participation from high schools varies. Typically, schools reach out with the desire to partner for prom transportation, and Metrolink proceeds to organize the chartered train based on location and number of students.
Vince Wheeler, account clerk of Golden Valley High School, tells LAist that they first used Metrolink for prom two years ago, when the school's venue was at Union Station. This year they decided to hold their prom in Hollywood, which meant Wheeler and the school worked with both Metrolink and Metro to get the students all the way to the venue. Partnering with the subway as well as the commuter rail was a new experience, but Metro successfully accommodated over 500 students with a chartered Red Line train from Union Station to Hollywood and Highland. Wheeler said he spoke with students after the experience and they all overwhelmingly preferred the train to other transportation methods. Probably because the other options are a chartered coach bus or a school bus, and buses are synonymous with only two things: going to school or running away from home.
So the next time you see a large group of fancy teens on the Metro, no, you're not hallucinating.
[h/t: @militantangeleno]
