Gold Line Extension: Sneak Peak
TTLA's blogger boarded an MTA Gold Line train earlier this week, part of a group taking in an advance tour of the six miles of track and eight new stations that make up the long-awaited "Eastside Extension."
TTLA's predictions: The bridge out of Union Station and over the 101 Freeway will be written about on this website; next year's Self-Help Graphics Dia De Los Muertos event at the East L.A. Civic Center will have 50,000 attendees; and the Extension will exceed ridership estimates, barring fare increases and a continuation of nonsensicalinter-line ticketing policies.
The new route opens to the public Sunday, November 15. As many as 40,000 people are expected for a celebration at Mariachi Plaza.
(The Plaza's been more or less shut down for way too long. Here's a brief piece from the summer of 2008.)
Journalist Alissa Walker was also on board the gold line advance trip and filed this smart dispatch for the Architect's Newspaper blog.
And ex-L.A. Times transportation beat writer Steve Hymon -- now working for the MTA -- wrote up his observations from a ride he took two weeks ago.
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user waltarrrrr. It was used under Creative Commons license.