How is your area's mass transit system? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

anghrist · #1 07-05-2008, 06:42 PM

Okay, I tried, really I did. I'm located in Rosamond, CA, the middle of what has been named the high desert here in California. I had heard of this mythical rail system that can shuttle people from Lancaster, CA to Union Station in Los Angeles.

"Wonderful", I thought. I can drive the 12 miles to the train and then ride the train into LA.... or so I thought. Now I've been on the Washington Metro, I've been on San Francisco busses, I've been on the trolley in San Diego. I've ridden the German intercity trains, and long distance from Prague to Munich. I even rode the mass transit streetcars in Prague that the Soviets left there and are still in operation. In all of these cases, even the cases where I did not speak the local language, I was able to get around quite easily. Purchasing tickets was actually very easy in Germany, Prague, Washington, SanFran and Sandy-a-go

.

So I planned to have plenty of time. I showed up 20 minutes before the train was to leave at the tiny platform. We had parked the car only 50feet from the train and walked the 30feet to the platform/ticket machine. When we arrived, the train was already there. So we go to purchase tickets. I had read online about ticket purchase at the stations. The Transit Authority had installed new state-of-the-art Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) that would accept cash, credit or debit cards. We get into what seemed like a long line for the TVM (one of only two). The folks at the front of the line are taking quite some time. We continue to wait for 20 minutes!?! In that time only two people were able to purchase tickets. Maybe it was the issue that the TVM screen had so much sun glare because it was facing the sun (what genius did that). Or that there were only two machines for the city of 60,000 people? No! I've got it, the card reader for credit and debit cards wasn't working... right??

The train was scheduled to leave when we decided to try to beat it to the next station about 8 miles away. The train passed us when we got stopped at a light about halfway to the next station. So we missed a second chance and gave up

. There is no option to buy tickets more than 3 hours in advance, unless you buy a monthly or 10-trip pass. So now I understand why everyone in LA drives.

I'm rather aggravated. It took me less time to decipher German and Czech and buy tickets there.... and I don't speak either German or Czech!?!?

Here's the real insult. If you are riding and do not have a ticket you can be fined on LA Metro up to $250 and 48 hours of community service

. So what happens if you simply can not buy the ticket from the malfunctioning machine??

http://www.metrolinktrains.com/
http://www.metro.net/default.asp

TMAllison · #2 07-05-2008, 09:32 PM

We have Bart in the Bay Area to get to from some of the suburbs into Oakland or SF. Would be a much better system if it were a true wagon wheel with hub rather than hub with spokes like it is currently. Would be better yet if other systems connected to it.

I took three different trains 1.5 hrs each way to school every day as a 14y/o living in Tokyo. Every train there was a loop of sorts that connected to other loops with underground subways forming the spokes of each wheel. There wasn't anywhere within Tokyo or surrounding cities you couldn't get to with more than a 10 minute walk after you left the station.

That was 35 years ago and it wasn't a young system then.

I don't know that we will ever change at this point. Way too much cost involved and too much gov in the way.

neanderthal · #3 07-05-2008, 09:37 PM

so, in other words, you showed up at pretty much the same time as everybody else, except they were there before you were taking too long to buy tickets, and now you want to blame the entire public transportation system?
try getting there earlier.

ive taken the metrolink from santa clarita to burbank many a time, and even now when i dont live in canyon country anymore, i sometimes take it from burbank to northridge. if the vending machine is broken, you get on the train anyway, inform the conductor that the machine is broken, and buy the ticket when you disembark.

you could also take antelope valley transit bus from lancaster/ palmdale to los angeles as well. i believe it also goes to union station or real close.

http://www.avta.com/

i mostly drive my car, but often ride my bicycle to work. if im too tired to ride the 15 miles back, i will either ride to the metro link station or to the north hollywood metro station and catch the train or bus home.

300SDog · #4 07-05-2008, 09:53 PM

Louisville had extensive network of electric trains more than 100 years ago. Stations are still there and so is the network of rails. Now there's strong lobbying to revive the old railway system here.

Los Angeles aint so lucky. They had the best railway and mass transit system on earth back in early 1950's but tore it up with federal funding as part of Eisenhower's billion dollar USA highway development plan that screwed the nation and made gasoline junkies outa everybody.

Lotsa people dont realize it, but Eisenhower was probly one of the worst Presidents we've ever had. During boom economy years following WWII we coulda built European styled mass transit network infrastructure serving every major city and surrounding areas. Now just the hold-out towns of Chicago, New York, Boston and Washington DC have anything along these lines worth braggin about. The Detroit/Oil Company swindle that'll continue to screw this nation into the next 30 yrs began with "Ike".

sixto · #5 07-05-2008, 10:05 PM

The San Jose area VTA has a few light rail lines but there are usually more people in the car I'm driving than riding the light rail.

One of the changes over the years is that the average worker can't depend on making a career out of a job. If I know I'm gonna retire where I'm working now, I can move closer and commute to work. I'm not going to move every couple of years because I'm forced to find a new job that often.

Sixto
87 300D

raymr · #6 07-05-2008, 10:24 PM

The DC system is relatively new, dating to the 70's. It wasn't designed for the throngs of people who ride it today. Platforms are only on one side of the train at every station, meaning you have to wait for everyone to get off before getting on. Other systems lets people enter and exit on both sides. The DC swamp water is starting to seep into the walls at some places and causing havoc with transformers and rails.

Early on, Georgetown didn't want any subway stations, so now a popular DC tourist area and campus is only reachable by car or bus. The closest station is across the bridge in Virginia.

I rode Metro for 14 years. It was 95% dependable. The other 5% was sheer hell. As nice as it is, I don't miss it.

300SD81 · #7 07-05-2008, 11:03 PM

I'm about to ride MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) for the first time tomorrow to the airport, for the first time I'm getting on a plane by myself... This should be interesting, especially at 5am.

G-Benz · #8 07-05-2008, 11:35 PM

DART works fine here...if you live in the Dallas metro area.

For those of us in the fringes of DFW, we are pretty much screwed for mass transit options.

There is a nice monorail in Las Colinas (Irving) that was supposed to go all the way to the airport, but the project died during the oil bust in the 80's (HAH!).

davidmash · #9 07-06-2008, 12:09 AM

Or those who live inbetween Fort Worth and Dallas. I live in Grand Prairie (12 miles South of DFW) and there is nothing to get me anywhere. I would have to drive 14 miles to catch the TRE (train that goes between Dallas and Fort Worth.

In a word ... "sucks" would describe it quite well.

TheDon · #10 07-06-2008, 01:00 AM

non existent

Boardmonger · #11 07-06-2008, 02:12 AM

VTA is a joke here in San Jose. As Sixto put it, there's more people in a car than on the trains. Those same light rail cars creep through downtown SJ at a snails pace, and the lines don't really branch off too well.

On that note, Caltrain (running from Gilroy to SF) is awesome. Trains run regularly, and it takes about 50 minutes from me to SF, maybe 1.5 hours if I took the bus from my house to the station. The biggest issue there is parking, and as more people hop on, there is less space for people and bikes.

123c · #12 07-06-2008, 07:55 AM

There's a bus system here, which isn't well designed, but they got new people managing it, so it might become more efficient soon.

I've ridden the MAX in Portland, OR a few times in the free zone, and it was nice for getting around without having to fight for finding a parking spot.

anghrist · #13 07-06-2008, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neanderthal

so, in other words, you showed up at pretty much the same time as everybody else, except they were there before you were taking too long to buy tickets, and now you want to blame the entire public transportation system?
try getting there earlier.

How early? There were still about 10 more people who needed to buy tickets. Following the previous ticket purchase pattern that means that it would take another hour and forty minutes to finally get to the machine. That plus the two hour train ride would mean that It would take three hours and forty minutes just to get to Union Station.

I'm not blaming the entire system, just the way in which it is managed. If you show up 20 minutes early to just about any of the other metro systems I listed, you would have your ticket in 1-2 minutes and be twiddling your thumbs for 18-19 minutes until the train/bus/streetcar arrived.

I will keep that in mind about boarding and then buying the ticket. So why not have TVMs on the trains?

LaughingGravy · #14 07-06-2008, 12:13 PM

About 2 miles from our house is a train line that has a train come every hour or so, starting at 5:20 in the am until about 12:30, which goes right into Penn Station, NYC. There are also alternating trains that go into Hoboken, NJ, just on the other side of the hudson, and then you can take a PATH underground subway train, or a ferry boat over to NYC.

Coming home from NYC, the last trains out are at 11:30pm. They should be later.

There's also a bus line that goes right into the city paralleling the train route, more or less.

Neither is cheap though. $17.50 for a round trip on the train. Bus is comparable.

Monthly pass is $246, so $12.30 per day if you go in 5 days/ week, assuming 4 weeks, plus whatever subway/cab fare if you don't walk in NYC.

OTOH, I can get to Newark Airport on mass transit for $29 round trip, after two transfers. It takes about 2 hrs. vs. me being dropped off via car 25 minutes away. It's nice to know it can be done, though.

All that is fine if you want to go into the city. There are about 4 train lines that go in, like spokes on a wheel, but no reasonable way at all to travel from anywhere else in NJ unless you go into the hub, NY, or Hoboken, to catch a wheel spoke back out. Even then, you can only get to the towns on the spokes.

Larry Delor · #15 07-06-2008, 12:19 PM

If the SCAT would agressively advertise their existance, more people would use their busses. A simple advert with a few main routes, and the cost of the fare (along with a comparison of auto fuel usage) could do wonders. Plus an express route, that did not stop at a local Mall for 20 mins, would help too.

SCAT = Sarasota County Area Transportation (this way, you won't look up "scat" - cuz you really don't want to.)