Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Tow Truck Ran Light, Did 50 MPH in Fatal DTLA Crash, Cops Say

The tow truck that collided with a Metro bus, killing its driver, was going as fast as 60 miles per hour through a red light when the downtown L.A. crash happened, police said today. The flatbed tow truck was headed south on Broadway when it struck the westbound bus at Fifth street before careening ... More >>

Expo Line Opening Date Is April 28: Two Years Behind Schedule And $292 Million Over Budget

​At long last, we have an opening date for the Expo Line, the $932 million project that will connect the Westside to the city's light-rail network.Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced this morning that the line will open to La Cienega Boulevard on Saturday, April 28.The Expo Line has been fraught ... More >>

Carmageddon on the 405

Adding a lane won't ease congestion

Supervisor Don Knabe Resists Union Deal For MTA Contracts

Don Knabe​Supervisor Don Knabe is resisting union efforts to require a labor agreement for a broad range of construction projects at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.The brewing MTA labor battle has yet to spill into public view. But behind the scenes, Knabe has refused to take action on ... More >>

MTA: Expo Line To Open On Nov. 15

​After years of delays and cost overruns, the Expo Line is finally scheduled to open on Nov. 15, according to an MTA budget document. (H/T Streetsblog.)When it opens, L.A.'s newest light-rail line will be the first rail link to the Westside since the Pacific Electric shut down 50 years ago.Expo of ... More >>

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Blames City's Crap Street Conditions on Ailing Bus System

When in doubt, blame it on the bus​We knew City Hall and the Metropolitan Transit System favored rail over wheel when it came to public transportation, but Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's unabashed bus diss on KNX news radio this morning almost made us choke on our flamin' hot Cheetos ... More >>

MTA Ethics Office Drafted Censure Of Bernard Parks

Bernard Parks​The MTA ethics officer drafted a censure letter last year against L.A. Councilman Bernard Parks for accepting illegal campaign contributions. But the MTA board never followed up on it, according to a confidential memo issued last Friday.The L.A. Weekly reported last week that Parks h ... More >>

MTA Hid Report on Councilman Bernard Parks' Illegal Contributions

MTA Staff Wants to Cut 10 More L.A. Bus Lines by June, Shrink 16 Others

So much fuglier than a subway​The cuts just keep coming for the lurchy, unglamorous Los Angeles bus system. In fact, if Metropolitan Transit Authority officials keep goin' like they're goin', we're unlikely to have any bus system at all a few years out. Then again, maybe that's the point. Of ... More >>

L.A.'s Light-Rail Fiasco

How rail service to the Westside jumped the track

RIGHT NOW: Go Protest Racist, Politically Motivated Cuts To Crucial L.A. Bus Lines At The MTA Headquarters

If nothing else, do it for Parks!​As the Weekly reported yesterday in a long-winded rant, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is slowly eliminating the only form of public transportation that people in Los Angeles are dependent upon for their livelihood: the bus system. Your support is crucial ... More >>

MTA To Cut Nine L.A. Bus Lines By Dec. 12

Metro board chair Don Knabe says: Buses < Subways < My Car​Updated after the jump: The Bus Riders Union says the latest bus cuts are straight-up racist. Originally posted at 11:19 a.m. As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pumps all time and city resources into three more stops (12 more minutes) onto ... More >>

Ever the Slick Salesman, Antonio Villaraigosa Turned to Twitter to Combat Opponents of Subway to Sea

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​At the Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wasn't taking any chances that his legacy project -- Subway to the Sea, or maybe we should start calling it "Subway to Westwood" -- might somehow be, uh, dera ... More >>

Was Public Comment Period for Subway to Sea a Sham? MTA Staff Suggests Route Before Citizens Fully Weigh In

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa​Metropolitan Transportation Authority staffers have recommended a route for the Westside subway extension, also known as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's legacy project called Subway to the Sea, LAist reports. Some communities will be less than please ... More >>

L.A. MTA's New Electronic Bus And Train Passes Deemed A FAIL So Far

​In a recent informal survey of Los Angeles Metro riders, 54 percent who participated indicated that they don't like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's new Transit Action Pass (TAP) system. The pass is supposed to make riding Metro trains and buses and other regional systems easier, b ... More >>

Bus Fares Increase As Los Angeles Metro Executives Get Huge Salaries

​As fares for Metro buses and trains go up Thursday -- with an increase of 25 cents per fare or $13 for monthly passes -- you can rest assured that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is the recipient of a $40 billion windfall in taxes that you, the voter, approved in 2008, is pin ... More >>

MTA Looks At $1.50 Fares, Laying Off One Of Every Five Non-Contract Workers

MTA​The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is pondering deep cuts, including laying off 20 percent of its non-contact workforce, as it faces a $250 million budget deficit, according to La Opinion. Higher fares and fewer bus routes are also on the table. The paper reports that the heads of ... More >>

Supervisor Calls For Audit Of MTA After $30 Million Settlement

MTA​County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has proposed that his fellow board members help authorize an auditor-controller's office look into the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's "cost management process" after it recently settled a lawsuit for $30 million. Ridley-Thomas notes that the a ... More >>

L.A. Light Rail? Or Keep Your Car?

Villaraigosa's rush aside, the sales-tax increase won't pay off for decades

Villaraigosa Rail Car Deal A 'Fail'

A rail-car-manufacturing deal that was touted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a major job-maker for recession-ravaged L.A. fell through over the weekend, sending his go-go transportation agenda a little off track. The plan was to have Italian rail-car maker AnsaldoBreda build a 650-job factory in ... More >>

Two Trains Running -- Or Maybe Not

MTA Headquarters: Have the deciders decided?Photo: Dave Parker/WikipediaDamien Goodmon, South L.A.'s indefatigable public transportation activist, is sounding an alarm about the possible shelving of rail projects in his heavily African American community. Goodmon's group, the Citizens' Campaign to F ... More >>

Rider on the Storm: The Best and Worst of L.A. Buses, Subways and Light Rail

Scenic journeys to hell, on wheels

Planning Commission Votes to Tighten Sign District Laws

Last week, the City's planning commission voted on a proposal that would tighten up the city's "specialty billboard district" laws. The plan to revamp the sign district ordinance came about after concerns that the city was frivolously granting too many sign districts to billboard companies. The pl ... More >>

War Over MTA's "Eternity" Tax

The "temporary" sales tax would last 30 years. It's already set Eastside against Westside

MTA's Plan to Gate L.A.

Miraculously, our subways use an honor system. The pencil pushers just hate that

Letters: Banking on Teachers

Our readers write

What's Smart About Smart Growth?

City Hall's plan for the future expects you to give up the yard, the car - and learn to love density

Go, Henry, Go

Light at the end of the Red Line tunnel

The Subway Mayor

How a bus-only politician — and a car-obsessed city — are learning to love the underground

Red Line to Somewhere

Henry Waxman is onboard — sort of

Killing Time on the Ghetto Blue

The nation's busiest- and deadliest - light rail line

Let Them Pick Up Garbage

A plan for avoiding transit strikes in Los Angeles

Back in the Room

Exposing the power play that had silenced four labor-friendly MTA members

All A-Bored

The MTA’s mechanics aren’t the striking janitors of 2000

Stuck in Idle

Political reasons for the sluggish MTA contract talks

Sickness and Subways

Time to treat the county's health disaster as a national issue

Derailed Dreams

Bus Riders Union is bad for L.A.'s transit future

Almost Aboard

Eastside L.A. ponders its transit future

Tale of Two Strikes

Why the SEIU caved and the UTU hung tough

The Workers Walk

And belatedly, county officials realize they probably should try to negotiate a settlement

Mechanical Decency

Ignoring their president and the governor, the MTA’s mechanics stick by the drivers

Tensions on Board

Many Latino bus riders at odds with drivers and MTA strike

MTA Game Plan

The poor walk, so that the middle class can shrink

Smelly Buses

Audit finds sloppy procedures and interest conflicts in bus contract

The Arroyo Special

The Blue Line is a damned good idea — that costs too damned much

Fast Track

I got railroaded and now I’m hooked

Dig No More

But is this anyway to kill a subway?

Our selections in Tuesday's General Election (cont.)

Clean Air Takes Back Seat

Upgrades on the Gravy Train

We got laws for jokers like these