Rail Transportation

Carmen Trutanich Was Knocked Down. Can He Get Back Up?

Humiliated in the DA's race, "Nuch" is trying to hold onto his job as City Attorney

Toxic Train or Green Railway? L.A. Harbor Neighbors, Environmentalists and Long Beach Officials Fight Los Angeles

By Christina Schoellkopf The job-creating $500 million Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway plan is heading to the Los Angeles City Council for a vote on the Environmental Impact Report even as a top environmental group says working-class families and children in polluted Wilmington will be subject ... More >>

Proposition 39 Absentee Ballot Results: Voters Torn Over $550 Million Yearly for Green Projects, Higher Tax on Business

Update: Prop. 39 surged ahead as precincts began reporting from around California. See next page for more. Early returns show California voters almost evenly split on Proposition 39, which the fiar-minded, non-partisan California Legislative Analyst's Office says could pour up to $1 billion into st ... More >>

Old Railcars at Union Station Are Ready for You to Charter for $5,000 a Day

Los Angeles Union Station isn't just a mass-transport hub. It's also a semi-retirement home for a cluster of vintage railroad cars that occupy the station's annex, also known as "the garden." Most of the trains won't move. A few get lucky and land the occasional film permit, scoring a cameo in a sce ... More >>

California Bullet Train to Nowhere Gets $6 Billion Via State Lawmakers

California's bullet train dreams have had a nightmare of a year, including lagging public support and a need for billions in a bad economy. But supporters eked out a dreamy victory today: The state Senate approved an $8 billion package to fund the first leg of the train (from nowhere to nowhere):

California Bullet Train's Promise of Jobs is Overstated, Says UCLA

That $100 billion publicly financed bullet train that would connect Angelenos to the Bay Area for the low, low one-way price of $120 (more, in some cases, than airfare) has more problems than Jay-Z. We reported recently that Golden State voters no longer support the thing: You seem to think buildin ... More >>

DesertXpress: High-Speed Train Will Run From Vegas to Palmdale, Serve Booze

A high-speed rail from SoCal to Vegas is every party girl and businessman's dream, obviously. But up until now, DesertXpress Enterprises' proposed route, nicknamed the "bridge to nowhere," has been laughable. That's because it ended in freaking Victorville -- a creepy desert trucker-stop of a city ... More >>

California Bullet Train Would Die if Voters Had Their Way

LA Weekly has been expressing doubts about California's proposed $100-billion-plus bullet train for a few years now. Although we some criticism for it, it looks like a majority of you are starting to have the same second thoughts. In fact, some of the highest resistance to the high-speed rail proje ... More >>

I Wish Review

Hirokazu Koreeda's latest

Amtrak's Ancestors: The Huntington's Exhibit on the History of the Transcontinental Railroad

Long before studios, hippies, method actors and reality-show wannabes headed out west, the Pacific Coast was a destination for farmers, miners, prospectors and other wagon-wheeling homesteaders who were looking for a new way of life. Two years after California struck gold in 1848, it became a part o ... More >>

California's $100B Bullet Train 'Not Feasible' at This Time, Says Peer Review Group for the High-Speed Rail (Surprise, Surprise)

The Bullet Train: Even more expensive a pipe dream than the L.A. mayor's "Subway to the Sea."​How many more warnings will it take for starry-eyed California politicians to realize the voter-approved $100 billion Bullet Train is a budget disaster waiting to implode? On top of skepticism from t ... More >>

Bullet Train Fantasy or Fiscal Nightmare? Californians Turn Against $100 Billion High-Speed Rail Plan

A bullet train cruises past Mount Fuji in Japan.​We had our doubts about this multi-billion, high-speed-rail utopia that would plow through homes, farmland and towns. Now you do too. Don't get us wrong. Prove we need it and we're there. But with the cost of a ticket doubling to an estimated t ... More >>

$100 Billion Bullet Train

Democrats fray as cost skyrockets, feds bail, and Amtrak starts to look good

Palmdale Seeks Injunction Against California High Speed Rail Authority To Stop I-5 Study

​The city of Palmdale came out swinging on Tuesday, filing a motion in federal court that seeks a temporary injunction to keep the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) from spending certain funds for a study of a rail line along Interstate 5. "Again we're asking why are we wasting ta ... More >>

405 Closure Got You Down? Check Out the Five Craziest Design Ideas for Saving Our Transportation System

Courtesy Van Alen Institute.​ Without harping too much on that inconvenient thing happening on a big road somewhere in West L.A. this weekend, let us begin this modest post by agreeing that transit in L.A., in California, and in the vast majority of the US, could stand a few more efficient alt ... More >>

Total Bummer: Annual Amtrak Mooning in Laguna Beach Suffers from Crackdown (With Photos, NSFW)

Paul T. BradleyTake THAT, British archers, er, Amtrak...​ There's an annual Orange County wildlife spectacle rife with enough tradition, mystery, and lore to intrigue even the most seasoned of naturalists. Swallows be damned, we're actually talking about the Annual Mooning of the Amtrak in La ... More >>

$9 Billion California High Speed Rail Route: The Planning is So Inept That it's Souring Residents from North to South

California bullet train: little rooting for the route​Investigative reporter Tracy Wood writes today about the inept, cloaked, and somewhat creepy PR strategy followed by the California High Speed Rail engineers and Parsons Brinckerhoff, who have not followed basic transparency and outreach ru ... More >>

High-Speed Train to Vegas From Victorville

Just one hitch: You have to drive to Victorville

Is the Essential Character of L.A.'s Landmark Union Station in Some Kind of Danger?

Union Station in downtown Los Angeles​Nothing is certain yet, but we can already see a major brouhaha brewing over the future plans for Union Station if it's sold to the California High-Speed Rail Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The much-beloved Union Station is actu ... More >>

California Bullet Train To Los Angeles Via Bakersfield: Real Or A $43 Billion Mirage?

Money is so tight, the new leg doesn't actually go into Bakersfield as pictured.​The California High-Speed Rail Authority, ridiculed for its secrecy, mismanagement, conflicts of interest and crazy overspending -- and for choosing as the California bullet train's first leg a "route to nowhere" ... More >>

Three Victims, Possibly Taggers, Dead After Amtrak Train Hits Them In Commerce

Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner.​Updated throughout. Third man confirmed dead. First posted at 11:02 p.m. Monday. Three males were dead after an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train struck them in Commerce Monday night, according to reports. The pair might have been suspected taggers, and the area wher ... More >>

Former Valley State Assemblyman Richard Katz Bails From California High-Speed Rail Board

No. 1 with a bullet: California's high-speed rail project.​After we reported that former state Assemblyman Richard Katz might have been breaking the law by sitting on two government boards -- L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and California's High Speed Rail Authority -- Katz caved ... More >>

Officials To Consider Four High Speed Rail Stations In The Valley

​According to the Burbank Leader, officials are set to meet next week to hear reports on possible high-speed rail locations in the San Fernando Valley. California's planned 800-mile high-speed rail system will include one station in the Valley. Representatives of the California High-Speed R ... More >>

Does Rail Have a Future?

The Cost Of Riding California's Bullet Train Has Nearly Doubled (And There's Not A Foot Of Track Yet)

​If you voted in 2008 to approve a high-speed rail line from San Diego to the Bay Area, we wouldn't blame you if you felt a little hoodwinked right now. While $55 one-way fare was touted as an alternative to $60 flights between L.A. and San Francisco, the San Jose Mercury News points out that ... More >>

Metrolink Riders Safe From Price Increase -- For Now

Metrolink's board today backed off from a six percent fare hike that it had threatened to put into effect starting Jan. 1. Instead it's going to pursue more creative options in order to try to deal with a budget gap.​ The train system is hurting in this economy -- just like everyone else -- becaus ... More >>

AFI FEST Free Admission: The Dark Side

Writing the Trains: Graffiti on Freight Cars

California High Speed Rail to Award $9 Million PR Gig to Ogilvy

​Is it impossible to hire a PR firm that isn't staffed by former Schwarzenegger aids?After taking a beating for handing a $9 million public relations contract to Mercury Public Affairs, whose partners include several former members of Schwarzenegger's inner circle, the Californa High Speed Rail Au ... More >>

Riled Over California's High-Speed Rail

It sounded like such a good idea. But the highly disruptive routes anger many

High Speed De-Rail: Schwarzenegger Cronies Give Up $9 Million in Easy Money

​Looking for proof that good old fashioned muckraking can alter the course of political decision-making? Well, consider the latest twist in the controversy over Schwarzenegger cronies who had been handed a staggering $9 million for public relations efforts concerning California's high speed rail. ... More >>

Is L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich Screwing Over a Little Guy?

Ever since his arrival as the new Los Angeles City Attorney this summer, Carmen Trutanich has loved to come across as a man of the people.L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich​Trutanich has sparred with the L.A. City Council to the delight of many community activists; he has also personally held a t ... More >>

Update: Naser 'Jimmy' Nasralla Finds A Lawyer

Naser Nasralla, the homeless man known as "Jimmy" who lives in a tent near a stretch of railroad tracks in Northridge, woke up this Monday after only a few hours sleep. As usual, he fed the stray, abandoned cats in his neighborhood until the early morning. But now Jimmy needed to take care of himsel ... More >>

Jimmy On the Edge of Town

A Homeless Christian-Muslim From Palestine Pitches a Tent Behind Bed Bath & Beyond in Northridge. Then Come the Railroad Men and Feral Cat Activists.

Freak Wildfires Hit County

It's bad enough when an Amtrak tour bus catches fire on I-5 and is destroyed by flames. Worse, however, would be if the blaze then sets off yet another Castaic-area wildfire -- which is what happened today. According to Associated Press, all nine bus passengers and their luggage, plus the driver, sa ... More >>

Train-ing Day Shocker: NTSB Releases Report on Metrolink Engineer's Ride-Along Program

Federal investigators have revealed for the first time that not only had Metrolink engineer Robert Sanchez allowed youthful train enthusiasts to ride along with him in his locomotive's cab, but also permitted some to work the train's controls. In fact, Sanchez, an avid text-messenger, was busy makin ... More >>

Union Station Makes Photographer Erase Pictures

The Photo Police have struck again! According to Discarted (via L.A. Observed) a photog known as ShutterBuda was merrily snapping pictures inside L.A.'s highly photogenic Union Station when two Amtrak employees and an irate traveler ("I'm an ex-Guarian Angel!") told ShutterBuda to shut it down -- an ... More >>

Rolling on the Coachella Express to Indio

On the Coachella Express, there are a few distinct types of people: the media, which was invited to document the maiden voyage of the Amtrak line that departed LA's Union Station Thursday afternoon, and who wouldn't leave the kids alone. Local LA news crews were doing their two-minute Coachella ... More >>

Best Escape From L.A.

The Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

Freight Train Graffiti

Trucker Talk

Ports of Cough

What it will take to clean up the mess caused by ships and trucks

Mooning America

The Hobohemians

On the rails with the new freedom riders

Letters

Two Trains Running

Riding the rails in Fillmore

Poetry in Locomotion