Taking public transportation in Los Angeles is an anomaly.  This 498.3 square mile city’s driving force is the car . Because of this, the metro is often ignored, under funded and unexplored. Beyond the concrete jungle that spans the entirety of L.A., there’s a rapid transit system that spans about 73 miles of rail and has five lines: Blue, Red, Green, Gold and Purple.

Though a rail system is synonymous with a major, metropolitan area, the people of Los Angeles had this crazy idea in 1963 to close down all streetcar lines in favor of using cars on the freeway system. This action, as you can guess, helped created one of the most traffic-congested cities in the country. in the 80s, a measure was passed for a half-cent sales tax increase to rebuild the metro and light rail lines, with the Blue Line opening in 1990, with subsequent lines opening later. Amazingly, the Red and Purple lines averaged a weekday ridership of 153,928 by June 2008, making it the ninth busiest rapid system in the U.S.

Having always been fascinated by the metro system in other cities I’ve visited like New York and London, and since I seem to spend quite a majority of my waking time in the car, taking the L.A metro had been on my mind for a while and this Sunday, the opportunity presented itself. With a True Blood episode to catch at night, we set off to downtown in the afternoon, starting off at the Lake Ave. stop in Pasadena.

Let’s talk about the ticketing system of the Los Angeles metro system: it works on an honor system. AN HONOR SYSTEM, meaning, there are no turnstiles, no little machines you insert your ticket in before you can get through, no regulation. Basically, THEY TRUST US. Big mistake. Huge mistake. We  could have not bought tickets and have managed to get home and back on a free trip, in fact we saw many people that did just that.

Ticket barriers are coming, however it is estimated that the Metro loses 5.5 million a year because of this method.

The trains were really clean, with cushion seats and the most eclectic bunch of people you could have imagined, accurately reflecting all sectors of L.A. One of the major reasons I’ve always loved public transportation is because you can feel the heart beat of the city within its system – everyone with somewhere to be, someone to meet or something to see, everyone with one specific aim, shared by their mutual journey. It’s a lovely feeling, one that this city severely lacks. In L.A., everyone is a lone soldier, in their own car, after their own priorities – we even lack the proper patience for pedestrians.

After taking the Gold Line, we arrived in Union Station, opened in 1939 and known as the “Last of the Great Railway Stations” built in the U.S.

It’s a lovely place that makes you feel transported to the 40s. Serene and quiet, the most you hear there are the footsteps of travelers hurrying by with their families or luggage to get from one place to the next.

When we finally arrived in downtown, the sign below was the first thing that caught my eye. I wish all newsstands, however many there are left anyway, looked like that.

The blue building on the left is the Eastern Columbia Building. Opened in 1930, the Art Deco building housed clothing and furniture stores until it turned into condominiums that opened in 2006.

Our first order of business was Clifton’s Cafeteria, another Los Angeles landmark, that was recently in line to be sold, due to declining profits. Part deux of the exploration of a different side of Los Angeles coming tomorrow.