metro late-night holiday service begins this friday
Thanks to the funds provided by many nightlife establishments in Los Angeles, Metro is beginning its late-night holiday hours program this Friday, November 21.
Friday and Saturday nights — or early Saturday and Sunday mornings, rather — through December 27, the Metro Red Line will be running until 3:00am, giving revelers in LA’s many entertainment districts the ability to get back home safely on the subway.
At a cost to the transit agency of $4,500 per night, “owl service” may seem like a small price to pay for the ability to remove drunk drivers from roads in Hollywood, Koreatown and Downtown — but it took the grassroots support of such organizations as Cedd Moses’s 213 Inc., the Bringing Back Broadway Initiative, Broadway theaters, Universal Studios, and LA Live among many others to raise the $54,250 cost for the pilot program.
While some may be unhappy that the program does not extend to connecting Metro lines (Purple, Blue, Gold or Orange), the success of the expanded hours may spur further late-night service in the future.
We all know the fun doesn’t end at midnight. Now for transit riders along the Red Line, it doesn’t have to.
Think this will affect Downtown’s expanding nightlife? Let us know!
17 comments
can’t wait for this! everyone should support it!
I was nearly stranded in Hollywood two years ago because the Metro closed around midnight. After bar hopping around that area until about 2AM, I was forced to take one of LA’s lovely taxi’s back to the downtown area. Would have saved a few bucks if the Metro was running to say the least. Cab rides from Hollywood to Downtown can be expensive!
Well, to answer the question, the Metro should probably run at least an hour or so later to accomodate people coming in and out of downtown for the nightlife. And yes, Lord knows it will take more drunk drivers off the road.
Please please let them extend the other line’s hours to match. That would be amazing.
So . . . they want to curb drunk driving, yet they’re cutting it off right before New Year’s? That’s pretty dumb.
I will definitely be utilizing this and if you *like* this, you should, too.
High ridership numbers will be the burden of proof.
This is a good start for future expansion of Metro hours for rail. Hopefully it’ll be successful enough to warrant continued extended hours during popular holiday seasons and eventually every weekend throughout the year.
Also, it is imperative that down-the-road, say 3-5 years from now, other popular lines should have extended hours like the Gold Line with the new Eastside Extension completed and possibly Expo Line and Blue Line to Long Beach…
Paul >> Extended hours are already Metro’s status quo for New Years — so while the pilot program ends Dec. 27th, Dec. 31st will also have extended hours.
Yes! I’m going to be organizing a Red Line based pub crawl before the Holidays. I’ll be getting a few friends together for this. Starting in North Hollywood, we will be hitting bars in Hollywood, Los Feliz, Koreatown and Downtown, all along the Red Line.
I’ve always wanted to ride it to The Faultline at Vermont & Melrose, and avoid driving home, now I’ll be able. Fantastic! *I like that pub crawl idea.*
hell yes on the red line pub crawl!
MTA makes me so pissed off sometimes I wanna do some domestic terror.
these late hours should be the norm – and def shouldn’t come at the expense of the business owners.
There’s got to be another contest MTA can enter besides ‘America’s Best’. What a joke that is! more like America’s Best…self-aware graphic design OR bum safe-haven.
get it together Metro! if only they knew how to use the internet over there they could read these comments.
I heard MTA gave money for Yes on 8, that true?
I heard MTA gave money for Yes on 8, that true?
Categorically NOT true. Geez. Get a GRIP people not everyone is against you. This is just a project to see if late night service will work for the Metro, not some sort of civil rights argument! Let’s stay on topic peeps.
I will be taking the red line back from at 2:30 tonight! Does anyone know when the last train leaves from Vermont and Beverly? Is it definitely in both directions till 3?
Vanzant: The trains were running in both directions until 3am.
I was surprised to see plenty of people on trains heading both to Union Station and North Hollywood. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a couple of drunk people riding the subway as opposed to driving drunk. I do believe there needs to be a broader outreach to those unaware of this pilot program. It can be a lot more successful but awareness is key.
Metro definitely needs to do more outreach and let people know about this. It’s a great program. I really hope it can be extended past New Year’s Eve.
This is sooo last year!
As for this year: http://www.lookandsound.com/blog/los-angeles/no-metro-extended-hours-this-holiday-season/