waltondammerung

The longest day--tales of public transit in LA

I thought nothing could top the day I missed my connecting commuter train, took the local train instead, which got caught behind another train that was in an accident, took a bus to get around it, and arrived at work an hour and a half late instead of 30 minutes early. Or the time I got off the train to try to catch a bus in El Monte, only to wander around for half an hour looking for the bus then find out later that there are two El Monte Stations--one for trains and one for buses. Or the time I decided to try to take a certain bus home, but arrived at the bus stop only to learn that the line had been discontinued by deciphering a cryptic, handwritten sign in Spanish taped to the bus stop sign.

But today beat them all. Having figured out two-station mystery in El Monte, I decided to try again. When I reached the El Monte bus station, I followed the sign for buses. I waited, and waited, and wandered around a little, finally realizing that I should have followed the signs to the parking lot, which is apparently where I was supposed to catch my bus. "Oh well," thought I, "I'll catch the next bus an hour from now. It's not the end of the world." Then a bus miraculously appeared after only a few minutes with the number of the bus line I was waiting for. I got on, only to realize after one stop that it was going the wrong direction. I asked the bus driver where to catch the bus going the other direction and got off. She had told me to wait on the southwest corner of the intersection we were at. I went to the southwest corner, there was a sign for the bus line I wanted (going in the correct direction this time), and I waited. As I waited, I saw my bus go by on the northwest corner of the intersection. I decided the bus driver had told me to wait in the wrong place, or that they'd switched the bus stops or something. So I got on another bus that would take me back to the El Monte bus station, hoping I'd figure out something from there, like getting back on the train. As I rode back toward the station, I saw my bus coming back in the direction of the stop where I'd been waiting. I guess the bus made a loop or something. So, I had to wait another hour for the next bus. Of course, that bus came, and the sign on it indicated it was going the wrong direction. Good thing I double checked with the driver, or I would have been waiting out in the cold for three hours. Eventually I got to work. I got there so late, I needed to stay late and couldn't take my normal train route home. I decided to try another bus route. "Bad idea! Danger! Danger!" you must be thinking. Too true. I arrived at the bus stop nice and early. As I approached, I saw a bus with my route's number on it, but, again, saying it was going the wrong direction, and 5 minutes earlier than my bus was scheduled to go by. So I didn't try to flag it down. Turns out it was my bus. I had to wait for the next one (an hour later, again). At least this time I was near where I could get some dinner. I finally got on a bus and arrived at the train station. At this point, I was expecting to get home around 9 pm. Until I saw the sign saying the trains were running 60-90 minutes late. I'll just leave the story there.

I keep telling people LA secretly has a great public transit system. Really, you can pretty much get anywhere you want using trains and buses. If you're psychic and know the train and bus maps and schedules by heart and have all the time in the world to wait if they're not on schedule.