I’m going to post the letter I wrote because it’s funny in part because I wrote this before LA Metro was on Google Transit and rant about that, among other things.

Hello! I’m a huge fan of commuter rail and public transit, and so when I
got a job in Culver City, I managed to complete the near-insane task of
figuring out how to get from Orange County to Culver City every day for
work via Metrolink and city transit.

After literally hours of examining the LA metro coverage map, scouring
timetables, and fumbling with the barely-usable Metro Trip Planner (please
tell LA Metro to put the timetables on Google Maps already!) I have
hammered out a route to and from work that involves the Metrolink, Norwalk
City Bus 4, the Metro Green Line, Culver City Bus 6, and sometimes Culver
City Bus 4.

Getting to work is great; even this morning when the Metrolink was late I
was only slightly (and not severely) late for work. If something happens I
tend to end up to work close to on time and it’s no big deal. The problem
arises when I go home.

Currently, when I go home, I have to leave work RIGHT at 5 and make a
brisk walk or outright run for Fox Hills Mall in case Culver City 6
decided to depart early that day, which it often does, often as early as
5:16, because if I don’t I might not make it to the green line early
enough to arrive at Norwalk in time for the Norwalk 4 that leaves at
around 6:30 and usually (for me so far, though my fellow commuters say
this isn’t a guarantee) makes it to the Metrolink station with roughly 4
minutes before the 6:51 southbound OC line.

This doesn’t leave much margin for error, evidenced by the fact that I’ve
only made it roughly half the times I’ve tried, especially since there’s
some construction going on a road and Norwalk 4 has made a habit of not
showing up at all. Norwalk City Transit was not willing to entertain the
idea of a Metrolink van for those of us who, well, can’t get home if that
bus doesn’t show up.

My apologies for the long story, but I just wanted to throw my voice in
for expanding service to run between 7:00 and 9:00 at Norwalk, waiting for
the Amtrak at 9 is a long time, and my girlfriend is very tired of coming
to rescue me! Even a Metrolink Van that runs down route in the evening for
those of us who can’t make it would be very helpful. Also if you have any
ideas for how to make my commute a bit more fail-safe that I’m missing I
would LOVE to hear them!

Thank you for (hopefully) listening, and I hope to be on more Southbound
trains in the future

And their response:

Thank you for contacting us through our web site.

We are pleased that hear that our service is an integral part of your epic
commute to work, but are sorry that we have no trains available on the
Orange county Line between 7-8pm.

The number of trains operating on the Orange County Line is determined by
the amount of funds given to Metrolink by the Orange County Transportation
Authority (OCTA) and Los Angeles County thru METRO. Also, trains on this
line operate on tracks owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad
(BNSF). Current plans do not call for more train services to be added
between Orange County and Los Angeles until the year 2010. It will be
necessary to amend our agreement with the BNSF to make this service
possible.

Metrolink recommends that; commuters who wish to have additional service
or lines added should contact their county department of transportation as
well as attend board meetings to voice their proposal.

Additionally, it sounds as though you have researched your commute
extensively; however, we recommend contacting Metro at www.metro.net or
call 1-800-COMMUTE (266-6883) if you have further inquiries concerning bus
scheduling and light rail service. Also, after having a quick look at the
Metro system; perhaps you may be able to take the Metro Green Line to the
LAX area where you could transfer to a bus to Culver City.

Should you have additional Metrolink questions or comments, please do not
hesitate to contact us via our website at www.metrolinktrains.com or
telephone our Customer Service Center at (800) 371-LINK (5465).

Sincerely,

Metrolink Passenger Services

So apparently I need to write an angry letter to (who else?) OCTA. And maybe some representatives or something. I really need to hang out with those Metrolink MAX guys more.

Description: I’m really disappointed that Culver CityBus seems to have no immediate plans to get their bus schedules in Google Transit. Considering the incredible potential for increased farebox revenue for extremely little effort, I would expect this to be a much higher priority considering LA Metro has already done the work for you and all that is left is basically signing a licencing agreement with Google. I use Google Transit nearly every day and have already taken LA Metro buses in lieu of Culver CityBus simply because I was able to get route information for the former much easier.

Please, as soon as possible, initiate talks with google and with LA Metro (see metro.net/developer for instance, all of the data for Culver CityBus is already available in Google Transit format) so that you can experience increased ridership and convince as soon as possible.

Finally, I got a response the other day!

Thank you for your request to have CCB join Google Transit. At this time we are exploring the possibility of participating in Google Transit especially after Metro joined. However as you know everything has a process therefore it may take some time before we are up and running. Please know that we are actively pursuing this matter.

It’s encouraging to know that they are actively persuing it! This data will be very useful, and I’m hoping it allows Google Transit to offer suggestions to refine my commute; as such I hope they are able to get through this process soon.

For those of you that don’t follow transit blogs, despite intense public opposition to the gates, fare evasion being incredibly low, and the entire metro system having station designs that don’t lend well to them, Metro cowtowed to a contractor that makes fare gates under the assurance that all the cool kids are doing it. “All the big and cool and IMPORTANT transit systems have fare gates, pity your little honor system isn’t like them! Also, something about terrorists.” If anyone out there doesn’t know what a cargo cult is, here is the dictionary definition. Rather than actually build a world class transit system becoming of a major metropolis like LA, just PRETEND you’re cool with fare gates. If only the Metrolink ran late enough for me to go to these planning meetings and yell at people……

Oh, dear.

Oh my, this is never going to end, will it.

I still prefer the Norwalk 4/Green Line/Culver 6 route to work (especially since I figured out that I can take not just the Norwalk 3 but the 108 and 110 to get closer to work from Fox Hills Mall, as well) although today I attempted taking the Green Line to Crenshaw, the 710 to Slauson, and the 358 East to work. It was really zippy, except the 358 doesn’t make any stops close to my workplace, so I’d have to go to the mall and walk or catch a bus back! The driver let me off at a red light somewhat nearby, but I have a feeling this isn’t something I could do every day.

I’m glad that Metro finally got on board for providing this data as it has had an actual positive impact on my day-to-day life, and I really hope that local agencies (especially Culver City, which seems to be dragging its feet!) follow suit so that I can find even more optimal ways of getting home and perhaps even getting to work faster…. I got to work in not much more than one hour and 30 minutes today, which is about how long it takes to drive.

Also been exploring the online trans-o-sphere of transit advocacy. While I am still relatively pure and undefiled, I would like to make a blunt statement: there is an awful lot of fragmentation and really stupid in-fighting going on. Better transit is better for all, and there’s a lot of my-way-or-nothing and scorched-earth “I hate everyone who doesn’t agree with me completely” going on and that’s incredibly sad and counterproductive. I did, however, find Metrolink Max, an organization with which whom I completely 100% agree with their stated goals!

This morning something unusual happened. Norwalk 4 made it from Metrolink Station to the Green Line a couple minutes before 6:31AM, which means I caught an earlier train than usual. When I arrived at the Aviation/LAX stop, the rare Metro bus was waiting, the one I thought I’d be riding every day until I figured out the far more frequent Culver City 6 was a better choice. I rode it hoping it would get there even faster, but unfortunately it follows the exact same route as the Culver 6 which left the terminal at pretty much the exact same time.

That got me to Fox Hills Mall at a few minutes after 7:20. I stayed there hoping a Crosstown 3 would show up earlier but it didn’t and I ended up taking the normal one. I should have walked

Coming home I managed to leave right on time but the often annoyingly early Culver 6 showed up a few minutes late. While waiting I took the time to examine a large map of the entire Metro system and made a discovery–there’s a bus that winds around from Union Station all the way down to Disneyland, stopping at the Norwalk Green Line, and at the Fullerton Metrolink and near the Buena Park one as well. Finally, a life vest!

A life vest that I am wearing as I write this, but I get ahead of myself. The Culver 6 made good time and I merely had to spend less time waiting at the Green Line platform. In Norwalk, however, I was surprised for the second day in a row with Norwalk 4 not showing up at all.

Rather upset at yet another day of a completely absent Norwalk 4, which I am now nicknaming “weakest link”, I called Norwalk Transit. Apparently some road is torn up that’s delaying the buses (or cause them to disappear down a black hole) and it’ll be that way for a couple of weeks.

Thankfully, I had just discovered the life raft. It’s a cumbersome, well worn beast that’s packed and smells horrible. It also didn’t arrive at a time that resembled anything like any of the numbers on the time table. Getting on I see why, half the people boarding were obviously from Orange County and didn’t know how to pay a fare, and it seems popular with handicapped passengers. It’s a bus to Disneyland, so as a matter of course I’m sharing it with a dubiously disabled overweight woman whose electric scooter is adorned with insane levels of Disney paraphinalia. I’ve also eavesdropped on a conversation that went from a shockingly lightheartedly told tale of someone’s entire family getting shot at that then moved on to landlord drama, and a boy bumping into his spiritual mentor and getting life advice and inspirational quotes. Another lady is swearing a lot and it sounds like in the back someone is having a lover’s quarrel over what must be a cell phone because I can only hear one side of the conversation.

I realized today that I think my fascination with public transit is rooted in how much I enjoy the people, and cheesy as it sounds, the “connection with humanity”. Hopefully though I won’t have to ride the smelly life raft too often.