I’m visiting my mom in Orange County, CA for Mother’s Day and thought I would take a detour to check out the National Train Day event Saturday at Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles.

I grew up in LA, but left for college before the first Metro line was up and running and have never had the opportunity to go check things out.  That’s why I figured I would make my detour a two-fer: see the train day festivities and go on a field trip to see how angelinos do rail transit.

I landed bright and early Saturday at Burbank Airport, walked outside the terminal, and inhaled.  Ahhh! Haze and smog.  I was home!  Actually, I’m sure most of the pollution was from the fires in Santa Barbara County.  Disney, Warner Bros., and NBC studios are not far from Burbank Airport, which is about 20 minutes outside Downtown LA.

The airport has easy access to Metrolink (information here) and Amtrak (information here) lines, but because I only had a couple of hours to spare I took a taxi.  Not the most affordable mode of transportation ($58 from Burbank to Union Station!) but considering the amount of time I had, the taxi ride was the most feasible.

I arrived at Union Station and the place was packed!  An Amtrak spokesperson said the turnout was good but she heard there were more people in attendance last year, the first year of the event.

According to a news release, National Train Day marks 140 years of connecting travelers from coast to coast.  Events in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as locally organized events like the one in Chandler, AZ, helped celebrate the importance of train travel throughout the country.  A link to NTD information is here. Randy Jackson from American Idol was the headliner at the Washington event.  Here in LA, one of the performers was hip-pop artist Chana

Here’s the set up for my detour, now for my research on the two transit systems.  Surprisingly there are many similarities in what both systems are going through, even though the LA system is about 20 years older.

I had about an hour to spare before my Amtrak train left for Orange County.  I decided to take a trip on the red line, the first operating line in modern LA has carried passengers since 1989.  Purchasing a fare was slightly easier here in LA than using the machines in Phoenix.

The reason the machines are less confusing is because your fare choices are on either side of the monitor instead of at the bottom like in Phoenix.  There are also less choices in fare amounts.  I bought a full day fare for $5, which is twice the amount in Phoenix.

LA has a huge bicycling community…

However it appeared the trains were less equipped to handle bikes…

The man with the bike above had to use a bungee cord to attach his wheels to a space dedicated for handicapped passengers.  Taking a look around, I did not see any space for bikes.

I also noticed the advertising on the LA trains.  Here’s a Zagat ad…

No STD PSA’s like the Friends episode…however there I did see a PSA for those who use subsidized fares.  Apparently LA is experiencing the same problem that we do.  People are forgetting to tap their passes at the kiosks…

While there were no STD PSA’s, there was a health related alert when I got to my stop at Wilshire and Vermont…

I should’ve brought my pocket size Purell! The above announcement rotated with a few others involving protecting yourself from catching a cough/cold/H1N1.

I almost got right back on the train, but instead decided to go up street level and that’s where I found the mass transit equivalent of Xanadu, sans ONJ on roller skates.

This mixed use complex sits on top of the station.  Of course, there’s a coffee bar…

Hello!  Coffee bar overflow!  Not only was there a place to grab a cup o’ joe, but also to grab some food, and get yourself a mani-pedi all in one place.  Awesome!  Er, uh, I mean…convenient.

I left Xanadu and realized something heading back to Union Station.  Just like Phoenix, LA also uses an honor system for fares.  Apparently, even after two decades, LA has the same problem we do with people not buying tickets to ride or forgetting to swipe their subsidized fare cards.  I asked a Metro station employee if the system was experiencing problems with evaders.

“Oh yeah,” said the Metro employee who happened to be standing next to me riding the escalator down to the platform. “There’s a $250 fine!”

When I got back to Union Station, I searched for a Metro spokesperson at the National Train Day event.  I found one, and asked him about the problem.  Before I could even finish my sentence, I saw him shaking his head in agreement.

“We’re getting gates,” said Metro’s Wally Shidler.  “They should be installed on most platforms by the end of the year.”

Angelenic Downtown Los Angeles blogged about the issue here.

As I boarded my AMTRAK train, I thought about my visit to Union Station and my Metro ride.  The field trip helped me see where rail can take Phoenix, and also how our growing pains are shared with many other transit systems around the country.

Thanks to my Twitter pal @michichan for helping with some advice when I first started out on my journey home. 

UPDATE: In celebration of National Train Day, here’s a twitpic from my friend who took a train ride in Germany back in 2008.  Love the all-steel-and-window enclosure!  Thanks for sharing your train ride,  Jenny!