The Times report portrays a transit system that was once the pride and hope of the city, now in the grip of crime, drugs, and human filth. And while the city’s leaders talk about the “Green New Deal” and moving millions of motorists from their cars to public transportation, the reality of the metro tells a different story.
The Times‘ Rachel Uranga wrote, in “L.A. riders bail on Metro trains amid ‘horror’ of deadly drug overdoses, crime”:
Drug use is rampant in the Metro system. Since January, 22 people have died on Metro buses and trains, mostly from suspected overdoses — more people than all of 2022. Serious crimes soared 24% last year compared with the previous.
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Commuters have abandoned large swaths of the Metro train system. Even before the pandemic, ridership in the region was never as high as other big-city rail systems. For January, ridership on the Gold Line was 30% of the prepandemic levels, and the Red Line was 56% of them. The new $2.1-billion Crenshaw Line that officials tout as a bright spot with little crime had fewer than 2,100 average weekday boardings that month.
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The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported deaths linked to fentanyl rose from 109 in 2016 to 1,504 in 2021, amounting to a 1,280% increase. First responders now often carry Narcan, an opiate reversal, and they need it on the Metro.
Read Uranga’s full story at the Times.
Just seven years ago, the L.A. Metro opened a long-awaited link, via the Expo Line, from downtown to the ocean, connecting central Los Angeles with downtown Santa Monica and the beach just a few blocks away.
The train ran into early complaints about homeless riders; messages blared frequently on the public address system warning against sexual harassment and theft. And now, drug users — “sleepers” — haunt the system.
More police are needed, and the Metro has added 300 unarmed “ambassadors” to help passengers and report crime. But amid the fentanyl pandemic, and growing homelessness, the Metro may soon be beyond salvation.
