Feeling just a little dizzy
One of the best train rides in Southern California is the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to Santa Barbara. It has a stop at the historic Los Angeles Union Station. If you’re ever at that station, take off an hour or so and go exploring. It’s a magnificent station.
There are many trains that go to Union Station, including Amtrak, Metrolink, and Metro Rail. Los Angeles Union Station also is a true mass transit station since it also has arrival and departure areas for vehicular traffic — buses, taxis, and individual passenger cars.
When Los Angeles built a light rail commuter system, they added on to Union Station in order to accommodate light rail cars. Light rail is intended for light loads and fast movement, i.e., commuter trains. Standard rail includes freight trains, and the passenger trains have much heavier engines and cars, with many of the cars including dining and sleeping facilities, something rarely found on commuter trains. The lighter loads on commuter trains, therefore, don’t require the heavier rail and infrastructure that freight and standard passenger trains require.
When I arrived at Union Station, I went in search of all that was new since 1978, which was the last time I explored the station. Here is an interesting picture of the new entrance from the side of the station that handles bus and taxi traffic.
I’m looking straight up taking the picture, blocking foot traffic behind me, but everyone was patient with me. The bottom of the photo is the original exterior of Union Station and the latticework is the newer roof over foot traffic coming from buses and taxis.
The hustle and bustle of the people at this entrance, and me looking straight up into that dizzying latticework made me a little dizzy, and this picture reinforces what I was feeling then.
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Posted on January 2, 2013, in Manmade, Photos, Picture of the Moment, Railroads & trains and tagged los angeles union station pictures, railroad pictures, trains pictures. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
Astonishing. Are airports as remarkable as train stations? And by the way, how do you calculate the value of Zoey’s approval? Sometimes, she doesn’t seem to have a price at all.
There are a few interesting airports but not too many. The tunnel at Detroit’s new airport is very interesting.
Zoey the Cool Cat will not give her approval until after she’s played fetch with her red ring and had a dish of food.
She has high standards.
My gosh. You are right. I can not look at the photo for longer than a few seconds. Weird for sure.
Hey, Ray, happy new year and thank you once again for ‘camping’ on Colltales. All the best. Wesley
I loved trains when I was a kid, especially the sound rolling across the prairies.
I have always want to do that train ride sometime. I heard the view of Solana beach via Amtrak is nice!
Cool photo! I would’ve guessed you were looking forward
I’m getting dizzy of this too, but it’s an incredible photo