Pursuits
In Car-Crazy L.A., Rail to the Beach Promises Stress Relief
- Santa Monica connection is first train to the ocean since 1953
- RAND and Red Bull encourage auto-bound workers to take subway
A Metro Expo Line test train approaches the Downtown Santa Monica Metro Expo Line light rail station.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Francis Aquino, whose company makes an app for meditation, has a most un-Zen commute: an eight-mile drive to Santa Monica that can take an hour and fifteen minutes each way in bumper-to-bumper Los Angeles traffic.
The 38-year-old office manager for Headspace Inc. is counting the days until he can instead ride a new $1.5 billion light rail line that opens May 20. It will connect Los Angeles with the ocean and adjacent parts of the city’s west side for the first time since trolley cars to the beach were discontinued in 1953.