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Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena
Just a few items as a current Metro employee involved with the construction of the current rail system:
The "MTA" mentioned is Jared's post above about the monorail is in no way connected to the current agency named MTA; now using the name "Metro". The current MTA was created by a state legislation mandated merger of the old SCRTD (Southern California Rapid Transit District) with the then LACTC/RCC - Los Angeles County Transporation Commission and its subsidiary (of which I was an employee) the Rail Construction Corporation.
The name "Red Cars" was a nickname for the coaches used by the Pacific Electric company. There were over 1200 miles of track at its peak and yes it went from Ventura in the north; south to almost San Diego. Of course this was in the days well before the many county transit agencies that exist today. The only agency that works across counties today is the SCRRA - Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which you know (if at all) as "Metrolink". That agency has representation from Ventura, LA, Orange, SB and Riverside Counties on its board. It uses old freight rail right of ways purchased for use by new, low polluting double decker rail cars. It has been very successful but in no wy resembles a modern, catenary light rail system like this thread is bemoaning the loss of.
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Those in this thread aren't the only ones "bemoaning" its absence. And not many, I'm certain, care about the merger logistics, statistics, details, and anything else involved in what was once the SCRTD and what is now MTA, and what "Metrolink" governs over.
The fact is what was once the "Red Car" system needs to be reinstalled. Or something similar to it. If not that, a monorail that runs alongside the freeways and above major boulevards. The problem with a catenary rail system in LA Metro is much of the land such a system once existed on, has now, in its wake, been converted to something else. Ex. a catenary line ran down Santa Monica from West Hollywood, through Beverly Hills and West L.A. before breaking off at Sepulveda to head south. Guess what that land is used for now? In B.H., metered parking. In L.A., they widened the street.
As to the "Red Car," I've always wondered why waste billions on a subway to nowhere built in "earthquake country," when a good portion of the rail lines' infrastructure (I've heard almost 30%) still exists a half-century after the "Red Cars" were pulled off their routes and dismantled for whatever conspiring reasons?