I rode the first train out of Union Station that went to the new D Line stations!
I went to ride the new D line extension with some friends today! It was a crazy experience - for the first time, I rode a "first" train on a new train service opening. I was one of the several hundred people who piled into the first D line train leaving Union Station which continued down past Wilshire/Western to the three new stations at La Brea, Fairfax, and La Cienega.
It was incredibly crowded. I arrived about an hour and a half early and immediately got in line to get the six commemorative tap cards representing the new stations on the line. There were tons of collectors there already, including several in fursuits:
Huge respect to the transit-loving furries who apparently attend train openings in LA as a group all the time. Someone mentioned to me that they regularly appear in official metro photographs of their opening events because they are so dilligent in attending. They also brought their own banner.
This banner was definitely aligned with the tone of the event. I saw literally hundreds of people in Ride the D t-shirts, and the crowd at Union Station (and in the train) periodically broke out in "Ride the D" chanting. Some of the stations still had unofficial gag sex joke posters on the walls. When the first train left the station, it was absolutely packed, and the mood was nuts. I was in the final car, where I got sniped in this photo from Reddit. I found myself standing next to a random attendee who was trying to do crowd work at the top of his lungs. I have never seen a crowd of people as uniformly hyped for anything outside a concert before:
We rode the train down to the furthest new station, Wilshire/La Cienega, then explored the little festival location they had set up on the surface of the station. I got a lot of merch. I gotta admit that merch-hounding was one of the big reasons I went so early in the day...
We ended up visiting each station from La Cienega inward. I was particularly impressed by the middle station, Wilshire/Fairfax, which goes directly to the Fairfax museum district. It's directly next to the Petersen car museum, across the street from LACMA and the Academy Museum, a short walk to the LaBrea Tar Pits, and down the road from the SAG-AFTRA building. Insanely convenient. Tourists are gonna use the hell out of this stop... but honestly locals will, too. These are great public places. I've actually visited these museums more frequently in the last ten years than I have the museums in Expo Park, which are technically closer to me. They're really good!
I saw more than one person today whom I suspect was either a transit YouTuber, a person who frequently appears in transit YouTuber videos, or a production person who works on other people's YouTube channels. I overheard some conversations. It was very funny to be at an event which simultaneously had the vibe of a professional meetup, a civic celebration, a furry convention, and a Reddit meetup. There were people wearing business suits with Metro lapel pins standing next to people with cutoff Ride the D shirts next to elderly foamers next to college-aged foamers next to staff with multi-thousand-dollar cameras filming and photographing the crowd. I encountered the r/CarIndependentLA subreddit group ride. I also got to meet a friend of a friend who works on this recently-launched transit speedrun website, which I highly recommend checking out.
Anyway... I had a great day! If you live in Los Angeles, please check out the D line extension this weekend if you can - fares are free all over the system and this is the nicest and cleanest it will ever look, haha. Transit infrastructure is so important and precious and it is such a privilege to be living in one of the few cities in the United States that still wants to build transit. It can always get better, but we gotta take our wins where we get them. Take a ride if you can, and enjoy it!!