Angels Flight Railway has endured sweeping adjustments over many years ferrying passengers up and down a hill in downtown Los Angeles — however even it isn’t proof against the pressures of inflation.
The enduring funicular railway has introduced that fares will enhance from $1.00 to $1.50 beginning June 1 to maintain tempo with the rising value of insurance coverage, upkeep and labor. A memento spherical journey shall be out there for $3 and L.A. Metro TAP Card customers can proceed to trip at half worth.
That is the primary worth enhance since 2017 and officers say they don’t anticipate one other being vital for the foreseeable future.
“Angels Flight is not only a mode of transportation — it’s a residing piece of Los Angeles historical past,” Hal Bastian, president of the nonprofit Angels Flight Railway Basis, mentioned in a press release. “This fare change will permit us to proceed serving our neighborhood whereas sustaining the security and heritage of the world’s shortest railway.”
The funicular has handled its fair proportion of upkeep and security challenges through the years, most notably a terrifying 2001 accident when a automobile broke unfastened on the high of the monitor and plummeted to the underside of the hill — killing an 83-year-old vacationer from New Jersey and injuring seven others.
Investigators later concluded that defective mechanical programs, mixed with weak oversight, had been in charge.
Tickets value only a penny when the practice opened in 1901, providing commuters a sensible strategy to navigate the steep terrain between ritzy Bunker Hill housing and downtown Los Angeles places of work. The railway carried about 4,000 passengers each day earlier than shutting down in 1969 when Bunker Hill’s historic housing was razed to make method for skyscrapers.
The railway reopened in 1996, half a block from its authentic location, to supply vacationers and residents the chance to pattern a novel piece of L.A. historical past. Tickets to trip the revived Angels Flight between Hill Avenue and California Plaza value 25 cents then.
Nevertheless, the railway shut down as soon as once more following the 2001 incident. It took 9 years to get the troubled practice again in fee and it continued to be stricken by issues.
Angels Flight closed quickly in 2011 as a consequence of put on on the automobiles’ tires. Two years later, the railway was shut down indefinitely following a derailment that September, with no accidents reported, and a subsequent security report by the Nationwide Transportation Security Board.
The funicular returned to the limelight in 2016, when Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone rode it for the movie “La La Land.” A yr later, it reopened to the general public with new security requirements in place. Since then, no vital points have been reported.
