Visitors to downtown Los Angeles can once again ride the steep narrow gauge railway named Angels Flight from Grand Central Market on Hill St. up to the top of Bunker Hill.
(Be sure to check whether or not Angels Flight is actually working. It sometimes closes for maintenance. Here is the link to the site.)
World’s Shortest Rail Line
Billed as the “world’s shortest railway”, it was built in 1901, but was shut down and removed in 1969 during a frenzy of urban development on Bunker Hill. Finally in the late 1990s, it was dug out of a warehouse and reinstalled in its current location. The railroad was closed 4 years ago after a serious accident. Several safety upgrades have been added.
And the price for a one-way ride on the funicular cars named Olivet and Sinai has gone up to $1! If you have a Metro TAP card however, the fare is still only fifty cents for the steep ride up or downhill.
Also added: a sculpture of a California condor near the bottom stairs that parallel the rails. This appeared a few months ago and I am not sure who did it or why. But it’s there–see below.
(This post was originally published in 2017. Happily, Angels Flight is still running from the top of Bunker Hill where several museums are located down 2 blocks to the Grand Central Market just across the street from the lower station.)
