LA’s iconic Angels Flight railway climbs Bunker Hill once again – LA Daily News

Dozens of people endured hellish heat Thursday morning in front of the bright, orange arch of Los Angeles iconic Angels Flight, for what many of them called a short, yet significant train ride to local history heaven.

The ride was amazing! It felt great, a perspiring L.A. Mayor Eric Garctti told a crowd of reporters after he and City Councilman Jose Huizar rode the first car of the morning up downtowns Bunker Hill.

On a hot day like today, its a perfect day to ride Angels Flight, he added. Theres a couple of historic bumps. The historic bumps are part of it. But it felt very safe, very secure.

The funky little funicular that carried Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to the top of downtown L.A. in the movie La La Land reopened to the general public Thursday morning. Dubbed the worlds shortest public railroad, Angels Flight will resume doing what it first did on New Years Eve 1901, ferrying riders up and down the citys stunningly steep Bunker Hill. A round trip cost a penny back then. It will now cost a $1 per round trip, or .50 cents with a TAP card.

For Whittier resident Ron Cherryholmes, the railway carries a special place in his heart and blood: his great-, great-, great-grandfather Col. J.W. Eddy built Angels Flight, which operates by using the counterbalancing weights of its cars to pull one up while the other descends.

Its a landmark, Cherryholmes said. People always link Los Angeles with it. Were so honored to be a part of it.

The railway has long made its mark as part of downtown Los Angeles historic landscape, even being mentioned in John Fantes American classic Ask the Dust. But its own journey has been one of stops and gos.

It closed in 1969 for a decades-long redevelopment project that saw Bunker Hills mansions replaced by high-rise office buildings, hotels, luxury apartments and museums.

Four years after it reopened in 1996 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It was closed again in 2001, however, after a failure of the counterbalancing system caused a crash that killed one rider and injured several others. The railway finally reopened in 2010, only to be closed three years later after riders had to be rescued by firefighters. No one was hurt, but a subsequent investigation revealed numerous safety flaws, and the state Public Utilities Commission shut the railway down.

Thursdays reopening came about with a little push from the film La La Land. Stone and Gosling climbed aboard it for a scene that depicted a romantic nighttime ride.

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By the time the Oscar-nominated film was released last year, officials were considering plans to reopen Angels Flight. But the movie seemed to give them added incentive. While it was closed, the public had to use an adjacent steep, smelly, trash-strewn stairway.

La La Land was the last straw, laughed local historian and preservation activist Richard Schave. It was like, OK, we have to get a yes on this now.

Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, had launched a popular petition drive to reopen the railway after an ugly graffiti attack damaged its two antique rail cars in 2015.

That sentiment was repeated again and again among riders, who said it was Angels Flight that solidified their love affair with the City of Angels.

Donovan Sinohue of Yorba Linda was so excited to ride Angels Flight he dressed in an early 20th century white period suit. His great-, great- grandfather worked to pave the streets of Los Angeles. His grandfather, a World War II vet and Native American code talker, worked with the Los Angeles Unified School District and his father worked for the Department of Transportation. Sinohue works in the citys election division. He said he worked to get the word out about Angels Flight opening because of his own history with Los Angeles. He said he was honored to have a small part in a big operation.

Steven Luftman and Karen Smalley, a couple from Central Los Angeles historic Carthay neighborhood, said they appreciated the citys efforts in preserving Angels Flight. Luftman, a Los Angeles native, said he hadnt been on Angels Flight for 20 years.

This kind of historic romantic old L.A. is why I was drawn to coming here from New York 20 years ago, Smalley added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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LA's iconic Angels Flight railway climbs Bunker Hill once again - LA Daily News