California has the longest light rail line in the world. (LA's A-Line, 58 mi long)

California has the longest light rail line in the world. It doesn't quite work, Opinion by Joe Mathews, San Francico Chronicle , 9/28/25 (no paywall and no "gimme your email first" games atr this MSN-hosted article)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-has-the-longest-light-rail-line-in-the-world-it-doesn-t-quite-work/ar-AA1Nsgm7

a few mini-excerpts --

But I hate how slow the A Line goes. It takes 2 hours and 27 minutes to get from Pomona to Long Beach (an hour's drive), in part because the trains must stop at red light intersections.

inside the train, the cars reek, often of urine and excrement. Floors and seats are covered in dried liquids of unknown provenance. Do they ever clean these things?

I love how cheap the A Line is, just $1.75 per ride, however long. I hate that you get what you pay for.

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I'm curious about the 2 1/2 times longer, time-wise, than by car. Don't they have red-light preemption? Don't cars have to stop for red lights too? Yes, of course there are a lot of stops (too many?), but I'm still surprised. I don't think there's anything like a 2 1/2 factor longer time on the Twin Cities light rails, more like 1 1/2 times.