Back on Angels Flight, Nearly 10 Years Later

As you know, downtown's Angels Flight funicular -- billed "the shortest railway in the world" -- re-opened this summer, nearly 10 years after a fatal accident shut the attraction down.

Dating back to 1901, Angels Flight was dismantled in 1969 and finally rebuilt in 1996, when railcars Sinai and Olivet returned, one block south of its original Bunker Hill location.

Shut down after the 2001 incident, it took years, and plenty of false starts (here's a 2003 Franklin Avenue post, in which we write about its "imminent" return), to get Angels Flight working again.



With my parents in town over Labor Day weekend, we decided to finally take our first trip since the re-open. And since Blogger Boy wasn't around when Angels Flight last operated, this would be his (and Blogger Baby 2.0's) first experience.

The kids got a kick out of the angled train cars, while I couldn't help but notice that the ads inside the train were still left over from 1996 -- including several ones promoting First Interstate Bank.



But I also couldn't help but cringe a little bit and think about the 2001 accident -- in which a cable snapped, causing a collision. All was OK, however, and we enjoyed the scenery (made famous last year, of course, in "(500) Days of Summer") on top.

The one-way ride is still just a quarter.

351 South Hill Street
(213) MA 6-1901
Open every day, 365 days a year, from 6:45 a.m. until 10 p.m.


The view from Angels Flight