Angels Flight Railway

Next Saturday at 10 a.m., after a shutdown of 27 years, the Olivet and the Sinai will carry passengers from Third and Hill streets to the top of Bunker Hill and return. The revival of the Angels Flight Railway, two funiculars ascending and descending an incline 315 feet in length, is not, at first glance, an Earth-shaking event. Yet, the revival of this historic structure, the shortest railway in the world, Los Angeles Landmark No. 4, has a message for the embattled downtown.

MAdison 6-1901: That old telephone number for the Angels Flight Railway conjures up images of preskyscraper downtown Los Angeles, when the funicular transported people between Bunker Hill and the retail and commercial district below. For those who wax nostalgic, the Angels Flight is back. Restored to its old glory and with the old Madison prefix (that's "MA," or 62, for those who don't remember), Angels Flight resumes service this Saturday after a 27-year hiatus.

The 70-second ride is only slightly bumpy, a little noisy and a lot of fun. Certainly worth a wait of 27 years. That was the enthusiastic verdict Saturday from the first public round of passengers on the restored Angels Flight railway in downtown Los Angeles. After nearly three decades in storage and a $4.1-million overhaul, the funicular was welcomed back like a long-lost friend by the estimated 4,000 people who rode its two orange-and-black cars and celebrated at a sun-blessed arts festival.

Jose Contreras scrapes away tiny flecks of paint from a worn piece of wood, an unassuming piece of Los Angeles history in his hands. Behind him, in the back yard of a workshop in San Fernando, lie more bits of wood and chunks of concrete, the skeleton of the city's historic Angel's Flight cable cars. Contreras, his boss and a co-worker were the surgeons at work Wednesday, carefully restoring the framework of one of the city's most significant public transportation monuments.

Linda Valles became teary-eyed Thursday just seeing the orange-and-black Olivet, a wooden cable car from the Angel's Flight funicular she often rode as a teen-ager. "When I see it here, I almost cry because of all the memories. A lot of memories. A lot of fun," said Valles, a 68-year-old retired hospital worker who grew up on Bunker Hill.

When Angels Flight, the L.A. landmark dubbed "the shortest railway in the world," closed in 2001 after a fatal crash, many wondered whether it was gone for good. Officials announced Tuesday that the funicular will reopen this summer -- but Angels Flight will return to a decidedly different downtown Los Angeles. In the six years during which Angels Flight has been out of operation, downtown has seen a remarkable residential transformation.

When she was a child in the 1960s, one of Monique Birault's favorite weekend excursions was heading downtown with her mother from their Echo Park home to ride the Angels Flight railway up and down Bunker Hill, followed by a visit to Olvera Street. Birault, now a Santa Monica architect, recalled those happy outings Saturday as she painted the railings along the railway, closed since a 2001 crash that killed a passenger.

The Bunker Hill Trolley, a brightly painted bus that shuttled passengers up and down the steep hills that separate Grand Avenue and Hill Street downtown, was scheduled to make its last rounds Sunday. The service was started in 2001 to replace Angels Flight Railway, a hillside cable car that was closed that year after an accident killed an 83-year-old man and injured seven others.

In a final report, federal investigators said that faulty mechanical and brake systems, combined with weak oversight, led to a fatal crash two years ago at the historic Angels Flight railway, which could open again next year after being closed since the accident. The crash occurred Feb.

Just as many enterprises have been opening downtown in recent months, others have been closing--some temporarily, some for good. Here's a quick look at four erstwhile attractions you shouldn't expect to see downtown, at least not right away. For other downtown information, including upcoming events, parking and driving directions, check any of these Web sites: www.downtownla.com, www.downtownnews.com or www.newdowntown.com.