Ticket Master

One afternoon while estate-sale hopping in Highland Park, Steve Foster stumbled upon an old scrapbook--paper backing with plastic overlay--sitting beneath a pile of stamps. He glanced at it, assessed the contents as “ kind of cool,” and scooped it up for 40 or 50 bucks.

When Foster meticulously took the book apart, he found 500 or so vintage passes from the long-defunct Los Angeles Railway system. In near-mint condition, they spanned from 1934 to 1947. Graphics in bright colors trumpeted ephemeral events--a National Speedway Championship at the L.A. Municipal Airport, for example--or monuments of civic pride, such as L.A.’s Central Library.

Foster held on to the tickets for a few years, but ultimately decided they could be put to better use. “I’m not a collector.” He happened to be supplying the ceiling materials for the Hollywood and Vine Red Line station and showed his collection to Maya Emsden, director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro Art program. She was smitten.

This month the MTA will debut monthly, semimonthly and weekly transit passes (for buses and Metrorail) that feature the original artwork. “The role that art can play in a transit system is embodied in those passes,” Emsden says. “Instead of handing you a boring piece of paper, it’s something that shows the romance of travel.”