Dickens on Los Angeles Transit

The LA Times checks out the new rail line with a UCLA English Professor who just published a neat looking book titled "Charles Dickens's Networks, Public Transport and the Novel." (I haven't read it yet.) Here is one takeaway:

By 1870, the year Dickens died, London's transit system was arguably better than the one serving Los Angeles today.

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that statement from the story, but it's interesting to think about. This is a better takeaway and what makes the book sound worth reading:

"Dickens would have been surprised at how long it has taken Los Angeles to build its rail system," the professor said as our Gold Line train eased into Chinatown. "He was so into the power of rail. Amazed by the sense of making you fly without effort. He'd say that creating a network can change the way a place views itself."

I'm not so into the aspect of speed, but this may be a novel (pun intended) take on transport networks.