The train is actually the one form of transit that usually beats driving, at least the trains that are grade separated (red and purple). There is no faster way to get between downtown LA and hollywood than the redline for most of the day. The expo line is pretty slow since a lot of it runs at grade, but even then it can beat a day with terrible traffic on the 10 going into santa monica.

Agreed. Over the past decade I've commuted by some combination of all of LA's train lines, and the orange line, too.

Red and purple and the best. Although purple's lack of distance degrades the value. Green, yellow, and expo are decent, but Yellow running at-grade degrades the utility somewhat, as for the expo line, as you said. The Green line didn't freaking connect to LAX, completely negating it's potential utility.

Blue line and orange line are by far the worst, being entirely at street level and interrupted constantly with cross traffic.

Honestly, what really needs to happen is: 1) Purple line completes intended extension. 2) Submerge the blue line and install new station for connection w/ green. 3) The orange line needs to be submerged and absorbed by the red 4) New rail line from the I-5 that follows the 405 S. It would connect with the expo, LAX/green lines, and terminate with the blue line in LB. The red line would connect/intersect with it slightly north of the 101.

Already, those are pipe-dreams due to... well, everything about building public infrastructure. But LA does have the bones for some decent public transit, even if they'll never really invest in it.