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Light Rail

Metro is trying to make the Blue Line—its deadliest rail line—safer

by Bianca Barragan Nov 4, 2016, 1:51pm PDT

The transit agency is finally adding features aimed at preventing deadly crashes along the 26-year-old rail line, which runs from Downtown Los Angeles to Downton Long Beach.

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Here's the rail station that will connect to LAX

by Bianca Barragan Jun 24, 2016, 3:22pm PDT

The Aviation/96th Street station will serve as a hub not only for rail and buses but also for travelers trying to get to the airport. The station will eventually connect to LAX via a people mover. Here's what the much-anticipated station looks like.

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Everything Metro LA Wants to Build Over the Next 40 Years

by Jeff Wattenhofer Mar 18, 2016, 3:02pm PDT

The timeline for 40 years worth of Metro projects has been revealed to the public. The breakdown of future spending includes money for helping the Downtown streetcar break ground (in 2053) and finishing up the LA River bike path.

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Metro's LA Transit Wishlist: Something For Everyone

by Jeff Wattenhofer Mar 11, 2016, 3:44pm PST

Metro outlines the projects it would fund with a new ballot measure tax increase, and they span the region, from WeHo to the Valley to the South Bay and the Westside.

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Take a Ride on the New Gold Line Extension Opening March 5

by Bianca Barragan Feb 17, 2016, 11:32am PST

And we're on board a Gold Line train to Azusa pic.twitter.com/AMZ2UlgZIK— StreetsblogLA (@StreetsblogLA) February 17, 2016 On March 5, the Gold Line Foothill Extension will be open to the public, connecting the line's current end point in...

Here's the Latest Look For Three of the Future Stations on the Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Line

by Bianca Barragan Jan 29, 2016, 12:51pm PST

Metro's Crenshaw/LAX Line has been underway since 2014, and while we've seen brief glimpses of construction work on the some of the light rail line's eight future stations, we are now getting a look at shiny new renderings for three of the stops...

Metro May Run a New Rail Line Right By Inglewood NFL Stadium

by Bianca Barragan Jan 25, 2016, 11:18am PST

The planned Los Angeles Rams stadium in Inglewood is just about to get shovels in the ground, relatively close to a future Metro rail line (just shy of two miles from the Crenshaw Line's Downtown Inglewood station), but Metro's Board of Directors...

The Expo Line to Santa Monica is Basically Finished Now

by Bianca Barragan Jan 20, 2016, 9:39am PST

Not today, but real soon. / Downtown Santa Monica #expoline #mydayinla pic.twitter.com/2ctYuvg9SD — David Landsel (@davidlandsel) January 7, 2016 The Expo Line's extension from Culver City into Santa Monica is so close to being ready for...

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West Hollywood Moving Forward With Complicated Scheme to Get a Metro Extension

by Bianca Barragan Dec 23, 2015, 11:30am PST

West Hollywood's been looking to hop on the light rail train for years now, but its latest push to get a subway extension into its borders is starting to get serious. Yesterday, the West Hollywood City Council approved a measure that would let it...

Expo Line Light Rail to Santa Monica Should Be Ready to Open in April or May

by Bianca Barragan Dec 10, 2015, 9:53am PST

Test trains have been running along the Expo Line light rail's new extension between Culver City and downtown Santa Monica for a while now, but the line is about to enter the last phase of testing before fully opening to the public—very soon. S...

Los Angeles's Expo Line Did Not Magically Fix Freeway Traffic

by Bianca Barragan Nov 17, 2015, 10:00am PST

The Expo Line between Downtown Los Angeles and Culver City (and soon Santa Monica) is surpassing ridership projection numbers, but it hasn't taken a bite out of traffic on the nearby 10 Freeway, a new study says. The findings shouldn't be all that...

Downtown LA Light Rail Loop Probably Won't Open By May 2021

by Bianca Barragan Nov 12, 2015, 1:01pm PST

Downtown's $1.4-billion, underground Regional Connector light rail project will one day connect the Expo, Blue, and Gold Lines and allow for one-seat rides between, say, Long Beach and Azusa or Santa Monica and East LA. But while it's underway,...

Mapping the Historic Routes and Few Remains of Los Angeles's Massive Streetcar System

by Jeff Wattenhofer Nov 9, 2015, 1:54pm PST

In just a few short months, Metro's Expo Line extension will begin operation, making it Los Angeles's one and only train line to reach the Pacific Ocean. The Purple Line, if it can get past Beverly Hills High School, might also make it to the sea...

Los Angeles's Next Rail Line Opens on March 5, 2016

by Bianca Barragan Oct 22, 2015, 3:56pm PDT

Put a big circle around March 5, 2016, folks, because that's the day that the Gold Line Foothill Extension is scheduled to open for business. The 11.5-mile project will take trains from the Pasadena station that today serves as the end of the Gold...

Grading Every Los Angeles Metro Station By How Useful It Is

by Bianca Barragan Oct 6, 2015, 11:50am PDT

In a statewide survey of rail stations, including the Bay Area's BART and MUNI, the Los Angeles Metro system averaged a C for their efforts in creating stations that encourage ridership and serve as hubs of transit-centered communities. The...

The Foothill Gold Line Extension is Finished and On Track to Open in 2016

by Bianca Barragan Sep 23, 2015, 2:35pm PDT

Years of sitting in gross rush-hour traffic on the 210 Freeway have given us plenty of time to fantasize about the new section of the Gold Line, which is expected to turn the trip from Azusa to Pasadena into a smooth, 17-minute ride. Today, the...

LA Metro Wants to Speed Up Two Rail Lines So They're Ready By the 2024 Olympics

by Bianca Barragan Sep 10, 2015, 10:45am PDT

LA's Olympic dreams include a big-time renovation of the Coliseum and the creation of athlete housing along the LA River, but the Games could also help get two pivotal transportation projects finished years ahead of schedule. The LA Times reports...

Watch an Underground Metro Station Be Created in 3 Minutes

by Bianca Barragan Aug 18, 2015, 10:38am PDT

The 8.5-mile Crenshaw Line is one of several Metro rail projects now underway—when it's finished around 2019, it'll run from the Expo Line down to the Crenshaw Line. For now, work is underway at the Crenshaw/Vernon stop in Leimert Park, which will...

Here is the Not-a-Fantasy Los Angeles Metro Rail Map of 2024

by Bianca Barragan Aug 17, 2015, 4:17pm PDT

Earlier this year, we saw a Metro presentation that proposed changing the names of Metro's existing and under construction rail lines to letters instead of a potpourri of colors (Gold, Blue, Green) and street names (Expo, Crenshaw). Taking that...

Metro Survey Shows Sexual Harassment is Slightly Down

by Curbed Aug 5, 2015, 6:30pm PDT

Metro has released the data from their "semi-annual" customer satisfaction survey of bus and train riders. The Source says nearly 20,000 riders filled out surveys asking about their opinions on everything from station cleanliness to how safe they...

Travel Down the Pacific Electric Air Line, the Expo Line Predecessor That Ran From 1908 to 1953

by Bianca Barragan Jul 30, 2015, 4:30pm PDT

Testing on the the Expo Line's second phase made its way into downtown Santa Monica yesterday, marking the first time there's been a passenger train running through the city for more than 60 years. Before the Expo Line (which runs from Downtown to...

Alert! This is the First Train to Glide Through Santa Monica Since 1953

by Bianca Barragan Jul 29, 2015, 5:06pm PDT

Train testing has been officially underway since July 16 on the Expo Line extension, sending trains casually traveling through the Westside for the first time in decades, but today a really beautiful thing happened: a train glided through Santa...

Here's the Latest Look For DTLA's New Elevator Up Bunker Hill

by Bianca Barragan Jul 28, 2015, 2:36pm PDT

The Regional Connector—the tunnel that will run under a corner of Downtown and link up the Blue, Gold, and Expo Lines so that a rider can take one train from Azusa to Long Beach or from Santa Monica to East LA—is bringing not just more convenience...

Watch the Los Angeles Metro Rail Map's Spectacular Growth From 1990 to 2026

by Bianca Barragan Jul 15, 2015, 4:26pm PDT

In honor of the Blue Line and Metro rail's twenty-fifth birthday yesterday, Metro's put together a sort of online, ongoing party—a website with tons of information on their art tours and concerts (free!), as well as a badass animated map that...

Watch an Expo Line Train Pull Into a New Westside Station

by Bianca Barragan Jun 29, 2015, 2:53pm PDT

The exciting updates glide on on the Westside transit front! A media event today at the new Expo Line station in Palms featured an actual train pulling up to the platform, just like it will when the line opens in spring of 2016 (if all goes as...

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See a Train Cross Into Santa Monica For First Time in Decades

by Bianca Barragan Jun 16, 2015, 5:00pm PDT

EXPO-2 Test Train Crossing Centinella and into Santa Monica. The First time an Electric Passenger Train has Been on this... Posted by Hello Expo on Monday, June 15, 2015 The process of building and testing the Expo Line's...

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Expo Line Train Moving Through West LA Like It's No Big Deal

by Bianca Barragan May 8, 2015, 7:25pm PDT

Just last month, the first-ever Metro light rail train to hit the Westside made its way along the track for the very first time (it was just a test). Now that route—the Expo Line extension to Santa Monica—is in the middle of new round of tests...

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Metro is Getting Serious About Bringing Light Rail to the Valley

by Bianca Barragan Apr 13, 2015, 4:44pm PDT

The San Fernando Valley has recently pivoted on its "no thanks" attitude toward rail and now seems pretty onboard with the idea of converting the Orange Line busway into a light rail line. It was against state law to build light rail in the Valley...

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See the First Metro Train Ever to Travel to the Westside of LA

by Curbed Apr 6, 2015, 4:06pm PDT

Metro's switch-over to a letter-based naming system for its rail system may be exciting, but with five lines under construction, there's still a long way to go before that fancy new map is a reality. The Gold Line Foothill Extension and Expo Line...

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The Notoriously Suburban Valley is Demanding Rail Transit

by Bianca Barragan Dec 22, 2014, 6:41pm PST

Earlier this year, California overturned the law that outlawed above-ground rail lines in the notoriously suburban San Fernando Valley; that small move kindled the tiny fires of hope inside the growing number of Valley rail enthusiasts, but it's a...

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Take a Sped-Up Ride on the Gold Line Extension From Pasadena All the Way to Azusa

by Bianca Barragan Dec 17, 2014, 6:32pm PST

The tracks for the Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Azusa are now laid and the 11.5-mile leg of the line is now 80 percent complete. This super-sped-up video covers what's expected to be a 17-minute ride in just six minutes, but it slows down...

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Take a Look at the Blue Line's Many New Station Upgrades

by Bianca Barragan Dec 16, 2014, 3:17pm PST

Metro's oldest and most-used line—the mighty Blue Line— is right now in the midst of a six-year program that will bring much-needed upgrades to its stations and train tracks. These photos from The Source show cleaned-up station platforms, new...

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