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Context UsefulNotes / LosAngelesMetroRail

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1->''"Please stand clear. The doors are closing. *DING DING*"''
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3With two fully underground subway lines and four light rail lines, UsefulNotes/LosAngeles' Metro Rail system isn't exactly a world-class rail system. The system's predecessor, the Pacific Electric light rail/subway system and the Los Angeles Railway streetcar system, were all replaced by buses by the end of World War II, with the last streetcar operating until 1963. The Pacific Electric subway, in particular, remained in operation until the 1950s, leaving the city without a mass-transit rail system until 1993. Los Angeles is probably the only city in the world, other than those destroyed by war or natural disaster, whose transit plan is "get back what we used to have".
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5With rising gas prices and increasing traffic, residents of Los Angeles increasingly clamored for a new rail system. Consideration for a rail system started in the 1970s, with work on the first lines started in the 1980s. The Blue Line light rail line was opened in 1990 along the route of a former Pacific Electric line connecting Los Angeles to Long Beach, and the Red Line and Purple Line subways soon followed in 1993.
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7Over the years new light rail lines were added to the system, connecting places all over the Los Angeles basin with Downtown, allowing quick access between areas of the city. However, several important facilities, most notably Los Angeles International Airport and the San Fernando Valley, are not connected directly to light rail (though the southeastern Valley does have a single Red Line subway station), so riders have to use slower bus transportation to reach these destinations. Most of the light rail lines suffer from overcapacity issues, especially the Blue Line. Because much of the light rail is level with the street, train collisions with cars and pedestrians are fairly common, despite railroad crossing gates and prominent warnings on the trains themselves. This may be due to drivers unfamiliar with light rail lines as much more extensive systems in Toronto or Europe (which were built in the 19th century and never dismantled) have much less conflict between drivers and trains, stopping for alighting passengers or to let a train pass having become second nature for local drivers. Indeed, the Blue Line is, according to Wikipedia, "easily the deadliest and most collision-prone rail line in the country".
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9The Los Angeles Metro Rail System is rather obscure among non-residents, mostly due to the city's reputation as a city of cars. In spite of this, it is the ninth busiest municipal rail system in the United States, and the light rail portion is the second busiest light rail system in the nation. It is also the longest or second longest light rail system by route miles (either behind or ahead of the Dallas DART system, depending on the source) It has also seen continued expansion and increases in ridership and political popularity since the turn of the millennium with Measure M, a sales tax measure to fund more Metro Rail construction passing with almost 70% of the vote in 2016.
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11In late 2018, Metro decided to phase out color names in favor of letters, to allow more space for expansion. New signage will be rolled out starting in 2020, and most existing lines will keep the colors associated with them.
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13The six current lines of the Metro Rail system, organized by alphabetical order, are:
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15'''A Line (Blue):''' The first line in the Metro Rail system. The line initially opened in stages over a seven month period from July 1990 to February 1991, and initially ran from 7th Street/Metro Center Station in Downtown Los Angeles to a clockwise loop in downtown Long Beach, largely following the path of the Pacific Electric's Long Beach Line. In June 2023, the line received a massive extension with the opening of the Regional Connector, a 1.9 mile long subway tunnel running from Metro Center to Little Tokyo/Arts District that connected the tracks of the L Line (formerly the Gold Line) to the rest of the light rail system. The A Line runs through the connector, then turns north onto the former L Line, and serves Los Angeles Union Station before traveling northeast to serve Pasadena, then running east to terminate at Citrus College in Azusa (with a further extension to Pomona to be completed in 2025), much of it operating on the former right of way of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's Pasadena Subdivision. This extension made the A Line the longest light rail line in the world at 49.5 miles (79.7 km) in length, surpassing the 42 mile long (68 km) Coast Tram in Belgium.
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17'''B Line (Red):''' The second line in the system and the first subway, with the first station opened in 1993 and the last in 2000. Runs from Union Station to North Hollywood. The Red Line is the busiest line in the Metro Rail system. All station platforms have some sort of unique artwork, but for the most part, they are sparse and are the stereotypical subway station. Subway entrances are located on large plazas rather than stereotypical narrow sidewalk entrances, and while most entrances are just a set of escalators and elevators, a few sport unique architecture, usually as shade for the escalators. The B Line shares the same track as the D Line between Union Station and the Wilshire/Vermont station.
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19'''C Line (Green):''' A suburb to suburb line, opened on August 12, 1995, and running from Redondo Beach to Norwalk. The line is the Metro's least ridden rail line. It was planned at a time when millions of people commuted from cities in the southeast of Los Angeles County to aerospace and defense jobs in places like El Segundo and the [[NonIndicativeName Los Angeles Air Force Base]], but the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar caused all the jobs to disappear, and along with them most of the Green Line's customers. It is fully grade separated, running in the median of the 105 freeway (which includes a transfer station to the A Line at Imperial / Wilmington) in its eastern half, and as an elevated down to the South Bay Area in its southern half. It is the line currently closest to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), but doesn't actually go to it, and a connecting bus is needed, though this will change with the opening of the K Line and the LAX people mover (see below). There are currently plans to extend the C Line from its terminus in Redondo Beach down to the city of Torrance.
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21'''D Line (Purple):''' The second subway line, with the first station opened in 1993 and the last in 1996. This line was originally treated as a branch of the Red Line until 2006, when it was given its own separate designation. There is a planned extension to the Westside (western Los Angeles); this extension was to be built in the 1980s but for ExecutiveMeddling. Currently runs from Union Station to the Wilshire/Western station. The Purple Line will be extended from Wishire/Western all the way to Westwood by 2027. The goal is to eventually extend it to Santa Monica as a "subway to the sea", but this part is currently in the planning stages with no funding beyond the extension to Westwood.
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23'''E Line (Gold):''' Much like the initial segment of the A Line, the E Line was built along the path of an older Pacific Electric route, in this case the Santa Monica Air Line. The line initially opened in April 2012, running from 7th Street / Metro Center to Culver City, diverging from the A Line just south of Pico. At the time, it had a turquoise route bullet and was known as the Expo Line because it largely ran along Exposition Boulevard. In May 2016, the line was extended to downtown Santa Monica, terminating a few blocks from the ocean at Santa Monica Pier, almost being the long-promised "subway to the sea". In June 2023, with the opening of the Regional Connector, the line was extended through downtown Los Angeles to Atlantic station in East Los Angeles, replacing the L Line along that stretch. At this same time, the E Line's route bullet was recolored gold, reflecting the L Line's former designation as the Gold Line.
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25'''K Line (Crenshaw):''' The newest line in the system, the K Line is a suburb-to-suburb line much like the C Line. Initially opened in October 2022, it starts at Crenshaw/Expo station (where it has a transfer to the E Line), and runs south from there to serve the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Leimert Park and Hyde Park before terminating at Westchester / Veterans station in Inglewood. Beginning in 2024, the line will be extended south to meet with the C Line at a wye west of Aviation / Century station, although exact service patterns for both lines haven't been finalized. This extension will include a station even closer to LAX (hence the "LAX" in the name) that will provide transfers to an under construction airport people mover.
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27There is one light rail line that no longer exists, having been replaced by other lines with the opening of the Regional Connector:
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29'''L Line (Gold):''' The L Line was initially opened in 2003 to provide light rail service to Pasadena. The initial segment, opened on July 26, 2003, ran from Union Station to Pasadena, terminating at Sierra Madre Villa in the median of the Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210). While originally planned as an extension of the A Line, a lack of funding led to this segment being built as a separate line that was disconnected from the rest of the system, with passengers having to use the B Line to connect from Union Station to the A Line. The L Line underwent several extensions during its life, the first being an extension at the southern end from Union Station to Atlantic station in East Los Angeles via Boyle Heights that opened in November 2009. The second was an eastward extension at the northern from Sierra Madre Villa to Citrus College in Azusa, bringing the line to a final length of 31 miles (50 km). The L Line was discontinued in June 2023 when the Regional Connector was opened and tied its tracks into the rest of the system, with the A Line taking over the initial Union Station-Pasadena segment and the Azusa extension while the E Line took over the East Los Angeles extension (and also took the L Line's gold color).
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31Additionally, two bus routes are marked on maps alongside the rail system and use its letter-and-color naming scheme:
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33'''G Line (Orange):''' A bus route opened in 2005 that runs entirely in an exclusive roadway from the North Hollywood B Line station across the south end of the San Fernando Valley before turning northward to Chatsworth (which was a later extension). It was originally envisioned as a light rail line until [[NotInMyBackyard NIMBYism]] forced it to be a bus. It, like the A and E lines, was built on the former right-of-way of one of the old Pacific Electric Red Car lines. It has surprised even the planners with its high ridership, to the point where Metro has needed to use longer buses. Full conversion to light rail (which the bridges were built to handle), however, is unlikely, as the disruption to the existing service would be unacceptable. In many ways it's a victim of its own success.
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35'''J Line (Silver):''' A route launched in 2009 linking together two existing bus lanes that are attached to freeways. The El Monte Busway (opened 1973) runs from Union Station in Downtown LA alongside the San Bernardino Freeway to its namesake city, while the Harbor Transitway (opened 1996) runs in the median of the Harbor Freeway between the campus of the University of Southern California and the Harbor Gateway Transit Center. The two are linked by a street running section in Downtown, which is less than ideal. Also some, but not all, trips continue past the Harbor Gateway to San Pedro, which also includes street running. Let's just say that this line does not succeed the way the G Line does, and leave it at that.
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37The Los Angeles Metro uses a reusable near-field communication-enabled smart card called the TAP (Transit Access Pass) Card. Payment or passes are loaded at stations, and access to station platforms is unlocked by tapping the card against a target. TAP Cards also work on various bus systems, including systems not related to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent organization of the Metro Rail system. TAP Cards are mandatory for riding the system; other forms of payment are accepted only on buses and ticket machines. The cards have been much maligned for being unreliable and hard to use, though with correct usage, the TAP Card is superior to cash and tokens.
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