LOS ANGELES

FIRST INSET: DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

SECOND INSET: THE LOS ANGELES REGION

ROUTES

Operator: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)

Note: The two or three-character codes used to identify routes below and in the maps are for convenience only, and were not used by the operating company.

LIGHT RAIL ROUTES

Operator: Metro

SUBWAY ROUTES

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYSTEM

NETWORK LENGTH

• LRT lines: 99.1 km.
  • Blue Line: 35.4 km.
  • Gold Line: 31.5 km.
  • Green Line: 32.2 km.
• Subway lines: 25.4 km.
  • Purple line (alone): 1.8 km.
  • Red line (alone): 17.4 km.
  • Purple / Red common line: 6.2 km.

HISTORY

• Horse-drawn streetcars: 1874 - 1896
• Cablecars: 1888 - 1896
• Electric streetcars: 1 July 1891 - 1963
• Interurban railways: 1887 - 9 Apr. 1961
• Light rail: 14 July 1990 - today.
• Subway: 30 Jan. 1993 - today
• Funicular: (1st) 31 Dec. 1901 - 18 May 1969; (2nd) 24 Feb. 1996 - today.

GAUGE

• Streetcars (Los Angeles Railway): 1067 mm.
• Interurbans (Pacific Electric): 1435 mm.
• Light Rail: 1435 mm.
• Subway: 1435 mm.
• Funicular: 762 mm.

TRAM PRESERVATION

The Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, southeast of Riverside, owns and operates a large collection of vintage Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway streetcars over 0.8km dual-gauge and 2.4km standard gauge track.

SOURCES

PRINT

• "Los Angeles and San Francisco", The Modern Tramway, Nov. 1949 (12: 143), p.221-224.
• Simons, V. "LA Light Rail on the move", Tramways & Urban Transit, May 2017 (80: 953), p.172-175.
• Simons, V. "Los Angeles: Gone but not forgotten", Tramways & Urban Transit, Feb. 2010 (73: 866), p.76-77.
• Simons, V. "Los Angeles: Light rail to the Beach - and beyond", Tramways & Urban Transit, Aug. 2016 (79: 944), p.295-300.
• Simons, V. "Los Angeles - The transformation continues", Tramways & Urban Transit, Dec. 2023 (86: 1032), p.468-470.
• Simons, V. "Los Angeles transformation", Tramways & Urban Transit, Dec. 2009 (72: 864), p.460-463.
• Simons, V. "Update from Los Angeles", Tramways & Urban Transit, May 2013 (76: 905), p.175.
• Skelsey, G. "Hill Street Blues" [The Pacific Electric Railway (PE)], Modern Tramway & Light Rail Transit, Aug. 1988 (51: 608), p.263-269.
• Smith, G.E. "Los Angeles - The S route", The Modern Tramway, Oct. 1961 (24: 286), p.295-298.
• Walker, J. Images of Rail: Pacific Electric red cars. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
• Wansbeek, C.J. "Los Angeles - Megacity needs more light rail", Tramways & Urban Transit, May 2007 (70: 833), p.172-176.
• Wansbeek, C.J. "Los Angeles - New light rail line brings gold to Pasadena", Tramways & Urban Transit, June 2007 (70: 834), p.217-219.
• Wansbeek, C.J. "Los Angeles - Metrolink: Successful urban rail", Tramways & Urban Transit, July 2007 (70: 835), p.258-261.

WIKIS

• Angels Flight
• History of LACMTA
• List of Pacific Electric lines
• Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Los Angeles Metro Rail
• Los Angeles Railway
• Pacific Electric
• Santa Monica Air Line

WEB SITES

• Angels Flight Railway®
• Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California
• Los Angeles (on UrbanRail.Net)
• Metro
• Metrolink

Copyright Gabor Sandi 1998-2024

Disclaimer: Everything on this site was written and/or prepared at the author's discretion. The author has tried to be accurate where facts are presented, but this does not mean that these facts are necessarily accurate. People needing more reliable information should refer to appropriate sources presented, on the Internet or elsewhere, by authoritative professional or academic bodies.

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