A Line (Los Angeles Metro)
The A Line is a light rail line running north–south between Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, passing through Downtown Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Watts, Willowbrook, Compton, Rancho Dominguez, and Long Beach in Los Angeles County. It is one of six lines in the Metro Rail system. Opened in 1990, it is the system's oldest and third-busiest line with an estimated 22.38 million boardings per year as of 2017. It is operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The A Line passes near the cities of Vernon, Huntington Park, South Gate, Lynwood, and Carson. The famous Watts Towers art installation is visible from the train tracks near 103rd Street station. The under-construction Regional Connector will directly link this line to and into the San Gabriel Valley along the current route of the L Line.
Service description
Route description
The A Line runs between Downtown Los Angeles and Downtown Long Beach and has 22 stations.The line's northern terminus is the underground station, after rising to street level, trains run south along Flower Street, sharing tracks with the E Line. Passengers can connect to the bus rapid transit J Line at 7th Street/Metro Center, Pico, and Grand stations. The A and E Lines diverge at Flower Street and Washington Boulevard just south of downtown Los Angeles. Here the A Line turns east on Washington Boulevard before turning south on Long Beach Avenue where it enters the former Pacific Electric right-of-way. This historic rail corridor has four tracks, with two used by Metro Rail trains and two by freight trains. There are some elevated sections as this private right of way cuts through more densely populated areas. Passengers can connect with the C Line at the Willowbrook station. Just south of Willow station, A Line trains exit the rail corridor and follow Long Beach Boulevard into the city of Long Beach, where trains travel through the Long Beach Transit Mall while making a loop using 1st Street, Pacific Avenue and 8th Street.
Hours of operation
Trains run between approximately 4:45 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. the following morning. On Friday and Saturday evenings, trains are extended until 2:00 a.m. of the following morning. First and last train times are as follows:To/From Long Beach
Of note, some trains operate at later or earlier times due to the A Line making the turnaround in Downtown Long Beach.
Headways
Trains on the A Line operate every six minutes during peak hours Monday through Friday. They operate every twelve minutes during the daytime weekdays and all day on the weekends after approximately 9 a.m.. Night service consists of ten-minute headways.Originally during peak hours, every other train served only the stations between and to decrease the headway on that portion of the route. Willow was chosen because of its proximity to the storage yard and because it was the last southbound station with a park-and-ride lot. In the evening rush hour, riders saw some trains destined to "Willow" and others to "Long Beach". Consequently, those riders destined to Long Beach had to exit at Willow Station and wait for the next train, which would terminate at the Station. This was discontinued after the New Blue Improvements Project was completed in 2019, with all trains now serving the full route from end to end.
Ridership
When the line began operation in 1990, it was projected to have a daily ridership of 5,000. However, it performed much better than expected, with daily ridership reaching 12,000 passengers within the first months of service and reaching 32,000 by the end of the first year of service., the line had an average weekday ridership of 63,008, and Saturday and Sunday boardings of 30,579 and 30,314, respectively. In 2017, the line saw a total of 22.38 million boardings.
History
Much of the current A Line follows the route of the Pacific Electric Railway's Long Beach streetcar service; service on the route ended in 1961. The line initially opened at the Blue Line on Saturday, July 14, 1990, at a cost of US$877 million, and ran from to. In 1991, it was extended south to and north to.A mass transit extension to Pasadena was originally conceived as the "Red Line Eastside extension" and as the "Pasadena Blue Line." However, in 1998, voters passed a ballot measure which banned the use of sales tax revenue for subway projects. As a result, the proposed extension opened as the Gold Line in 2003.
From 1999 to 2001, the Blue Line underwent a US$11 million project to lengthen 19 of its platforms so that they could accommodate three-car trains.
In 2014, Metro announced the "New Blue Improvements Project" to renovate and modernize the system. In 2019, half the line was closed for five months each, with Metro providing bus shuttle service to compensate for the lack of rail service. Metro officially reopened the line on November 2, 2019, rebranding it as the A Line.
Future developments
Regional Connector Transit Project
Metro is currently constructing the Regional Connector, a light rail subway tunnel in Downtown Los Angeles that will connect the A and E Lines to the L Line and allow a seamless "one-seat ride" between the A and E Lines' current terminus at 7th Street/Metro Center and Union Station. When this project is completed, the A, E, and L Lines will be simplified into the following configuration:- A Line
- * The northeastern segment of the L Line will serve as an extension to current A Line
- * This combined line will become world's longest light rail line at long, surpassing the Coast Tram in Belgium
- * The Gold Line Foothill Extension will also be absorbed into the A Line, extending it further to Montclair upon completion
- E Line
- * The southern portion of the current L Line to East L.A. will be combined with current E Line, which will keep the E Line name but the L Line's current gold color on maps
- * The E Line will not connect to Union Station
Current issues
Capacity limits
The line often operates at capacity, and various options to increase capacity have been considered, such as four-car trains or more frequent trains. Both have problems: it would be difficult or impossible to lengthen some of the station platforms, and the number of trains already causes delays for other vehicles at level crossings. Thus it may not be possible to increase A Line ridership without an extremely expensive grade-separation project, either by elevation, by an entrenchment method similar to that used by the nearby Alameda Corridor freight rail "expressway", or by building another parallel transit corridor to relieve capacity strains from the A Line. When the Regional Connector project linking A and E Line tracks with the L Line tracks in Little Tokyo is completed, this may result in even more capacity problems, with ridership expected to grow even more once the connector is open for service.Safety at level crossings
Over 120 motorists and pedestrians have been killed at A Line level crossings since 1990 and there have been more than 800 collisions, making the line easily the country's deadliest and most collision-prone rail line.In 1998, the MTA commissioned Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. to evaluate the cause of Blue Line collisions and recommend affordable solutions. The study reported the high ridership was a contributor:
Other contributing factors identified were the high population density leading to more pedestrian and vehicular traffic around the tracks, diverse varied socio-economic community around the line that creates literacy and language difficulties for public education campaigns, driver frustration due to the slow traffic speeds around the line that leads to more risk taking behavior, and the shared right-of-way with freight traffic in the fastest running section from station to Willow station, where trains operate at a maximum of between stations.
The collision rate has declined somewhat following the installation of four-quadrant gates at some crossings where the A Line shares the right-of-way with freight rail between Willowbrook station and Artesia station. The gates prevent drivers from going around lowered gates. In addition, cameras along some problem intersections issue traffic tickets when drivers go around gates.
Station listing
The following is the complete list of stations, from north to south.| Station | Date opened | City | Major connections and notes |
| February 15, 1991 | Downtown Los Angeles | Connects with,, and | |
| July 14, 1990 | Downtown Los Angeles | Connects with and | |
| July 14, 1990 | Downtown Los Angeles | Connects with | |
| July 14, 1990 | Los Angeles | ||
| July 14, 1990 | Los Angeles | ||
| July 14, 1990 | Los Angeles | ||
| Slauson | July 14, 1990 | Los Angeles | |
| July 14, 1990 | Florence-Graham | Park and ride: 116 stalls | |
| July 14, 1990 | Florence-Graham | ||
| July 14, 1990 | Los Angeles | Park and ride: 64 stalls | |
| July 14, 1990 | Willowbrook | Connects with Park and ride: 234 stalls | |
| July 14, 1990 | Compton | ||
| July 14, 1990 | Compton | Park and ride: 288 stalls | |
| July 14, 1990 | Carson | Park and ride: 362 stalls | |
| July 14, 1990 | Long Beach | Park and ride: 139 stalls | |
| July 14, 1990 | Long Beach | Park and ride: 927 stalls | |
| Pacific Coast Highway | July 14, 1990 | Long Beach | |
| July 14, 1990 | Long Beach | ||
' | September 1990 | Long Beach | |
' | September 1990 | Long Beach | |
' | September 1990 | Long Beach | |
' | September 1990 | Long Beach |
Operations
On Metro Rail Operations' internal timetables, the A Line is called line 801.Maintenance facilities
The A Line is operated out of the Division 11 Yard located at 4170 East 208th Street. This yard stores the fleet used on the A Line. It is also where heavy maintenance is done on the fleet. The Yard is located between and stations. Trains get to this yard via a wye junction on the southbound tracks. Northbound trains can enter and exit the yard via the cross tracks on the north and south side of the junction.Rolling stock
The A Line uses three different types of rolling stock from Nippon Sharyo, Siemens, and Kinkisharyo.When the Blue Line first opened in 1990, the line had 54 Nippon Sharyo P865 light rail vehicles, numbered 100–153. These cars wore a unique livery consisting of several blue stripes and a single red stripe, reflecting the Blue Line's color designation and its Pacific Electric Red Car heritage.
In 2000, Metro transferred all 15 Nippon Sharyo P2020 light rail vehicles from the Green Line to the Blue Line fleet. These light rail vehicles were nearly identical to the older P865 model, but were about five years newer.
In 2012, Metro transferred some Siemens P2000 light rail vehicles from the Gold Line to the Blue Line fleet.
In 2017, the Blue Line received 78 Kinkisharyo P3010 light rail vehicles, the first new fleet of vehicles for the line since it opened in 1990. As the P3010 fleet was introduced, Metro gradually retired all of the remaining P865 light rail vehicles, the original vehicles used on the line.
A Line vehicles are maintained and stored at the Division 11 yard in Long Beach between Del Amo and Wardlow stations. This facility has capacity for storing and maintaining 86 light rail cars.