L.A.'s Rail Revolution Celebrates 20 Years

David Sotero reports, "Today, Metro marks the 20^th anniversary of the Metro Red Line’s first phase from Union Station to MacArthur Park, a nearly 4.5-mile construction milestone that began a brand new chapter in regional rail construction and placing L.A. among other major cities across the globe with high-speed, high-capacity subways."

He recounts its "quixotic" history, spearheaded by former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, which required "$1.431 billion for the initial segment" that was started in 1986 and opened in 1993. It faced construction challenges including a subway fire, buried fuel oil tanks, and the draining and refilling of an eight-acre lake. "Workers also found the oldest and most diverse collection of fossils ever reported from the L.A. Basin’s Miocene period — with some dating back 15.5 million years," he adds.

Subway development has introduced countless benefits, initially to Downtown Los Angeles, and later to Hollywood Boulevard, revitalizing neighborhoods, and offering Angelenos more "transit-friendly" lifestyle options. It created the “live, work and play” ethos that "continues to draw new residents, cultural venues and entertainment centers to invest in downtown," writes Sotero. And it has continued to expand phase by phase, segment by segment. "Following the subway’s opening to Westlake/MacArthur Park in 1993, consecutive construction phases brought the line to Wilshire/Western in 1996, Hollywood in 1999 and North Hollywood in 2000."

Despite its many benefits, continued expansion and increased ridership (reaching 48 million riders on the Red and Purple lines in 2012),  Sotero points out that, "[o]ne of the peculiarities of the subway is that even today many residents in parts of the county have never used it or do not know it exists." "However," he adds, "that is likely to change as the subway moves from adolescence to maturity with the extension of the Metro Purple Line to the jobs-rich Westside."

The Expo Line is expected to open in Santa Monica in 2016 and the Metro Purple Line is expected to reach La Cienega Blvd by 2023, making its way to Westwood in 2036, "unless Metro finds a way to fund an acceleration of the project."