Metro Green Line (LACMTA)

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     Metro Green Line
A Green Line train at the western terminus Marine/Redondo station
Info
Type Grade-separated light rail
System Los Angeles County Metro Rail
Locale Los Angeles, California
Terminals Norwalk
Redondo Beach
No. of stations 14
Service routes D and 803
Daily ridership 39,785
Operation
Opened August 12, 1995
Operator(s) Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA)
Rolling stock Nippon Sharyo P2020
Siemens P2000
Technical
Line length 20 mi (32.2 km)
Gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)
(standard gauge)
Electrification Overhead lines
Line map

The Metro Green Line is a light rail line in Los Angeles County that connects the cities of Manhattan Beach, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lynwood, South Gate, Los Angeles and Norwalk. It operates mostly in the median of the Century Freeway (Interstate 105). The western portion of the line runs on elevated rail.

It offers access to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) via a free shuttle bus from Aviation station.

The Green Line has two other official names: the D Line, and Line 803. These are rarely used by residents, but occasionally appear on official documents.

Contents

[edit] History

As part of the consent decree signed by Caltrans in 1972 to allow construction of the fiercely opposed Century Freeway, provisions were made for a transit corridor (without designating the type thereof) in the freeway's median. In the original Metro Rail master plan of the early 1980s, this corridor was designated as a light rail line.

Construction on the Green Line began in 1987. One of the reasons for construction was that the Green Line would serve the burgeoning Cold War industries in the El Segundo area. Construction of the line cost $718 million. Unfortunately, by the time the Green Line opened in 1995, the Cold War was over, and the aerospace sector was hemorrhaging jobs. Furthermore, during the 1980s, the bedroom communities in the Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County were rapidly losing their population of middle-class aerospace workers (primarily whites and blacks), a process that radically accelerated in the early 1990s. The working-class and poor Latinos who filled the vacuum generally had no connection to the aerospace sector. This rationale for Green Line construction was a principal argument cited by the Bus Riders Union when it contended that MTA was focusing its efforts on serving middle-class whites and not working-class minorities. As a result, ridership has been below projected estimates, currently averaging over 37,000 daily weekday boardings.

At the time the Green Line opened, the line used train cars made by Nippon Sharyo similar to those used on the Metro Blue Line. In 2000, the Nippon Sharyo train cars were transferred to the Blue Line and the Green Line received new train cars made by Siemens.

The Green Line's western alignment was originally planned and partially constructed to connect with LAX, but the airport was in the planning stages of a major remodeling during the line's construction. Los Angeles World Airports wanted the connection to LAX to be integrated with this construction, but there were concerns that the overhead lines of the rail would interfere with the landing paths of airplanes.[citation needed] In addition, citizens of neighboring communities to LAX opposed the expansion of the airport,[citation needed] and owners of parking lots surrounding LAX were fearful that a train operating to LAX would create competition,[citation needed] since there is ample free parking at numerous points along the Green Line. As a compromise, a free shuttle from Aviation transports riders to LAX. Today, passengers on the Green Line can see the provision for the LAX extension -- two concrete ramp stubs west of Aviation/LAX station.

The Green Line's eastern terminus also suffers from the fact that it stops two miles short of the heavily used Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink station, where several Metrolink lines operate. Local bus service is provided between the Metrolink station and the Green Line terminus, but schedules are not coordinated with Green Line arrivals. Because of this, and the Green Line's re-routed western alignment away from LAX, critics have labeled the Green Line as a train that goes "from nowhere to nowhere." [1]

In 2007, the Metro Green Line began placing advertisement banners on the sides of trains, similar to those on the Metro Gold Line. Later, the advertisement banners have been removed.

[edit] List of stations, from East to West

Station Connections Date Opened
Norwalk August 12, 1995
Lakewood August 12, 1995
Long Beach Metro Rapid: 760 August 12, 1995
Imperial/Wilmington Blue Line August 12, 1995
Avalon August 12, 1995
Harbor Freeway Harbor Transitway
Metro Rapid: 745		 August 12, 1995
Vermont Metro Rapid: 754 August 12, 1995
Crenshaw Metro Rapid: 710, 757 August 12, 1995
Hawthorne Metro Rapid: 740, 940 August 12, 1995
Aviation/LAX Santa Monica Big Blue Bus: Rapid 3
LAX Shuttle		 August 12, 1995
Mariposa August 12, 1995
El Segundo August 12, 1995
Douglas August 12, 1995
Redondo Beach August 12, 1995

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-expoline8oct08,0,5078716,full.story Los Angeles Times

[edit] External links


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