Los Angeles ripped out its streetcars, then spent decades rebuilding rail
Early 20th-century Southern California had more than 1,000 miles of streetcar and interurban track. By 1963 every line was gone, replaced by buses. Twenty-seven years later, choked by traffic, Los Angeles opened a new rail line, often along the very routes its old Red Cars once ran.
The old network belonged to two private firms, Pacific Electric with its Red Cars and the Los Angeles Railway with its Yellow Cars. Falling revenue pushed Pacific Electric to swap quiet lines for buses from 1927, and in 1958 what remained was folded into a public transit authority that finished the job. From the 1970s, congestion, pollution worries, a growing population and pricey petrol revived demand for trains. Voters approved a sales tax rise to pay for construction through the 1980s, and the Blue Line, now the A Line, opened on July 14, 1990.
Today six lines serve 110 stations. Four are light rail, powered from overhead wires and running in a mix of street-level, elevated and tunnel sections; two are subways drawing current from a third rail. The two families share a track gauge and voltage but cannot swap trains, since the cars differ in width. Underground stations are built to resist the shaking expected at each site, and the system has suffered no earthquake damage since opening. Every station carries its own artwork.
Timing did the system few favours. Just before it opened, a local measure called Proposition U halved permitted residential density across much of the city, discouraging apartments near stations, and none of the nearby land became housing before 2000. Ridership began falling in 2014, blamed on safety fears, ride-hailing and rising rents, among other factors.
Still, the numbers are large: 68,764,300 trips in 2025, and the country's busiest light rail network, as well as the longest by route length. Since 2023 fare caps have limited riders to $5 a day or $18 a week, after which further rides cost nothing.
Source: Los Angeles Metro Rail
