West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor


The West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor is a planned light rail line, mostly following the historic Pacific Electric West Santa Ana Branch, connecting Downtown Los Angeles to the City of Artesia and other cities in southeastern Los Angeles County.

Overview

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has $4 billion in funds available for construction planned to begin in 2022. The plan included in the Measure M transportation funding measure is to build improvements in two stages. In June 2017, Metro issued a Request for Proposals to study alternatives for this new LA Metro Rail route. Metro has narrowed the options to two alternatives and are currently preparing to publish the Draft EIS/EIR for public comment. The draft EIS/EIR is planned to be released in 2020.
The project's timeline is expected to be accelerated under the Twenty-eight by '28 initiative.

Proposed routings and modes

The West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor project is proposed as a 20-mile light rail transit line that would connect downtown Los Angeles to Artesia. Along the route, it would also serve the communities of Vernon, Huntington Park, Bell, Cudahy, South Gate, Downey, Paramount, Bellflower, and Cerritos in the southeast area of the county. The southern portion route will use the old Red Car right of way owned by Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and Metro. The northern alignment through Downtown Los Angeles is being studied as possible underground light rail transit route. Six options were proposed. As of summer 2018, two options were being considered :
StationLocationConnecting
rail services		Alternative EAlternative G
Union Station Downtown Los Angeles Amtrak
Metrolink
Red Line
Purple Line
Gold Line		×-
Little Tokyo/Arts District station Little Tokyo Gold Line×-
7th Street/Metro Center station Financial District Red Line
Purple Line		-×
9th/Main St. station aka South Park/Fashion District stationFashion District-×
4th/Alameda station aka Arts District South stationArts District××
7th/Alameda StationArts District××
Slauson station Florence-Graham A Line××
Pacific/Randolph StationHuntington Park/Walnut Park××
Florence/Salt Lake StationBell/Cudahy××
Firestone StationSouth Gate××
Gardendale StationDowney××
I-105/Green Line transfer stationParamount Green Line××
Paramount/Rosecrans StationParamount××
Bellflower StationBellflower××
Pioneer StationArtesia××
Cerritos StationCerritos××

In November 2018, Metro removed the Blue Line stations north of Slauson from the study area, citing redundant service and expedited travel times as the prime reasons.
In 2019, Metro announced that as part of its design analysis, it would study opening the line in two stages, with the initial opening $1 Billion dollar segment running from Pioneer Station in Artesia north to Slauson Station on the Blue Line, with the remainder of the $3 billion route into downtown built as phase two. Metro staff were "optimistic" that it would be feasible to build the line to Slauson by 2028 with existing Measure M funds. Metro was also studying public-private partnerships that could accelerate the construction schedule of the entire line. The service is not planned to interline with the A Line to 7th Street/Metro Center due to operational constraints. Under the proposed plans, design for the initial segment would be complete by 2021 and construction would begin in 2022.

Extension into Orange County

Metro is evaluating an optional station in Cerritos at Bloomfield Avenue to facilitate a possible future extension into Orange County; it would eventually connect to the under construction OC Streetcar, which also uses part of the Pacific Electric WSAB right-of-way.