LA Metro reaches halfway point of New Blue Improvements Project
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) has reached the midpoint of a $350-million effort to bring its oldest light-rail line into a State of Good Repair.
The Blue Line opened in July 1990 and runs for 22 miles between downtown Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. It has historically been LA Metro’s busiest light-rail line and averaged more than 60,000 weekday boardings in 2018. The agency’s State of Good Repair initiative is targeted at keeping existing and future transit assets in good working order while reducing breakdowns and mechanical issues.
“This critical project is one of the largest single investments that Metro has made as part of our State of Good Repair program,” said Metro Executive Officer for Capital Projects Tim Lindholm. “It is an investment in the future of our system that will ultimately save time for riders, improve the customer experience and save money for the agency by increasing the lifespan of our equipment and reducing costly breakdowns and delays.”
Funding for State of Good Repair initiatives is being supported in part by the voter-approved M sales tax ballot measure, which is also allowing LA Metro to greatly expand its system.
Work to modernize the Blue Line has been ongoing since 2014 with a series of safety and operational improvements that culminated in this year’s major work requiring rail service to be suspended — first for four months on the southern section of the line and then for four months on the northern section.
The current work on the southern section of the line began in January and ends on June 1, when work on the northern section will begin. As part of the project, the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station — the fourth busiest rail station in the LA Metro system — will also be closed for eight months for a complete rebuild from the ground up.
Other examples of State of Good Repair Projects include improvements to the maintenance shops and administrative building at Metro’s Division 1 bus yard in downtown Los Angeles, adding pedestrian gates to the Blue Line corridor, replacing escalators at the busy Pershing Square subway station, converting more Metro facility lighting to LED, replacing roofs at rail yards and grouting subway tunnels to mitigate groundwater leakage.
Mischa Wanek-Libman | Group Editorial Director
Mischa Wanek-Libman is director of communications with Transdev North America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the transportation industry covering construction projects, engineering challenges, transit and rail operations and best practices.
Wanek-Libman has held top editorial positions at freight rail and public transportation business-to-business publications including as editor-in-chief and editorial director of Mass Transit from 2018-2024. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.
She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and served 14 years as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.
She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
