Los Angeles Light Rail

The Expo Line light rail service began in 2012 from Downtown Los Angeles to Culver City. A further extension to the beach at Santa Monica is scheduled to open by 2016.  It's the latest of four light rail lines to have opened in Los Angeles since the 1990s, all of which are run by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Bureau.


This line follows the route of a Pacific Electric trolley service that ran from 1909 to 1953, before Los Angeles became a labyrinth of freeways.

Flickr photo links of the trolley service from 1953 and earlier:

The new line does not use any of the rolling stock or infrastructure from the previous service, apart from an occasional bridge that was found to be in good structural condition. 

Flickr photo links of the new Expo Line service, which opened in 2012:

Once complete, it is expected that the journey from Los Angeles to Santa Monica will take around 46 minutes, which is an improvement on traffic filled roads.