Regional Connector crews uncover streetcar rails on Spring Street

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Photo: Metro.

Photo: Metro.

Check it out: While doing utility relocation work for the Regional Connector on Thursday in downtown L.A., crews found some old (presumably) streetcar rails between 1st and 2nd streets. There are still a lot of railroad tracks embedded in streets on the eastern and more industrial side of downtown, but I can’t recall seeing rails in downtown proper.

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  2. This March 31st is the 50th Anniversary of the abandonment of the last 5 streetcar lines in the City of Los Angeles. They were:
    J Car (became bus line 95)
    P Car (became bus line 26)
    R Car (became bus line 28)
    S Car (became bus line 29)
    V Car (became bus line 95)

    Also the 2 Trolley Bus Lines were converted to diesel bus on that day becoming bus lines 2 and 3.

  3. Where are the tracks seen in the 1953 version of “War of the Worlds”?

    • Hi Richard;

      From Wikipedia: “The California city of Corona was used as the shooting location of the fictitious town of Linda Rosa. St. Brendan’s Catholic Church, located at 310 South Van Ness Avenue in Los Angeles, was the setting used in the climatic scene where a large group of desperate people gather to pray. The rolling hills and main thoroughfares of El Sereno were also used in the film.”

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  4. Hmm. All this talk of blocked tunnels, paved-over tracks, and other abandoned-in-place infrastructure reminds me of one abandoned-in-place subway station in New York City. It’s in Brooklyn Heights, and it was for a branch line that turned out to be the subway equivalent to a “bridge-to-nowhere” (there’s at least one currently active subway station within easy walking distance)

    Eventually, a use was found for it: it’s the main exhibit space of their transit museum. And if you’re visiting New York City, it’s well worth the trip to Brooklyn Heights.

  5. What a waste. Lets make sure the subway tunnels are never blocked or tracks covered ever again. So sad how much infrastructure was gutted, and now this generation has to pay, while possibly not being able to utilize it due to bureaucracy and nimbys.

  6. As frank says, all of the tracks in the central business district were paved over. It would have been too much work to remove them.

  7. I would think that this would also be true on Broadway. On the Sunday after “Die Day” when all remaining streetcar lines were abandoned, a crew came in and repaved the street.,