Work on the Blue Line has moved from Downtown Long Beach to Artesia Station. Planned improvements include new station paint, tile and audio/visual enhancements. Work will continue through Sunday, December 21, and then pause for the holidays before resuming January 5 through 15.
All work requiring a change in service will take place weekday evenings and over the weekends.
Trains will bypass Artesia Station completely Friday evenings after 9 p.m. through Sunday night close of service. During this time, shuttle buses will replace rail service to Artesia Station, departing from Compton Station at regular Blue Line service levels.
As mentioned above, closure of Artesia Station is part of the Blue Line Upgrades project, a $1.2-billion overhaul including station improvements, track replacement/refurbishment, and even, eventually, new rail cars. Some of the upgrades have already been completed at Anaheim Street, PCH Station and in the Long Beach Loop.
Since construction can be a dynamic process, please check back here at The Source, or follow us @metrolosangeles or @metrolaalerts for the latest Blue Line service updates. Finally, thank you to all affected for their patience, as we undertake this essential improvement work for more reliable Blue Line service.
Categories: Service Alerts
[…] continúan las obras en la estación Artesia, les mostramos aquí las renovaciones que se han hecho en algunas de las estaciones de la Línea […]
The current Artesia station is hard to use. Crowds build up on the narrow sidewalk at the ticket machines, and the buses are too far away. And that’s not counting the “Apartheid Wall” between the station and the nearby shopping center.
If there was money, I’d build an elevated station with bus bays directly underneath the tracks, and pedestrian access to the shopping center. Also frequent shuttle service to Compton College, the DMV/DPSS, etc.
the original Blue line cars 100-153 were delivered with a wider guage to give lesss lateral movement, the p2020 154-168 were dilivered with standard AAR but all the trucks have since had their gage changed to standard AAR
I think the biggest tragedy of this station is how it feels like a no-mans land yet is a few steps away from a vibrant shopping center. I’m sure there’s a way they can build a path around the casino or something.
Almost certainly the casino* (and maybe the shopping center as well) demanded the closure. Undoubtedly they found more people riding the trolley AWAY from the place than TO it, filling up parking spaces meant for gamblers and hotel guests (and maybe shoppers, and RC-racing enthusiasts) with park-and-ride traffic.
I’ve been guilty of that myself, once or twice, many years ago.
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*I’d say “pan-house,” but these days, any references to “Pan” are more likely to be something obscene or drug-related than they are to have anything to do with the game of Panguingue, which used to be even bigger than poker in California casinos.
Please reopen the East entrance. It would be so convenient to be able to visit the Gateway Towne Center without taking a mile detour around the casino – who I assume are behind the closing of the entrance in the first place.
I’ve never heard anything about any MetroRail line being gauged at anything other than Standard Gauge. There may be signal system incompatibilities, and I vaguely recall hearing something about clearance issues, and I’ve never seen, say, P2000 and P865 cars coupled together, but I’ve never heard of any gauge differences here (and certainly none that would only break compatibility one way)
The SF MUNI’s Cable Cars are Narrow Gauge (specifically 3’6″, according to Wikipedia), but all their trolleys are Standard Gauge.
BART, NORTA, and SEPTA (except for the Norristown High Speed Line and, ironically, the Broad Street Line) are various versions of Broad Gauge
It is my understanding that the Blue Line was not built “Standard Gauge” but instead a slightly different space between the rails. While Blue Line cars can run on both the Green Line and Expo Line newer cars including Green Line cars can not run on the Blue Line. Is this part of the reason for the upgrades, re-gauging the tracks?
Hi Mike,
The work at this time is only at the station. The only track work done was in Long Beach, to replace tracks corroded by the sea air. As the Blue Line is over 20 years old, there is a lot of maintenance that is required to keep it in smooth, working order.
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source