As part of the New Blue Improvements Project, train service will resume on the Blue Line between Downtown Long Beach and Compton Station on Saturday, June 1. However, bus shuttles will replace trains between Compton and 7th St/Metro Center beginning Saturday and lasting through September.
The New Blue Improvements Project aims to bring the Blue Line — Metro’s oldest light rail line and historically its busiest — up to the modern specifications of our newer rail lines. The idea is to reduce the number of delays and make the Blue Line far more reliable than it has been in recent years. Upgrades include an updated overhead power system, general station improvements, new train control bungalows, new digital customer information panels and more.
Here are the service details:
• Blue Line Northern Segment stations will be out of service beginning June 1 and continuing through September 2019 between Compton Station and 7th St/Metro Center. Metro will provide three levels of bus shuttle service to replace Blue Line service during the northern closure. Please see the above map. The three bus shuttle options are:
Local Shuttle (864) will stop at all stations that are out of service. Please note that some bus stops are not directly adjacent to the rail stations. There will be signage and Metro personnel to help riders locate the bus stops.
Select Shuttle (863) will provide faster service between Compton, the Green Line at Harbor Freeway Station, Manchester-Firestone, Slauson and 7th St/Metro Center.
Express Shuttle (860) will stop at some stations that are out of service and takes you from one end of the Blue Line to the other.
• Two stations on the Expo Line — Pico Station and 7th St/Metro Center — will be out of service from June 22 through August with bus shuttles replacing rail service between LATTC/Ortho Inst Station and 7th St/Metro.
A bus shuttle will also be provided: Local Shuttle (856) will stop at 7th St/Metro Center, Pico and LATTC/Ortho Institute Stations. Please see the map below. Both bus shuttle maps are here. To improve bus shuttle times, Metro and LADOT are implementing an evening peak hour temporary bus-only lane on southbound Flower Street between 7th Street and the 110 freeway entrance at 28th Street.
Other service updates:
• The Blue Line at Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station remains closed through September for a complete renovation.
• The Green Line at Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station will remain in service.
• The Red and Purple Lines will continue to run on their regular schedules and will be serving 7th St/Metro Center.
As for the southern section of the Blue Line, patrons will find newly renovated stations with fresh paint, tiling and new interactive digital displays — see the IG story by Anna in this tweet.
And here’s a pic of the new displays:
Categories: Projects, Service Alerts
[…] Vamos a empezar con un recordatorio: el servicio de tren en el segmento norte de la Blue Line desde Compton hasta 7th/Metro se suspenderá y se reemplazará con autobuses especiales del sábado 1 de junio a septiembre. También mañana se reanuda el servicio en el segmento sur de la Blue Line entre las estaciones Compton y Downtown Long Beach. Más información aquí. […]
It is unconscionable that this shutdown is not being used as an opportunity to put the Flower street grade-separated underground
That would take years of planning. This is not that large of a project.
It’s not in the scope of the project, but I think a large part of the downtown Blue/Expo congestion issue could be improved by making just one tunnel for the northbound trains from USC northward, and traffic light syncing Flower St. traffic with southbound train traffic.
It would be interesting to find out how many hours of bus service has been cancelled so buses could be used for this upgrade. It already very apparent Rapid Articulated buses have been pulled from the normal fleet operations and replaced with standard local painted buses. The MTA is restricted by the federal government from buying excess buses to be used for this special operation. For every new bus purchased using federal funds a old bus must be taken out of service.
We’re not buying buses because of the Blue Line work. We are doing our best with existing resources to replace rail service with the bus shuttles. The alternative would have been to do the Blue Line work in drips and drabs over a much longer period of time. Or not do the Blue Line work, which would be a shame.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source