Every six minute service to resume on Blue Line and Expo Line across peak hours

by ,

Good news for Blue Line and Expo Line riders: Metro announced today that it will run train service every six minutes across the morning and afternoon peak hours on weekdays. 

The Expo Line has been running every six minute trains during the peak of the peak hours and every eight minutes during the remainder of the rush hour. The change, to take effect Monday, Nov. 4, is intended to help reduce some over-crowding Metro has experienced. All trains will be three-car trains. Additionally, Metro will also extend rush hour service beyond 7 p.m. in response to increased ridership growth during the early evening period.

When the Blue Line resumes full service between downtown Los Angeles and downtown Long Beach, all trains will also run every six minutes from end-to-end on the line beginning Monday, Nov. 4. This will result in 10 percent more seated capacity on the Blue Line. In the past, service between Willow Station and downtown Long Beach has been less frequent than the rest of the line. 

Because the new plan on the Blue Line requires extra rail cars, Metro is committing to running three-car trains on 75 percent of peak hour Blue Line trains. 

Quick background: over the summer Metro announced it would run service every eight minutes on the Blue Line and Expo Line during peak hours instead of every six minutes to help keep trains on time and service consistent. With the Blue Line’s northern half closed for the New Blue Improvements Project, that wasn’t an issue on the Blue Line. But Expo Line riders complained about overcrowding. Metro responded by adding some trains during the peak of the peak and is now returning to the former peak hour schedule. 

Related: full A Line (Blue Line) service to resume Nov. 2 with three days of free rides on A Line

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects, Transportation Headlines

Tagged as: , ,

7 replies ›

  2. What’s the rationale for having every single A Line train go through Downtown Long Beach? There were never capacity concerns south of Willow when half of the trains went that far south. It would seem more important to have 100% of A Line trains be 3 cars to avoid capacity issues during peak hours.

    • Hi Bob;

      I think the main issues are consistency — every train going to the same place. As for capacity, I think you still have more train cars going south if running every six minutes with 3/4 of those trains three car and the remainder two car. I am confident we’ll be getting plenty of feedback, though.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  4. It’s good that riders stood up to protect their service and won. If only there would be enough bus riders who would do the same and get Metro to restore cut service.

  5. Hey Steve, is this still a service cut compared to earlier this year? While peak service has been restored, can you confirm that off-peak is still short of where it was earlier this year? Thanks.

    • Hi Andrew;

      The changes we put in place for the weekend schedules do remain in effect so fewer overall trains than prior to this summer. The vast majority of complaints we received on the blog and social media involved the peak hour service, FWIW.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source