The West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor (WSAB) project is a new light rail transit (LRT) line that will connect southeast LA County to Downtown Los Angeles. With nine new stations, the 14.5-mile segment will transform the way people move across the Gateway Cities and Southeast Los Angeles, connecting Artesia, Cerritos, Bellflower, Paramount, Downey, South Gate, Cudahy, Bell, Huntington Park, Vernon, unincorporated Florence-Firestone and Downtown LA.
Now, prior to the release of the Final EIS/EIR in summer of 2024, we’re looking for a new name!
Why? While the existing project name carries historical significance –– using the name of the rail corridor previously owned by Pacific Electric, which prior to the early 1960s, ran service from Downtown Los Angeles to the City of Santa Ana in Orange County –– the new line won’t go as far as the City of Santa Ana. Rather, the line will terminate in Artesia. A new name will eliminate this confusion.
Want to learn more? Answers to your questions below!
What are we looking for?
This is your system. That’s why we turning to you, the future riders, to come up with names that reflect your communities and their histories. We’re looking for names that truly reflect the character, culture, experience of the people who live, work, and play in the cities this new line will serve.
How do I enter?
Submit name recommendations through the following channels:
- Visit RenameWSAB.com to submit online.
- Call the project helpline at 213.922.6262 to submit via phone.
What are the rules?
- Participants must be 13 years or older to enter.
- Project name must reflect the communities’ character, culture or the experience of people who live, work and play in the cities this new rail line will serve.
When’s the deadline?
The renaming contest will be open through Friday, September 29, 2023. Even better, all participants will be entered for a raffle for a chance to win a $100 gift card as a token of appreciation for their contributions.
Tell me more about the process!
After September 29, a panel of local judges will shortlist the top five names, which will then be showcased in a public voting campaign slated for November. The raffle winner will be announced in early October.
The name with the most votes will be selected and announced in January 2024. Once approved, the new name will remain in place throughout the construction phase. Upon completion of construction, the rail line will receive a newly designated line letter and line color as the project prepares for revenue service.
Please share information about the contest with family and friends –– we’re excited to see what you come up with! More details about the project are available here.
Categories: Transportation News
Why don’t they call it the Line # that it eventually will become? Use the start and end points of the Line.
For anyone complaining about the lack of communication between counties. . . Tell the state to either force Metro to pass on operations to the SCRRA (Metrolink) or come up with another state agency that would force county agencies to cooperate with one another.
The fact that Sound Transit can exist in Seattle and built rail across its 3 counties and also the fact that Metrolink already exists here in LA and operates in a similar manner, also means that the same can be done with light rail.
As long as people don’t advocate to have a multi-county agency to oversee these projects, you will continue to see half-baked projects like this one because of this outdated idiotic laws from an era long gone!!!
The more I think about it, why do we even need a name if we moving to Letters and Colors?
It can be continued to be referred to as the “former West Santa Ana Branch”
Just call it the “M” line and color it yellow. Now lets just on with building this !
(still need a transfer stop at Washington)
Aren’t the rail lines all lettered? Why is there a need to give it a name if it’ll be referred to by it’s letter designation?
This is ok to rename the line as it obviously never make it to Santa Ana (thanks OC)
My suggestion is simply “Southeast”. or “Southeast Gateway”….something geographically sensible.
My questions are:
If East SFV line is up next (early construction) will it be the “L” line as the “K” just opened?
And what color on the map?
Then if West Santa Ana is the next line to go into construction (if), would that be the “M” line and also what color? I would use Yellow since Orange was already used.
I really, really question the wisdom of bypassing the A line stations between Slauson and downtown. I know that segment is a few decades or centuries away, but it still seems wasteful to not just interline the tracks between those points. that’s nearly two miles of rails that don’t need to be quad tracks.
I actually don’t have to use Japan as an example to answer this question as to why quad tracks are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!!
Have you been on the regional connector lately. Literally both the Expo Line and Blue Line are delayed because you have 2 rail lines sharing tracks together. You have one blue line train stuck in Little Tokyo (for example) and now both Blue Line and Expo Line passengers have to deal with delays. Clearly Metro wants to experiment with quad tracks as a potential way to solve the issue.
So now ask yourself this: Do you want this new rail line to be prone to delays as a result of the Blue Lines outdated design standards that leave it prone to delays? Or do you want a rail line that is independent, operates on its own tracks and if there is an issue like a disabled train, it does not affect the other rail line which can continue normal operations.
Let’s stop building these rail lines on the cheap already. It’s clear that interlining trains was a dumb idea as a way to save money. And please don’t use other US rail lines as an example.
It’s entirely unethical to change the name.
Climate change is an emergency, and Metro leadership wants us to take ownership to their petty partisan decision to rename a line rather than imply we’ll work with Orange County one day.
Refusing to build metropolis-wide light rail is not a community decision. Anyone who submits a competing name will be used as a token to pretend that the public doesn’t want ambitious projects.
Hey, the people voted in these people as their representatives. That to be honest speaks louder about the residents of the LA Metropolis more than does about the government operated transit agencies operating within them.
Work with Orange County to extend the line to the end of the streetcar line currently being built. Then it will really be the Santa Ana line. I live in Perris, CA.
“Another MTA Folly to nowhere”. Every rail line the MTA has built doesn’t quite reach a destination. The “Blue Line” doesn’t reach the beach like P.E’s Long Beach line did. The “Green Line” never entered LAX like its intended promise. The “Expo Line” never reached the beach stopping short almost one mile away. The “Gold Line” meanders through Pasadena and its eastern communities parallel to the 210 Freeway to no real destination. The other segment of the ” Gold Line” missed East L.A. College, a major destination by several blocks. One can only guess what the “Red Line” destination is, the Enormous Ford Dealership? The “Purple Line” does go past UCLA and end at the Veterans Hospital Campus but fails again to reach the beach which is the ultimate destination of the majority of the busy MTA bus service. Then we have the “Orange Line,” Chatsworth Station is a good destination but why end the other at the Ford Dealer instead of continuing to Burbank Station via the Chandler Right of Way? Those bright young planners should put away the text books and gain some experience in transit operation, the type of experience they are so proudly eliminated seasoned RTD professionals with the merger.
Mike, if I recall correctly, you used to work for MTA. The “destinations” that you speak of are only some of the places that people are going. You should know this. There are people who get on and off the metro lines and busses that never go near the ends of the lines. (I used to ride a line like that. And have ridden nearly the entire length of one of the longer XX lines, but did not ride near the last couple of miles of each.) The Expo line stops 0.5 miles from the Santa Monica pier, not a mile as you suggest. That is close enough. The idea of a singular end destination is a bit of a myth. It is a hold over from the idea of the lines as excursion lines (like several of the PE lines were). Look at the map of the NYC system. It does not try to hit every last destination, rather serve the whole.
“The “Expo Line” never reached the beach stopping short almost one mile away.”
I’m sorry if this comes off as rude but
A) go back and see the exact distance between the station on 4th and Ocean Ave. it’s definitely not a mile.
B) You really can’t walk the extra 2 block to reach the pier? If so, then that’s not a transit problem, rest assured on that.
Re: “The “Blue Line” doesn’t reach the beach like P.E’s Long Beach line did.”
Over a half of mile of land was added into the ocean. If you look at historical topographic or aerial maps, you will see that the ocean came to 1 block south of Ocean Blvd when the Long Beach Line ended service in 1961. Once the Long Beach Line service was discontinued, development pushed for roughly a half mile radius from intersection of Long Beach Blvd and Ocean Blvd. Minus one block (since the Long Beach Line used Ocean Blvd and the A Line uses 1st St), the Blue does go as far as the Long Beach Line did in 1961.
If using the current lettering system, I would think the M Line would make sense. The only completely new rail line scheduled (currently) to open before it is the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project. With the L Line being absorbed by the A Line and E Line that would free up L Line useage for the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project. The next letter in logical use then would be M Line. I know F, H and I Lines are being avoided/not used.
Wouldn’t M not be used due to the Excuse that metro uses “M” as it’s logo, similar to how H is used for Hospitals and P is used for Parking?
That is a very good point. However, Metro has yet to list as a letter it is not using. F, H, I and P are the ones currently listed as being avoided. If Metro does decide to avoid M, then N would be the next obvious choice. I could also see Metro avoiding O, since one of their reasons for avoiding I was it could be confused with Information and/or 1. If Metro is avoiding letters that could be confused with numbers, then O would be skipped for beign confused with 0. Can someone from Metro weigh in on this?
Will this line be assigned a letter? We’re missing F and H in the current system, but it makes sense to skip over the letter I.
I think there was a decision to skip H. That is to avoid the confusion of H for Hospital.
P is also typically skipped, because of Parking.
Which again begs the question: Why did the agency even bother going with letter when almost a quarter of the 26 letters will not be used and on top of that, we are sharing letters with BRT lines.
This is literally a “let somebody else solve it later approach.”
How soon (really) are we likely to run out of letters? If one new line is added every 5 years, we have a long time before the designated pool is empty.
I believe F, H, I, N, P, and about 3 or 4 other letters will not be used.
A rename sounds appropriate since this line will never get to Santa Ana.
“Southeast Line”. “Southeast Gateway” “Gateway”
Since the color orange was used by the G line, this line should be yellow.
If East SFV Line is next after the “K” line, it should be “L” and if the West Santa Ana Branch Line is next after that, it should be ‘M” and then the Sepulveda Pass line would be “N”.
That’s my thoughts, has Metro giving any suggestions yet?
Why don’t they call it the Line # that it eventually will become? The start and end points is not what Metro is using despite every Metro around the world is doing it.