V (Los Angeles Railway)

V
Overview
Type Light rail
System Los Angeles Railway, Los Angeles MTA
Locale Los Angeles, Vernon
Termini Vermont Avenue and Monroe Street
Pacific Crossing
Stations 50
Operation
Opening 1914
Closed 1963
Owner Los Angeles MTA
Technical
Track gauge narrow gauge
Electrification Overhead lines
Route map

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Los Angeles City College
Vermont and Melrose
Vermont and Clinton
U.S. 101
Vermont and Rosewood
Vermont and Beverly
Vermont and 1st

Vermont and 3rdR, S
Vermont and 4th
Vermont and 5th
Vermont and 6th
Vermont and Wilshire

Vermont and 7thR

Vermont and 8thS
Vermont and 9th
Vermont and Olympic
Vermont and 11th

Vermont and PicoP
Vermont and Venice
Vermont and Washington
Vermont and 24th
Vermont and Adams
Vermont and 29th

Vermont and JeffersonJ
Vermont and 36th
Vermont and 37th
Vermont and Exposition
Vermont and 39th
Vermont and Leighton

Vermont and Santa Barbara5
Vermont and 42nd
Vermont and Vernon
Vernon and Hoover
Vernon and Figueroa
Interstate 110
Vernon and Grand
Vernon and Broadway
Vernon and Main
Vernon and Wall
Vernon and San Pedro
Vernon and Towne

Vermont and AvalonJ S
Vernon and McKinley
Vernon and Central
Vernon and Hooper
Vernon and Ascot
Vernon and Compton
Vernon and Morgan
Vernon and Long Beach
Vernon and Alameda
Vernon and Santa Fe
Pacific CrossingJ

V was a line operated by the Los Angeles Railway from 1920 to 1958, and by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority from 1958 to 1963.

History

The Vermont-Vernon line was the last new route built by the Los Angeles Railway. Although Henry Huntington had been reluctant to build any cross-town (circumferential) lines, exponential growth along the Wilshire Corridor made it necessary. At the time, Los Angeles had no buses. From Vermont and Beverly, the route ran south on Vermont Avenue to Vernon Avenue, thence east on Vernon to Pacific Boulevard, then east again on Leonis Boulevard to Downey Road in Vernon. A branch line also ran from Vernon Avenue south on Santa Fe Avenue to Slauson Avenue. In 1920, the route was renamed "V."

In 1925, plans had been drawn up to extend the Vermont line over 2 miles further north to Los Feliz Boulevard. Instead, the route was extended less than a mile north to Monroe Street and west on Monroe to Heliotrope, on what was then the campus of UCLA. Today that is the campus of Los Angeles City College. During the LATL era, the Leonis and Santa Fe branches were eliminated; instead the V line ended at a loop called Pacific Crossing, in the center of Vernon. It was the only cross-town route in the LAMTA era, and was shut down with the other routes in 1963.

Sources

Electric Rail Heritage Association