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 edit 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