Long Beach (Pacific Electric)

Long Beach
Overview
Type	Interurban rail
System	Pacific Electric Railway
Locale	Los Angeles, and Long Beach
Termini	Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Long Beach, California
Stations	8
Daily ridership	1,603,476 (last count)
Operation
Opened	1902
Closed	1961
Operator(s)	Pacific Electric Railway
Rolling stock	PE 1200 Class (last used)
Technical
Line length	20.37 miles
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead lines
Route map Legend Pacific Electric Building J R S J S Amoco Vernon Avenue V Slauson Junction Fleming Florencito Park Florence Nadeau Graham Latin Wattsend local service Abila Springdale Willowbrook Sativa Winona Compton Dominguez Dominguez Junction Del Amo Cota Los Angeles River Los Cerritos Vista del Mar Willow Long Beach

The Long Beach Line was a major interurban railway operated by the Pacific Electric Railway between Los Angeles and Long Beach, California via Florence, Watts, and Compton. Service began in 1902 and lasted until 1961, the last line of the system to be replaced by buses. However, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company continued to operate freight on the tracks, as the Union Pacific Railroad still does north of Dominguez Junction, and in 1990 the Southern California Rapid Transit District opened the Blue Line light rail along the same right-of-way.

In addition to the Long Beach service, the line served as a trunk for a number of other interurban lines stretching to Whittier, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Balboa, San Pedro, and Redondo Beach. It was four tracks wide north of the junction at Watts, with local service on the outer tracks and long-distance trains bypassing the local stations on the inner tracks.

Operations

Trains left the Pacific Electric Building on an elevated structure that extended east to San Pedro Street south of 6th Street. They turned south on San Pedro, then east on 9th Street to Hooper Avenue, where private right-of-way began, initially paralleling Long Beach Avenue to the west (the current Blue Line enters this right-of-way at Washington Boulevard). The line re-entered the public streets in Long Beach, where it followed Long Beach Boulevard south and Ocean Boulevard west to the Morgan Avenue Yard (Morgan Avenue was approximately in the center of the Los Angeles River Flood Control Channel). Private right-of-way continued across Long Beach Boulevard all the way to Balboa.

For a number of years, the PE operated express "flyer" service along the Long Beach route. The flyer service only made a few stops between Downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach, as compared with regular service that made all stops between Watts and Willowville, and most stops between Willowville and Long Beach. The right-of-way was also served by a pair of local lines, the Watts Line between Downtown Los Angeles and Watts, and the American Avenue-North Long Beach Line between Willowville and Long Beach.

History

Henry E. Huntington incorporated the Pacific Electric Railway in November 1901 and immediately began work on the Long Beach Line. Service began on July 4, 1902, initially beginning at 9th and Main Streets in downtown Los Angeles (the trackage on 9th Street was acquired from Huntington's Los Angeles Railway in 1904). The terminal was moved to the Pacific Electric Building in 1905, and trains were rerouted over the newly built elevated trackage west of San Pedro Street in 1917.^[1]

Train service ended in April 1961, replaced by the 36 "Long Beach Freeway Flyer" bus, which followed the new Long Beach Freeway north of the Long Beach Boulevard interchange. Local replacement service north of this point was provided by the 33 "Los Angeles-Compton-Wilmington",^[2] which had replaced San Pedro via Dominguez Line trains in 1958. There is no longer an express bus to Long Beach, but the Blue Line light rail, opened in 1990, serves the same purpose.

Station list

References

• Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California, Pacific Electric Long Beach Line, accessed December 2014

Pacific Electric Routes Northern Division Alhambra-San Gabriel Annandale Arlington-Corona Arrowhead Covina East Washington El Monte-Baldwin Park Highland Lamanda Park Monrovia-Glendora Mount Lowe North Lake Pasadena Short Line Pasadena via Oak Knoll Ontario-San Antonio Heights Ontario-Upland Pomona Pomona-Claremont Redlands Riverside-Arlington Riverside-Rialto San Bernardino-Riverside San Dimas San Dimas Local Shorb Sierra Madre Sierra Vista Local South Pasadena Local Upland-San Bernardino Western Division Beverly Hills Brush Canyon Coldwater Canyon Echo Park Avenue Edendale Local Glendale-Burbank Lankershim-Van Nuys Laurel Canyon Owensmouth Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey San Fernando Santa Monica Air Line Sawtelle Sherman Soldiers' Home Venice-Inglewood Venice-Playa del Rey Venice Short Line West 16th Street Western and Franklin Avenue Westgate Southern Division American Avenue Balboa Bellflower Catalina Dock East Seventh Street East Third Street Fullerton Hawthorne-El Nido Hawthorne-El Segundo Huntington Beach-La Bolsa La Habra-Yorba Linda Long Beach Long Beach-San Pedro Redondo via Gardena San Pedro via Dominguez San Pedro via Gardena Santa Ana Santa Ana-Huntington Beach Santa Ana-Orange Seal Beach Seal Beach-Huntington Beach-Newport Beach Terminal Island Torrance Watts Whittier Notable Belmont Tunnel / Toluca Substation and Yard Pacific Electric Building Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge Substation No. 8 Strike of 1903 Subway Terminal Building Watts Station Related Predecessors Los Angeles Inter-Urban Electric Railway Monrovia Rapid Transit Company Mount Lowe Railway Pasadena and Pacific Santa Ana, Orange & Tustin Street Railway Los Angeles and Independence Railroad Connecting Glendale and Montrose Railway Los Angeles Railway Successors Los Angeles Metro LAMTA OCTA Omnitrans Port of LA Waterfront Red Car SCRTD