B Line (Los Angeles Metro)
The B Line (formerly the Red Line from 1993–2020) is a fully underground 14.7 mi (23.7 km)[1] rapid transit line operating in Los Angeles, running between North Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. It is one of six lines in the Los Angeles Metro Rail system, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Built in four stages between 1986 and 2000, the line cost $4.5 billion.
This article is about the currently operating subway. For the former Los Angeles rail system known as the "Red Car", see Pacific Electric.B Line
Red Line (1993–2019)
802
14
Division 20 (Los Angeles)
Breda A650 running in 4 or 6 car consists
72,200 (Weekday, Q3 2022)
25,899,711[a] (2023) 
0.5%
January 30, 1993
June 24, 2000
14.7 miles (23.7 km)[1]
2
Fully underground (except yard)
4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
70 mph (110 km/h) (max.)
33.9 mph (54.6 km/h) (avg.)
The B Line is one of the city's two fully-underground subway lines (along with the D Line). The two lines share tracks through Koreatown and Downtown Los Angeles. As of 2019, the combined B and D lines averaged 133,413 boardings per weekday.[2]
In 2020, Metro renamed all of its lines using letters and colors, with the Red Line becoming the B Line (retaining the red color in its service bullet) and the Purple Line becoming the D Line.
Service description[edit]
Route[edit]
The B Line is a subway that begins at North Hollywood station in North Hollywood, in the San Fernando Valley. The line turns southeast underneath Cahuenga Pass and passes through Hollywood and Koreatown, traveling east along Hollywood Boulevard and then south along Vermont Avenue. Arriving at Wilshire/Vermont station, the line merges with the D Line, and the lines continue between Wilshire Boulevard and 7th Street (and briefly Ingraham Street), where the lines interchange with the A and E light rail lines at 7th Street/Metro Center station. The lines then pass northeast through Downtown Los Angeles, passing through the Financial District, Pershing Square (near the Historic Core), and the Civic Center, before terminating at Union Station.
The B Line through Cahuenga Pass roughly follows a branch of the old Pacific Electric system.
The current B Line is the product of a long-term plan to connect Downtown Los Angeles to central and western portions of the city with a subway system. Original proposals in the 1980s had it running down Wilshire Boulevard to Fairfax Avenue and then north to the San Fernando Valley. Residents in some parts of the city bitterly opposed the subway. A 1985 methane explosion at a Ross Dress for Less clothing store near Fairfax gave Rep. Henry Waxman, who represented the Fairfax District, a reason to derail the project that was opposed by his constituents by prohibiting tunnelling in an alleged "methane zone" west of Western on Wilshire.[7] After some political wrangling, a new route was chosen up Vermont Avenue to Hollywood Boulevard.
The groundbreaking for the first segment of the subway was held on September 29, 1986, on the site of the future Civic Center/Grand Park station.[8][9] Today's B Line was built in four minimum operating segments:
Overall, the construction of the subway over the four phases cost $4.5 billion.[13]
On June 22, 1995, during the construction of MOS-2B, a sinkhole appeared on Hollywood Boulevard, barely missing several workers and causing damage to buildings on the street.[14] Subway construction was delayed during the investigation and repairs of the sinkhole. The contractor on that segment project was replaced, and because of the perceived mismanagement of Red Line construction, in 1998 voters banned the use of existing sales taxes for subway tunnelling.[15]
Construction of MOS-3, by comparison, proceeded with relatively few issues. Tunnelling from North Hollywood for the subway started in 1995. Workers dug under the Santa Monica Mountains using tunnelling machines. Work progressed an average of 50 to 200 ft (15 to 61 m) daily, performed by work crews round-the-clock six days a week.
Original proposals for the subway system included expansions east from Union Station to East Los Angeles and west from North Hollywood towards the Warner Center transit hub in the San Fernando Valley. Barred from subway tunnelling, Metro turned to other types of mass transit. In the San Fernando Valley, residents passed a law in 1991 mandating that any rail line in the area be built underground,[16][17] so Metro built a busway (now the G Line) from North Hollywood to Warner Center, which opened on October 29, 2005. East of Union Station, Metro built a light rail line with at-grade and underground segments to East Los Angeles, now part of the E Line, which opened on November 15, 2009.