The Harbor Subdivision is a historic single-track main line of the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

which stretches between rail yards near

downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is a ...

and the ports of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

and

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporat ...

across southwestern

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. It was the primary link between two of the world's busiest harbors and the

national rail network In United States railroading, the term national rail network, sometimes termed "U.S. rail network", refers to the entire network of interconnected standard gauge rail lines in North America. It does not include most subway or light rail lines. Fe ...

. Mostly displaced with the April 15, 2002 opening of the more direct

Alameda Corridor The Alameda Corridor is a freight rail "expressway" owned by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority that connects the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with the transcontinental mainlines of the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Rail ...

, the Harbor Sub takes a far more circuitous route from origin to destination, owing to its growth in segments over the decades. The subdivision was built in this fashion beginning in the early 1880s to serve the ports and the various businesses that developed along it.

History

Construction

First built to serve Port Ballona and

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

located at what is now Playa del Rey, the construction of a larger, better port at Redondo Beach brought an extension to that city in 1888. The early 1900s would see that project eclipsed with the coming of the San Pedro Outer Breakwater and the Port of Los Angeles. By the early 1920s, owing to the development of the area's oil fields, the Harbor Sub was extended through Torrance, Wilmington and on to

. Development of Watson Yard in Wilmington completed the line. Other than sidings at "Lairport" (along the eastern edge of

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the ...

next to Aviation Boulevard at 120th Street), "Ironsides" in Torrance and the line's longest siding at the

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primar ...

, also in Torrance, the Harbor Sub is completely single-track without signals, compensated with

track warrant A track warrant is a set of instructions issued to a train crew authorizing specific train movements. The system is widely used in North America. The warrant is issued by the train dispatcher and delivered to the train crew via radio. The train cr ...

control via a local dispatcher.

Los Angeles Metro Rail system

Most of the line was purchased by the

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angele ...

(Metro) in 1992, and freight rights are retained by BNSF. Heavy construction began in June 2014 to convert a portion of the Harbor Subdivision to light rail use as a segment of the K Line, part of the

Los Angeles Metro Rail The Los Angeles Metro Rail is an urban rail transit system serving Los Angeles County, California, United States. It consists of seven lines, including five light rail lines (the A, C, E, K, L lines) and two rapid transit (known locally as ...

system. The Harbor Subdivision over-crossing on Century Boulevard and Aviation Boulevard was demolished in late-July 2014 as part of the construction of the K Line. When completed, it will run from Jefferson Park in the north and link with the Metro C Line at the south end. However with the construction of the LAX People Mover, the K Line opened north from the Westchester/Veterans station in October 2022. The remaining two stations would open later in the following years. A study conducted by Metro examined the feasibility of extending the C Line to Torrance via the Harbor Sub, the creation of a new light rail transit line and even the possibility of a maglev high-speed rail system.

Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor

In May 2022, Metro began construction on the Rail to Rail Active Transportation Corridor Project. The project uses the portion of the Harbor Subdivision from the K Line's Fairview Heights station to the A Line's Slauson Station, with a connection to the J Line's Slauson Station along the way. The project will remove the existing railroad tracks from the right-of-way and replace them with paths for walking and cycling.

References

{{Reflist

External links

LACMTA Harbor Subdivision Transit Corridor
BNSF Railway lines History of Los Angeles History of Long Beach, California Transportation in Los Angeles County, California Transportation in Los Angeles Transportation in Long Beach, California Transportation in Torrance, California