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

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

which stretches between rail yards near

downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

and the ports of

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and

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

across southwestern

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. It was the primary link between two of the world's busiest harbors and the national rail network. Mostly displaced with the April 15, 2002 opening of the more direct Alameda Corridor, 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

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located at what is now Playa del Rey, the construction of a larger, better port at

Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Mo ...

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 is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...

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 an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

, also in Torrance, the Harbor Sub is completely single-track without signals, compensated with track warrant 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), branded as Metro, is the county agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the Transportation in Los Angeles, public transportation system in Los Ang ...

(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 is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...

, 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, consisting of six lines: four light rail lines (the A, C, E and K lines) and two rapid transit lines (the B and D lines), ...

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 Automated People Mover, the K Line opened north from Westchester/Veterans station in October 2022. The remaining two stations Aviation/Century and

LAX/Metro Transit Center The LAX/Metro Transit Center is an intermodal transport hub in the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Located near Aviation Boulevard and 96th Street, the facility serves as a transfer point between the Los Angeles Metro Rai ...

subsequently opened later in 2024 and 2025, respectively. As a result, the K Line now uses the former C Line segment south to Redondo Beach, which the C Line's terminus is LAX. 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 Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance. Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...

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

External links

{{Attached KML , display=title,inline
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 Rail lines in California