Streetcars in Los Angeles over history have included horse-drawn streetcars and cable cars, and later extensive electric streetcar networks of the Los Angeles Railway and

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway syst ...

and their predecessors. Also included are modern light rail lines.

Horse-drawn streetcars (1874–1897)

Horse-drawn streetcars started with the Spring and Sixth Street Railroad in 1874. Single

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

, open air cars traversed unpaved streets. Numerous companies built tracks, with some merging to form larger networks. More railroads of the era included the Main Street and Agricultural Park Railway, the Depot Railway, the City Railroad, and the Central Railroad. The last horsecars were converted to electric in 1897.

Cable cars (1885–1902)

Cable car street railways in Los Angeles first began operating up Bunker Hill in 1885, with a total of three companies operating in the period through 1902, when the lines were electrified and electric streetcars were introduced largely following the cable car routes. There were roughly of routes, connecting 1st and Main in what was then the Los Angeles Central Business District as far as the communities known today as Lincoln Heights,

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known f ...

/ Filipinotown, and the Pico-Union district. A large viaduct over the Southern Pacific yard operated from 1889 to 1896, colloquially known as the Cape Horn Viaduct. Angel's Flight should not be confused as a cable car because it is a

funicular railway A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...

operating from Broadway up Bunker Hill.

Electric streetcar systems (1887–1965)

The use of cable traction in Los Angeles was short lived. The Los Angeles Electric Railway began operations in 1887. Electrically-powered streetcar systems were numerous, but were largely consolidated into two large networks. In 1901, Henry Huntington bought various electric streetcar companies operating mostly within the City of Los Angeles (and not in the San Fernando Valley, Harbor area or Westside) and combined them into the Los Angeles Railway with its "yellow cars". This system operated with

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

tracks and primarily provided local service along its lines. This was the most popular rail operator in Los Angeles based on passenger numbers. In 1902, Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman established the

, which would acquire other railways, providing

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...

service to new suburban developments and surrounding towns in what is now

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Co ...

(Los Angeles, Orange,

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

and Riverside Counties). The company operated distinctive "red cars". The explosion of the

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

construction and car ownership before and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

reduced the demand for passenger rail services, and many lines were controversially converted to bus service by 1955. After being transferred to municipal ownership under the

Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (sometimes referred to as LAMTA or MTA I) was a public agency formed in 1951. Originally tasked with planning for rapid transit in Los Angeles, California, the agency would come to operate the vesti ...

, all former Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway services had ended by 1963. Elements of the film ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated comedy film, comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall (filmmaker), Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely ad ...

'' are loosely based on the closure and dismantling of Los Angeles' electric streetcars. The street railway review (1891) (14735748166).jpg, A Los Angeles Railway electric streetcar, 1891 Pacific Electric 1001.jpg, "Red car" of the Pacific Electric 1925 comprehensive rapid transit plan los angeles.tif, Schematic map of

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

and

lines serving

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 ...

; April 1, 1924.

LACMTA Metro light rail (1990–present)

The

Los Angeles County Transportation Commission The Southern California Rapid Transit District (almost always referred to as ''RTD'' or rarely as ''SCRTD'') was a public transportation agency established in 1964 to serve the Greater Los Angeles area. It was the successor to the original Los ...

was formed to coordinate transit planning in the county. After the passage of

Proposition A The Southern California Rapid Transit District (almost always referred to as ''RTD'' or rarely as ''SCRTD'') was a public transportation agency established in 1964 to serve the Greater Los Angeles area. It was the successor to the original Los ...

in 1980, light rail had emerged as a preferred mode for new services. Partially rebuilt on former Pacific Electric corridors, the new rail lines differ from the last generation of services by operating almost entirely in a dedicated

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

without interference from cars. , the system consists of four lines: * The A Line opened in 1990 as the Blue Line, operating both on city streets in Downtown Los Angeles and Downtown Long Beach, as well as on a dedicated surface and underground rights of way. It is built on a section of the former Pacific Electric

Long Beach Line 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 syste ...

. * The C Line opened as the Green Line in 1995. It operated mostly in the median of Interstate 105 between Redondo Beach, the LAX area and Norwalk. * The L Line opened as the Gold Line in 2003 and now operates between Downtown L.A. and Azusa in the northeast and East Los Angeles in the southeast. It is planned to be split up and absorbed into the A an E line in the future. * The E Line between Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica opened its first section in 2012 as the Expo Line. It operates on a section of the former

Santa Monica Air Line The Santa Monica Air Line was an interurban railroad operated by the Pacific Electric between Santa Monica and downtown Los Angeles. Electric passenger service operated over the line between 1908 and 1953. After abandonment as a freight railroad, ...

. Additional services are planned in the future: * The

East San Fernando Light Rail Transit Project The East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project (formerly the East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor Project) is a transit project which proposes the construction of a light rail line on the east side of Los Angeles's San Fernando Va ...

will reinstate local rail service in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

, connecting to other Metro services as well as commuter rail and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

services primarily via

Van Nuys Boulevard Van Nuys Boulevard is a major north-south arterial road that runs through the central San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, California. The boulevard was notable for its cruising lifestyle that was prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s, which w ...

and

San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. Within the Burbank city limits it is signed as San Fernando Boulevard, and north of Newhall Pass it is signed as The Old Road. It was previously designated ...

Historic Downtown LA Streetcar (proposed)

The

Historic Downtown Los Angeles Streetcar The Los Angeles Streetcar is a planned, partly-funded electric streetcar that would return a single route to Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Railway streetcar system served the area in the earlier part of the 20th century. History During ...

is a planned local streetcar in

References

{{reflist