The West Santa Ana Branch is a rail right-of-way formerly used by the Pacific Electric's (PE) Santa Ana route in

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, ...

and Orange County in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

. 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) owns the segment of the right-of-way in Los Angeles County, and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) owns the segment in Orange County. The line runs from the

Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artis ...

in the city 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 ...

, southeast to the intersection of 4th Street and Santa Ana Boulevard in downtown Santa Ana. A portion of it is occupied by Interstate 105 and the C Line. The right-of-way runs nearly straight on a diagonal between the two cities, in contrast to the

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, t ...

grid of Orange County.

History

The right-of-way was established as an

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 ...

route for the Pacific Electric Railway. Grading of the route began on September 30, 1904, and service commenced in 1905. The line was

double-tracked Double tracking or doubling is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or bigger sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument. ...

for its length except for single track bridges. One set of tracks was removed in 1941. Service was truncated to Bellflower in 1950, and finally discontinued in 1958. Southern Pacific continued to use the line for freight. A

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacrame ...

survey in 1981 reported that the line had been reduced to a single track railway, which had several

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

s removed and was in poor condition. The section in Orange County between Paramount and Stanton was acquired by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority in 1990 as part of the $450 million package deal with Southern Pacific (equivalent to $ in ). The

Century Freeway A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

and the Green Line were constructed along a segment in Lynwood, opening in 1993 and 1995 respectively.

Remnants

Pacific Electric Sub-Station No. 14 in Santa Ana was added to the list of

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on September 22, 1983. The

Ghost Town & Calico Railroad The Ghost Town & Calico Railway is a Narrow gauge railway, narrow-gauge heritage railway, heritage railroad and amusement park attraction within Knott's Berry Farm, an amusement park located in Buena Park, California.Merritt, Christopher, and Lyn ...

attraction at Knott's Berry Farm uses a PE depot formerly located at

Hansen station Hansen may refer to: Places * Cape Hansen, Antarctica * Hansen, Idaho, town in the United States * Hansen, Nebraska, United States * Hansen, Wisconsin, town in the United States * Hansen Township, Ontario, Canada *Hansen, Germany, a small paris ...

along the ROW in Stanton as the main station building. The building was moved to the theme park in 1952. The

Bellflower station Bellflower is a planned light rail station in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system. It is part of the West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor project. Measure M funds are programmed for a scheduled completion in 2041, though the station may b ...

was restored to its opening condition in 2008. Despite the inactivity of the line, parts of the right-of-way still hold tracks that are in working order. For example, a warehouse

stub Stub or Stubb may refer to: Shortened objects and entities * Stub (stock), the portion of a corporation left over after most but not all of it has been bought out or spun out * Stub, a tree cut and allowed to regrow from the trunk; see Pollardi ...

of the San Pedro Branch Rail is located between Garfield Avenue and Rosecrans Avenue. The Paramount Industrial Lead, another branch of the San Pedro Branch Rail, also occupies the right-of-way with a non-gated

at the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and Paramount Boulevard, a gated crossing at Downey Avenue, and a depot near Somerset Boulevard's

Paramount Petroleum Paramount Petroleum Corporation was headquartered in Paramount, Los Angeles County, California. It operated a refinery at that location, and was the largest seller of asphalt in California. Paramount also operated a refinery near Portland, Ore ...

plant. Several disconnected and dilapidated fragments of tracks remain at random intervals throughout the right-of-way.

Future development

The

Southern California Association of Governments The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) of six of the ten counties in Southern California, serving Imperial County, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernar ...

(SCAG), in conjunction with Metro and OCTA, conducted an

alternatives analysis Alternatives assessment or alternatives analysis is a problem-solving approach used in environmental design, technology, and policy. It aims to minimize environmental harm by comparing multiple potential solutions in the context of a specific probl ...

to determine the list of all feasible alternatives for the project. These alternatives may use all or part of the ROW. Modes under consideration were bus rapid transit, light rail,

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

and

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

. SCAG organized a first round of public meetings in June 2010. A second round of public meetings were held in November and December 2010. All currently planned projects on the WSAB right-of-way have been various forms of light rail, including modern streetcars using light-rail veichles (LRVs).

Los Angeles Metro project

Metro has prioritized the corridor on its Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), and funding for it was guaranteed in the LA County

Measure R Measure R was a ballot measure during the November 2008 elections in Los Angeles County, California, that proposed a half-cent sales taxes increase on each dollar of taxable sales (originating in or made from Los Angeles County) for thirty years ...

and Measure M transportation funding ballot measures. As proposed, the light rail line will travel between Artesia and Union Station, using the ROW between Paramount and Artesia.

OC Streetcar

, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is collaborating with the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove to build a streetcar line. The western terminus of the proposed route would follow the Pacific Electric right-of-way near the intersection of

Harbor Boulevard Harbor Boulevard (formerly Spadra Road) is a north–south road corridor in the counties of Los Angeles and Orange. One of the busiest routes in Orange County, the thoroughfare passes through some of the most densely populated areas in the regio ...

and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove.

References

Pacific Electric routes Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Orange County Transportation Authority Public transportation in Los Angeles County, California Public transportation in Orange County, California Transportation in Santa Ana, California Garden Grove, California Watts, Los Angeles Stanton, California Railway lines opened in 1905 Closed railway lines in the United States