Los Angeles Railway


The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1901 and 1963. It operated on narrow gauge tracks. The company carried many more passengers than the Pacific Electric Railway's Red Cars, which served a larger area of Los Angeles.
The system shared dual gauge track with the Pacific Electric, "Red Car," system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of Downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena and Torrance.

History

Early years

The system was purchased by railroad and real estate tycoon Henry E. Huntington in 1898 and started operation in 1901. At its height, the system contained over 20 streetcar lines and 1,250 trolleys, most running through the core of Los Angeles and serving such neighborhoods as Crenshaw, West Adams, Leimert Park, Exposition Park, Echo Park, Westlake, Hancock Park, Vernon, Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights.

Decline

The system was sold in 1944 by Huntington's estate to American City Lines, Inc., of Chicago, a subsidiary of National City Lines, a holding company that was purchasing transit systems across the country. The sale was announced December 5, 1944, but the purchase price was not disclosed. National City Lines, along with its investors that included Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and General Motors, were later convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by National City Lines and other companies in what became known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy. National City Lines purchased Key System, which operated streetcars systems in Northern California, the following year.
The company was renamed as Los Angeles Transit Lines. The new company introduced 40 new ACF-Brill trolley buses which had originally been intended for the Key System streetcar system in Oakland which was being converted by National City Lines to buses in late 1948.
Many lines were converted to buses in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Public ownership and finale

The last remaining lines were taken over by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority along with the remains of the Pacific Electric Railway in 1958. The agency removed the remaining five streetcar lines and two trolley bus lines, replacing electric service with diesel buses on March 31, 1963.

List of routes