Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)

Silver Line (Los Angeles Metro)

The Silver Line is a Metro Liner bus rapid transit line which runs west along a 26 miles (42 km) route from the El Monte Station along the El Monte Busway to the Los Angeles Union Station and Downtown Los Angeles and then south along the Harbor Transitway to the Harbor Gateway Transit Center. It connects with the Metro Rail and Metrolink commuter rail systems. The line is operated by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Since the line runs on streets in the Downtown Los Angeles area, the line is subject to detours.

Usage has grown steadily since the service was introduced in December 13, 2009 with weekday ridership reaching 13,765 in Oct 2012. The El Monte Station was doubled in size between 2010 and 2012 to handle a total of 40,000 passengers a day and a joint fare program was introduced with the Silver Streak (bus) operated by Foothill Transit. The service runs every 4–8 minutes during the peak hour period, every 15 minutes during the midday on weekdays, 20 minutes on Saturdays and 30 minutes on Sundays/Holidays. Service during the night on Weekdays is every 30-40 minutes. Service during the night on Saturdays, Sundays/Holidays is 60 minutes between 8:00p.m.-9:00p.m., and then 40 minutes until the remainder of the night.

The Silver Line's route on the I-110 and I-10 freeways was converted to high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes with many other changes as part of the Metro ExpressLanes project which were complete by February 2013. There are still a few transit improvements currently being worked on the Silver Line stations.