J Line (Los Angeles Metro)

This elevated section of the Harbor Transitway carries the Metro J Line and the Metro ExpressLanes over the frequently congested Harbor Freeway.

The idea for the route now known as the J Line came in 1993, as Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) staff studied how to operate buses on the Harbor Transitway, which was under construction and would open three years later in the summer of 1996. Metro staff recommended the creation of a dual hub-and-spoke ("dual hub") system with a trunk route that served both the Harbor Transitway and the operationally similar El Monte Busway, which had opened two decades earlier in January 1973.[7] Staff said the dual hub proposal, would be the most efficient and cost less to run, but the Metro Board of Directors decided to continue running bus routes on both the El Monte Busway and Harbor Freeway as they had before.[8]

After the Harbor Transitway opened, ridership was radically lower than expected: Caltrans had projected that 65,200 passengers would travel along the Harbor Transitway each day, but after 10 years, the facility had only attracted 3,000 passengers per weekday.[9] That amount is low compared to the El Monte Busway, which had 32,000 boardings a day in November 2000.[9]

After the very successful launch of the Orange Line busway (now the G Line) in the San Fernando Valley, Metro decided to rebrand the county's other busways in an attempt to increase awareness.[10] In March 2006, Metro decided that the Harbor Transitway would be colored bronze and the El Monte Busway would be colored silver on Metro's maps, and the two would be marketed as a "Combined Transitway Service." No changes were made in the bus routes operated on either facility. The changes were criticized as too complex for irregular and new riders to understand.[11]

Metro returned to its plan for a dual-hub route in 2009, proposing a new bus rapid transit service called the Silver Line (now J Line) utilizing both the Harbor Transitway and the El Monte Busway. The new higher frequency service would be funded by converting both corridors into high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, to be branded as the Metro ExpressLanes. The bus route began operations on December 13, 2009, and the HOT lanes on the Harbor Transitway went into service on November 10, 2012[12] and the El Monte Busway's HOT lanes opened on February 22, 2013.[13]

Since the start of the J Line, Metro has been working on refurbishing the aging stations along both the Harbor Transitway and the El Monte Busway. The 1970s-era El Monte Station was demolished and replaced by a new station in October 2012. All the Harbor Transitway stations were refurbished with real-time arrival signs, new wayfinding signage, improved lighting, and soundproofing by late 2012. The El Monte Busway stations received a similar refurbishment in January 2015. Transit Access Pass (TAP) card ticket vending machines were added to stations in early 2017 to support all-door boarding on J Line buses.[14] Metro has also added a new station on the El Monte Busway at Union Station that opened on November 1, 2020.[15][16]

Efforts have also been made to speed up J Line buses as they cross Downtown Los Angeles on surface streets. LADOT added bus priority to traffic lights in 2012, and over several years about 2.5 mi (4.0 km) of bus-only lanes have been added in each direction, allowing buses to bypass traffic on nearly 70% of the 3.6 mi (5.8 km) surface street portion of the route.

In 2015, Metro integrated the last remaining Metro Express route on the Harbor Transitway, the 450X to San Pedro, into the Silver Line. Initially, a new express Silver Line service was added that served San Pedro and skipped many Harbor Transitway stations, but by June 2017, San Pedro-bound buses were serving all stations, and the increase in speed was deemed not enough to justify increased crowding on other buses.[17]

As part of Metro's NextGen Bus Plan, the agency had proposed discontinuing the J Line's route 950, which offers service to San Pedro.[18] Metro said the change would allow the J Line to transition to battery-electric buses and would improve the reliability of buses that operate between El Monte Station and Harbor Gateway Transit Center. Service to San Pedro would have been shifted to a new line between San Pedro and the Harbor Freeway station via I-110, with a peak-hour extension to Downtown Los Angeles.[19] The San Pedro neighborhood opposed the change, with citizens requesting that they also receive electrified bus service and maintain a one-seat ride to Downtown LA and El Monte. As a result, plans to end the J Line's service to San Pedro were put on hold indefinitely.[20]

Ridership has steadily grown on the J Line each year.

An estimated 6,612 passengers rode the line each weekday in January 2010 (the first whole month of operation), and ridership has grown steadily each year since. Ridership set a new all-time high in February 2016, with an estimated 16,884 passengers riding the line each weekday.

The on-time performance of the Metro J Line is currently around 82.4%, defined as being less than 5 minutes behind schedule.[22] That places it far behind the Metro Rail lines (99% on time) and Orange Line (94% on time), but better than an average Metro bus route (80.6% on time). On-time performance benefits from the active traffic management system installed as part of the Metro ExpressLanes project.

Bollards were installed at Harbor Freeway station and all similar stations after the crash.

On February 22, 2012, a drunk driver on the Harbor Freeway mistakenly entered the bus-only station area of the Harbor Freeway station. The driver, 51-year-old Stephen L. Lubin of Sun Valley, was traveling at 80 mph (130 km/h) in his 2009 Honda Fit (15 mph (24 km/h) over the freeway's posted speed limit) as he entered the station and encountered a bus stopped at the platform. Lubin swerved to avoid hitting the bus and drove onto the station platform where he hit seven people, critically injuring six, before slamming into a pole on the platform.

After the crash, Metro's CEO Art Leahy asked Metro's safety committee staff to review the layout of busway stations and safety signage on the roadways leading into the station areas.[23] As a result of that investigation, Metro added concrete-filled metal bollards to all stations on the Harbor Transitway and the El Monte Busway to prevent vehicles from entering the platform. Additional markings were added on roadways leading into stations.[24]

Metro J Line 45-foot NABI CompoBus

Buses used on the J Line are operated out of two divisions (Metro's term for storage and maintenance facilities). Division 9 is in El Monte on the grounds of El Monte Station and Division 18 at South Figueroa Street and West Griffith Street in Carson, about a mile south of the Harbor Gateway Transit Center.

The Metro J Line primarily operates with a fleet of dedicated NABI Metro 45C CompoBus coaches. Each 45-foot long (14 m) bus is made of light composite materials and is powered by compressed natural gas. Coaches are painted or vinyl wrapped with a special grey livery that matches the design of newer Metro Rail vehicles and the coaches used on G Line.

Beginning in January 2022, BYD K9M battery-electric buses are being added to the J Line fleet, with plans to have these coaches replace the NABI 45c-LFW fleet sometime in the near future.[25][26] Each BYD K9M is 40 feet (12 m) in length and equipped with a long-range battery that is charged nightly at one of the lines two assigned divisions. Like the older fleet, each bus is painted in a special grey livery.

• List of Los Angeles Metro Busway stations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to J Line (Los Angeles Metro).

• Metro Silver Line timetable – as of June 2013
• Silver Line Map – Overall map of the line
• Silver Line destinations – Metro Silver Line destinations guide (English)
• Silver Line destinations – Metro Silver Line destinations guide (Spanish)
• A recent report of the Metro Silver Line
• Metro's official release about the New Metro Silver Line Archived November 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Released on December 9, 2009.
• Metro's proposed security for the Metro Silver Line stations Archived December 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
• CBS news article about the Metro Silver Line Accident at Harbor Freeway Station
• NBC news article about the Metro Silver Line Accident at Harbor Freeway Station
• Metro Silver Line and Foothill Silver Streak Coordination