LA Metro Rail Lines Explained: A, B, C, D, E and K

Los Angeles spent decades calling its trains the Blue Line, the Red Line and the Gold Line. Metro retired those names in favour of letters, and the map now runs A through K. The change confused a generation of riders who still say "the Blue Line" out of habit, and it left a lot of older signage, tattoos and bar directions pointing at names that no longer exist.

Here is the current network, line by line.

The six lines

A Line runs the length of the county, from Pomona in the east down through Downtown and out to Long Beach. It is the longest of the group and the descendant of the old Blue Line, which is why long-time riders still call the Long Beach half by its old name.

B Line is a subway. It runs from Union Station under Downtown and Hollywood to North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley. If you are going from Downtown to Hollywood or over the hill to the Valley without a car, this is the line.

C Line crosses the southern edge of the county from Norwalk west to the LAX/Metro Transit Center. It spends much of its length in the median of the 105 freeway, which makes it the most obviously freeway-shaped line on the map.

D Line is the other subway, running from Union Station west under Wilshire. It is the line in the middle of a long westward extension, and its newest stations opened in May.

E Line runs east to west at street level, from East Los Angeles through Downtown and across the Westside to Santa Monica. It is the line that ends closest to the ocean.

K Line runs north to south through the Crenshaw corridor and Inglewood, connecting the E Line down toward Redondo Beach and meeting the C Line near the airport.

Why the letters

The rename was not cosmetic. Metro ran out of usable colours as the network grew, and colour names are a problem for riders who cannot distinguish them or who do not read English. Letters extend cleanly, survive translation, and can be spoken over a noisy platform.

The practical cost is that the letters carry no geographic hint. "Blue Line" told you nothing either, but people had years to attach meaning to it. Expect at least one more decade of Angelenos translating in both directions.

Getting to the airport

The airport connection is the question most visitors ask, and the honest answer is that it is halfway built. Both the C and K lines now reach the LAX/Metro Transit Center, a station built specifically to be the rail gateway to the airport. From there, a free shuttle bus runs to the terminals.

The shuttle is a placeholder. The permanent link is the LAX Automated People Mover, an elevated train that will run into the terminal loop and remove the bus transfer entirely. Metro's own materials still describe that connection as coming, so if you are planning a trip today, plan on the shuttle and treat the people mover as a bonus if it has opened by the time you fly.

What the map does not tell you

Two things worth knowing before you rely on the rail network.

The first is that frequency varies more than the map suggests. A line drawn in thick colour looks like a subway; some segments run at subway frequency and others do not, particularly late at night. Check the actual schedule for the trip you are making rather than assuming the line is always turn-up-and-go.

The second is that the rail lines are the skeleton, not the body. The bus network carries far more riders across far more of the county, and a huge share of useful Metro trips involve at least one bus. Treating rail as the whole system is the single most common way visitors conclude that Los Angeles has no transit.

The short version

If you want Downtown to Hollywood or the Valley, take the B. Downtown to the beach, take the E. Downtown to Long Beach or Pomona, take the A. Wilshire, take the D. The airport, take the C or K to the transit centre and then the shuttle.