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 older signage, tattoos and bar directions pointing at names that no longer exist.

Here is the current network, line by line, along with the things the map does not tell you.

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. Riding it end to end is a genuine cross-section of the region, from the San Gabriel Valley through the industrial middle of the county to the Long Beach waterfront.

B Line is a subway, and one of only two true subways in the system. 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. It is also the fastest way to cross the Cahuenga Pass at almost any hour, because it is not sitting in the traffic on the 101 above it.

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 and gives it a distinctive character: you are riding at freeway speed, in the middle of a freeway, watching stationary traffic on both sides.

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 toward the Westside, and its newest stations opened in May. When the full extension is complete it will do something Los Angeles has never had: a fast, grade-separated connection along the Wilshire corridor, which is one of the densest employment and residential corridors in the western United States.

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, and it is the one visitors use most. Because much of it runs on the surface with street crossings, it is slower than a subway over the same distance. That is the trade: it was far cheaper to build and it serves more places directly.

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. It is the newest part of the network and serves an area that has been promised rail for a very long time.

Why the letters

The rename was not cosmetic. Metro ran out of usable colours as the network grew, and colour names are a genuine accessibility problem: they exclude riders who cannot distinguish particular colours, and they do not translate cleanly for a ridership that speaks a great many languages. Letters extend indefinitely, survive translation, and can be spoken clearly over a noisy platform announcement.

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 another decade of Angelenos translating in both directions, and expect anyone who has lived here more than fifteen years to use the old name without noticing.

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 into the terminal loop and stops at the terminals.

The shuttle is a placeholder. The permanent link is the LAX Automated People Mover, an elevated automated train that will run into the central terminal area and remove the bus transfer entirely. It will also serve the consolidated rental car facility and economy parking, which is the part likely to change airport traffic the most, because rental car shuttles are a significant share of what clogs the terminal loop.

Metro's own materials still describe that terminal connection as coming rather than open. If a trip depends on it, verify before you rely on it rather than trusting a travel article, including this one.

Fares and how to pay

Metro uses a TAP card, a reusable contactless card you load with value or a pass, tapped at a gate or on boarding a bus. Fares are capped daily and weekly, meaning that after a certain number of rides in a period, further rides in that period do not cost more. That is a meaningful difference from systems that require you to guess in advance whether a day pass is worth buying: with fare capping you simply ride and the system stops charging.

Reduced fares exist for seniors, riders with disabilities, students, and low-income riders through a specific programme. If you are eligible, the paperwork is worth doing once.

What the map does not tell you

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

Frequency varies more than the map suggests. A line drawn in thick colour looks like a subway. Some segments run at subway frequency and some do not, particularly late in the evening. Check the schedule for the specific trip you are making rather than assuming the line is always turn-up-and-go.

Rail is the skeleton, not the body. The bus network carries far more riders across far more of the county, and a large share of genuinely 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. It has an extensive one; most of it has tyres.

Construction is constant. The region is building toward a list of projects tied to the 2028 Olympics, and that work produces closures, single-tracking and shuttle-bus segments. Check for planned diversions before travelling, especially at weekends.

Safety and comfort

Metro has been running an extended effort around safety and cleanliness on the system, with visible changes in staffing and enforcement. Rider experience varies by line, by time of day and by station, and it is reasonable to make different choices at midnight than at midday. The general advice that applies in any large transit system applies here: ride in a populated car, be aware of your surroundings, and use the station help points if you need them.

The short version

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. The Wilshire corridor, take the D. The airport, take the C or K to the transit centre and then the shuttle.

And check the destination sign on the front of the train, not just the letter. That habit will save you more time than any other single thing on this list.