County Allocates $1.5 Million for Historic Blue Line Rail Car Installation in Long Beach

Renderings of the pedestrian improvements along 1st St in Downtown Long Beach, with Blue Line Car 100 at its center.

Los Angeles, CA – Today, with the leadership of Supervisor Janice Hahn, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to allocate $1,500,000 to a pedestrian-friendly makeover of a four-block section of 1st Street in Downtown Long Beach. The planned centerpiece of the project will be Blue Line Rail Car #100, the first rail car to operate on the Los Angeles Metro Blue Line when it opened in 1990.

“In 1990 the Blue Line ushered in the future of transportation in LA County. Today this transformation of 1st Street is ushering in the future of Downtown Long Beach while paying homage to our proud history of visionary projects that make life better for our communities,” said Hahn.

The project, administered by the City of Long Beach, will transform a four-block section of 1st Street in the downtown core into a pedestrian-friendly mobility corridor connecting the newly redeveloped Civic Center at Pacific Avenue eastward toward the East Village Arts District at Elm Street. Construction is expected to begin late this year and to last 9 months.

Construction of the Blue Line—Los Angeles County’s first light rail line—was made possible by Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax that Hahn’s father, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, fought to place on the ballot. Voters approved the measure in 1980. Kenneth Hahn later lobbied for the Blue Line, connecting Long Beach with Los Angeles, to be built first.