Santa Monica Air Line
The Air Line looking west from Ivy station (later Culver Junction), with thejunction andstation building in the foreground, 1905[dubious –discuss]
Overview
Owner	Southern Pacific Railroad
Locale	Los Angeles
Termini	Pacific Electric Building Santa Monica, California
Stations	71[1]
Service
Type	Interurban
System	Pacific Electric
Operator(s)	Pacific Electric
Daily ridership	39 (weekdays, 1948)[2]
History
Opened	July 1908
Closed	October 26, 1953
Technical
Line length	16.88 mi (27.17 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead line, 600 V DC
Route map Legend mi 0.00 Pacific Electric Building Northern Division  J  R  S   S  Southern Pacific Railroad Clement Junction Amoco to Bellflower,Long Beach &San Pedro  7  8   F  5  9  5.40 University  V  7.68 11th Avenue Cienega Airville 10.04 Sentous Venice Short Line 11.16 Culver Junction Winslow 12.20 Palms Winship 14.87 Home Junction Sawtelle Soldier's Home 15.25 Bergamot 16.18 Sunset 16.88 Santa Monica Port Los Angeles 19.20 Ocean Park Venice–Inglewood Venice Short Line This diagram: view talk edit

TheSanta Monica Air Line was aninterurbanrailroad operated by thePacific Electric betweenSanta Monica anddowntown Los Angeles. Electric passenger service operated over the line between 1908 and 1953.^[3] After abandonment as a freight railroad, most of the route was converted tolight rail for use by theMetroE Line.

Beginning at thePacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main streets, the line crossed Los Angeles Street on aviaduct to reach San Pedro Street, where it turned south. It turned from San Pedro onto Ninth Street and ran to aright-of-way. At 25th Street and Long Beach Boulevard, at what was calledAmoco (American Olive Company) Junction, the Air Line left the Watts main route and went west on a single track right-of-way diagonally across the city grid until Flower Street, where it joined Exposition Boulevard. At the west end of Exposition, the route followed Jefferson Boulevard to La Cienega, where it generally followed Washington and National Boulevards until Culver Junction.^[4]

The route turned north until it crossed Overland Avenue, continued on a right-of-way between Exposition and Olympic before reaching Colorado and paralleling that road to Santa Monica. The line curved to the southeast to meet Pico just west of Main Street. It ended south of Main and Hollister at the Ocean Park car house.^[4]

The table shows stops on the line in 1911, with major depots inbold:^{[citation needed]}

Power for the line'soverhead wire was provided by theIvy Substation at 600voltsdirect current until operations were converted to diesel engines shortly after passenger service ended.^[5]

The line was built in 1875 as the steam-poweredLos Angeles and Independence Railroad, intended to bring mined ore to ships inSanta Monica harbor's Long Wharf and as a passenger excursion train to the beach. It was later purchased bySouthern Pacific Railroad, whereupon it was leased to theLos Angeles-Pacific Railroad for electric passenger and light freight use.

Installation of therailway electrification system on the line had begun by May 1908,^[6][7] and electric service to the Hill Street Terminal began that July (cars ran to Hill Street via theVenice Short Line).^[8] Limited flyer service was inaugurated on May 26, 1909.^[9] Pacific Electric bought the line in 1911, along with all the other lines owned by Los Angeles Pacific. Tracks between Culver Junction andAmoco Junction were electrified in 1912, allowing cars to reach downtown via theWatts Line.^[10] The Santa Monica harbor Long Wharf was closed to shipping traffic in 1913.^[11][12][13] By 1923, service consisted of 17 daily round trips to 11th Avenue, 15 round trips to Culver City, and a single daily round trip the full length of the line to Santa Monica.^[14]

With sparse population along much of the route, service on the Air Line was reduced as early as 1924, with passenger cars running only during rush hours.^[13][10] At that point most passengers traveled to Santa Monica on a different rail line which ran primarily on Santa Monica Boulevard. Pacific Electric would reduce the Air Line's service frequency until 1931 when only a single daily round-trip operated over the route.^[10]

The railroad tried to discontinue the service entirely as early as 1932,^[15] though patrons of the line successfully blocked every attempt.^[16][10] By then, Pacific Electric did not print regular timetables for the Air Line, attempting to reduce ridership to strengthen their case for abandonment. Fans and users of the service would advertise the trip independently of the company.^[10][17]

Passenger service on the Air Line was discontinued on October 26, 1953.^[13][10] The final few weeks only saw one daily round trip run betweenAmoco Junction and 11th Avenue. This was Pacific Electric's only service not transferred to Metropolitan Coach Lines, which had happened to their remaining lines 25 days earlier. This marked the railroad's exit from passenger services entirely.^[10]

Freight operations continued running over the tracks.^[18] Because the Air Line route was also connected to the Santa Monica Boulevard line via tracks on Sepulveda Boulevard, it was the only way for freight trains to reach West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Hollywood warehouses (usually at night due to city regulations).

As the use of rail for transporting freight gradually declined, the tracks along Santa Monica and Sepulveda boulevards were removed and service became sparse. The tracks alongside Exposition Park occasionally also served a special purpose to hold circus trains throughout the 1980s and to store various companies' passenger cars during the 1984 Olympic Games. The final freight run was from Fisher Lumber in Santa Monica on the morning of Friday, March 11, 1988.^[19]

After abandonment, ownership was maintained by Southern Pacific,^[4] which leased various portions of the land for semi-permanent structures. By the mid-1990s parking lots, storage facilities and some retail buildings had almost completely covered the tracks west of Sepulveda Boulevard — with unusedsignal cantilevers and crossing gates being the only clue to its former existence. East of Sepulveda Boulevard, tracks, bridges and tunnels remained intact but overgrown.

A lone Southern Pacific Railroadboxcar was marooned on a freight siding which once serviced a warehouse at 10151 National Boulevard, originally the Great Western Biscuit Company and later the publications division of Douglas Aircraft Company. In 2005 the building was leveled and the boxcar cut apart and removed to make way for Price Self-Storage.^[20]

The right-of-way was purchased by what is nowLos Angeles Metro in 1990.^[22] Track replacement and various construction tasks began in 2006, and the first phase of the "Expo Line" from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City opened in April 2012.^[23] Service for the second phase to Santa Monica began on May 20, 2016.^[24] The new service had daily ridership of over 58,000 in 2018.^[25]

While most parts of the Air Line have been replaced in reconstruction, two major structures from those days remain: (1) The steel bridge over National Boulevard was deemed structurally sound and was repurposed in conjunction with a new bridge for a second track, and (2) the tunnel under the Santa Monica Freeway was put back in use.^[26]

Abranch of the Air Line ran 2.14 miles (3.44 km) fromHome Junction to theSawtelle Veterans Home. It was built in 1893 and similarly upgraded for electric service in 1908,^[2] also being absorbed into the new Pacific Electric.^[13] It operated as a shuttle service until about July 1920.^[27]

As a remnant of Southern Pacific's former steam line, the segment from Santa Monica toPort Los Angeles ran a regular local service. Pacific Electric began with half-hourly headways and some inbound trips initially ran as far asCulver City. The Port terminal was truncated to Rustic, near the pier approach, around 1920, and again to Santa Monica Canyon around 1924. By November 1931, frequency was reduced to two round trips daily and the service was discontinued outright between 1933 and 1934.^[28]

• Streetcars in North America
• List of California railroads
• History of rail transportation in California

• The Militant's Pacific Electric Archaeology Map - old PE Streetcar lines shown on contemporary map
• Essay on the Santa Monica Air Line at Abandonedrails.com
• Information on the wigwag cantilevers at Trainweb.org/dansrailpix
• Historic photos ca. 1953 of the final days of passenger service on the Santa Monica Air Line
• Website discussion of route with photographs of equipment in 1930s-40s photographs of the PE's Santa Monica Air Line

• Pacific Electric routes
• History of Los Angeles
• History of Los Angeles County, California
• History of Santa Monica, California
• Southern Pacific Railroad lines
• Transportation in Los Angeles
• Railway lines opened in 1875
• 1875 establishments in California
• 19th century in Los Angeles
• 1953 disestablishments in California
• Companies based in Santa Monica, California
• Railway services discontinued in 1953
• Closed railway lines in the United States

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