TRANSITHistory of Public Transit
in the San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley has been served by public transportation in various forms since the early twentieth century. This is the story of those systems — the Pacific Electric interurban railways that first connected the Valley to Los Angeles, the municipal bus networks that replaced them, the political battles over rail revival, and the Metro rail and BRT lines that form today's regional transit network.
The Pacific Electric Era (1904–1954)
The Pacific Electric Railway — the "Red Cars" — entered the San Fernando Valley in the early 1900s, providing interurban rail service between the Valley, Hollywood, and downtown Los Angeles. PE lines served the San Fernando Valley branch via Burbank and the Van Nuys branch via Cahuenga Pass, connecting new suburban developments in the Valley to jobs and commerce in the central city.
The Pacific Electric network reached its maximum Valley extent in the 1920s, serving communities including Van Nuys, Canoga Park, and Glendale through an interconnected network of interurban lines. However, the post-World War II era brought auto-centric land-use patterns, freeway construction, and declining ridership that made the Pacific Electric routes financially unsustainable.
The last Pacific Electric passenger service in the San Fernando Valley ceased in 1954, replaced by motor bus operations that could be rerouted to serve dispersed suburban development patterns. The decision to abandon rail was broadly criticized in retrospect, particularly as freeway congestion became a defining feature of Valley life, but reflected the dominant transportation planning assumptions of its era.
The Bus Era: LARY, RTD, and the Street Network (1950s–1970s)
Following the PE's withdrawal, the Los Angeles Railway (LARY) and its successor agencies provided bus service in the Valley. The fragmented pattern of multiple operators and politically-set routes led to a system that was oriented around downtown Los Angeles rather than the dispersed travel patterns of the growing Valley suburbs.
The creation of the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD, or "RTD") in 1964 consolidated most bus operations in the region under a single agency, providing the first opportunity to rationalize the Valley's bus network at a regional scale.
The critical turning point came in 1975, when the RTD implemented its landmark Grid Service restructuring — replacing a hub-focused, downtown-oriented network with a frequency-based arterial grid that placed high-frequency buses on every major north-south and east-west arterial. This restructuring, documented in detail in the RTD Grid Service history, created the foundational pattern of the current Metro bus network: primary routes on Ventura Blvd, Van Nuys Blvd, Sepulveda Blvd, Roscoe Blvd, and other major arterials, with connections designed for cross-system transfers rather than a single downtown hub.
Proposition A and the Return of Rail (1980–1992)
The passage of Proposition A in November 1980 — a Los Angeles County half-cent sales tax for transit — marked the beginning of the rail revival era. Prop A provided dedicated funding for the RTD and designated several corridors for future rail investment, including a "starter line" for heavy rail that would become the Red Line.
The political history of how Prop A was designed and passed — and why certain corridors were included while others were not — is documented in the LACTC and the Red Line history. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC), created separately from the RTD to oversee rail planning and Prop A funds, drove the rail program through the 1980s until the two agencies were merged into LACMTA (Metro) in 1993.
The San Fernando Valley was included in early rail planning documents as a corridor for future investment, but the immediate priority of the downtown Red Line subway and the escalating costs of that project delayed Valley rail investment through the 1980s and 1990s.
The LACMTA Era and the G Line (1993–2005)
The merger of RTD and LACTC into LACMTA in 1993 consolidated rail and bus planning under a single agency but did not resolve the Valley's rail question. The Red Line extension to North Hollywood (Phase 3) opened in 2000, finally bringing Metro rail to the Valley — but as a subway terminus rather than the through-Valley service that earlier plans had envisioned.
The decision to build the Chandler Blvd corridor as BRT rather than light rail — ultimately realized as the Metro Orange Line (now G Line) in 2005 — was the defining Valley transit planning decision of the 2000s. The legal, political, and funding arguments that drove that decision are documented in the G Line history and the legal arguments against the busway.
Measure R, Measure M, and the Contemporary Network (2008–present)
Los Angeles County voters approved Measure R in 2008 and Measure M in 2016, adding two new half-cent sales taxes for transit capital and operations. Together, Prop A, Prop C, Measure R, and Measure M fund the most ambitious transit expansion program in the region's history, including the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail line (approved under Measure M) that will bring the Valley's first north-south rail service.
For a comprehensive overview of all funding sources, ballot measures, and the federal grant programs that supplement local sales taxes, see the Transportation 101 funding guide.