The Orange Line is a nearly 20-year-old, well-used bus rapid transit line that quietly grabs the spotlight as it runs through the heart of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.
And now it is getting an overdue facelift.
Last month, LA Metro’s board of directors approved a $668.5 million upgrade for the BRT line, officially called the G Line. The project includes three bus overpasses, an aerial station at Van Nuys Boulevard, new four-way gates at 13 intersections, signal priority upgrades for the buses, plus more walkway trees and station lighting.
Bus overpasses will be built at Sepulveda Boulevard, Van Nuys Boulevard and adjacent Vesper Avenue, allowing buses to travel over the streets — no longer riding at grade or stopping at traffic signals.
Four-way railroad gates will be installed at intersections on the east San Fernando Valley portion of the line. The gates will reduce vehicle and pedestrian accidents and allow the BRT to travel faster through these locations, explained Annalisa Murphy, project director.
G Line improvements will shave 12 minutes off the time it takes to go end-to-end on the line. The average full ride takes 55 minutes, so the project will reduce travel time to 43 minutes, for a 22% improvement, Murphy reported.
Construction is scheduled to start in January, and completion is set for the winter of 2027-2028, in time for the summer Olympic Games, Metro reported. In the meantime, the buses will detour around overpass construction. Also the adjoining bike lane will be re-routed onto city streets.
The 18-mile long G (Orange) Line runs through the heart of the San Fernando Valley. It is set for a three-year improvement project that was approved in September 2024 by LA Metro. (image courtesy of LA Metro)
Of course, not all riders go the full 18 miles from North Hollywood to Chatsworth, meaning rides will be faster incrementally and mostly in the eastern section. However, local officials say the construction dust and detours will be worth it once improvements are complete, if only for the speed upgrade.
“Speed. That is the biggest obstacle for getting people out of their cars (and onto mass transit), because it is taking the same amount of time to drive. This will speed it up,” said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
The Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce agrees.
“For me, elevating the G Line over these intersections (Van Nuys Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard) will reduce delays. For example, when it stops at Sepulveda it will not longer be a delay. By elevating it, that leads to less congestion on the busy streets and will improve traffic flow in those areas,” said Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, CEO of the chamber.
However, not all San Fernando Valley transit watchers see this project the same way.
Bart Reed, executive director of The Transit Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for mass transit in L.A. County, said the project costs a lot of taxpayer dollars but will deliver little help to riders. A few minutes saved won’t help those making connections to north-south buses, which he said need to have more frequencies in order to enable riders to catch transfer buses and not have to wait for the next bus. This is where Metro needs to put its improvement dollars, he advocated.
Also, the line runs about 40 battery-powered electric buses in total, about 24 buses during peak level weekday service, said Dave Sotero, LA Metro spokesperson. When electric bus chargers went down in the early summer, Metro had to substitute regular buses running on compressed natural gas and service was affected.
Those charging stations have been repaired or replaced, and the G Line is once again running a full fleet of battery-electric buses, explained Shaun Miller, who is in charge of Metro’s transition to zero-emission buses. “We’ve overcome that. We are back to using all electric buses,” Miller said on Oct. 8.
However, Reed said that during the recent heat waves, some electric buses performed poorly and that caused delays.
He advocates for overhead electric powered buses instead of battery-electric. Overhead power lines are similar to the catenary systems — a network of overhead wires — seen on light-rail lines, like the A Line in the San Gabriel Valley and Long Beach. Reed said many cities, such as San Francisco and Boston use this powering system on their electric buses, making for more reliable service.
“They just got new chargers but they should have put up wires,” Reed said on Oct. 9.
The improvement plans were more robust when first proposed in 2019 and a few years later. But the bids were too expensive. So Metro reduced the number of gated intersections from 35 to 13. A longer, connected bridge instead of three separate ones was planned but also scrapped. “We are building a project that is affordable,” Murphy said.
An illustration shows gate improvements at an at-grade section of the G (Orange) Line. The rendering is for purposes of illustration and are subject to change. (image courtesy of LA Metro)
Coby King, chairman of VICA’s transportation committee, agreed that the first version of the project was more extensive. But he said the overpasses planned, along with 13 new gates, will speed up the ride. “It is absolutely a good thing,” he said.
King and Waldman both talk about the long-held original idea, which was to build a light-rail line — not a bus rapid transit. Even with dedicated bus lanes and soon with more gates and signals prioritized to give the bus the next green light faster, the system will not be as fast as light rail.
Examples of LA Metro light-rail lines include those in South Los Angeles, the Westside of L.A., the San Gabriel Valley and Long Beach.
However, a conversion of the G Line to light-rail is decades away, so Valley transit aficionados will have to wait.
“It should have been rail in the first place,” said Reed. “The Valley is getting a half a loaf by making these incremental changes, while spending a tremendous amount of money when it should have been electric rail in the first place.”
A G Line (Orange) Metro bus picks up passengers at the Winnetka Avenue stop on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. The line is slated for $668.5 million in improvements, including overpasses. Construction is expected to start in January 2025. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
King said the approved project will be a step toward a faster BRT and to a future light-rail system. “You shave time here and there and it adds up to savings along the line,” he said. He said the new gates will reduce vehicle vs. bus collisions.
“The purpose of the G Line improvements is twofold: Improve speeds on that portion of the G Line that is most traveled. And second, make it easier to convert it to light-rail,” King said.
The gates are the same gates used on train lines, Murphy said. So a light-rail conversion would not need new gates. Also, light rail with overpasses above busy streets is seen in other systems in Southern California.
“Ultimately, our goal is to have it converted to light-rail,” said Waldman. “Every little bit counts.”
Related Articles
Amid crime concerns, LA Metro continues testing weapons detection, installing bus-driver barriers
How will LA Metro pay for more buses, operators, for a no-car 2028 Olympic Games?
Metrolink will add midday trains for nontraditional workers, tourists
East San Fernando Valley light-rail line gets $893 million grant from feds
What’s closed for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 2, in the Los Angeles area
Related links
Orange Line project could shorten bus commute by 30 percent, but Valley motorists might be delayed, says Metro
Metro’s Metro G (Orange) Line of buses in the San Fernando Valley is now all electric
Metro G (Orange) Line bus collides with auto, injuring five in Van Nuys
Metro gets rolling on San Fernando Valley light rail construction
East San Fernando Valley light-rail line gets $893 million grant from feds