Getting around Los Angeles by Rail/Stops and Facilities/Metro Rail Transfer Stations

The Metro Rail system map. Notice the transfer stations and the concurrency.

Metro Rail's five lines are linked through transfer stations, which are stations that two or more lines pass through. Sometimes, two lines follow the same track, called a concurrency. Metro Rail has 1 concurrency at this time and will have another in the future after the opening of the Expo Line.

Subpages

• Los Angeles Union Station
• 7th Street/Metro Center
• Imperial/Wilmington

Transfer Stations

Station Name	Transfer Line 1	Transfer Line 2	Transfer Line 3 (if applicable)
Los Angeles Union Station	Gold	Red	Purple
7th Street/Metro Center	Blue	Red	Purple
Imperial/Wilmington	Blue	Green

Transferring Made Easy

Transferring between lines may seem complicated at first, but it's really not that hard. Here is a guide for first-timers (source line is along the left and destination line is along the top):

	Blue Line	Gold Line	Green Line	Red Line	Purple Line
Blue Line	N/A	Blue to 7th Street/Metro Center; Red/Purple to Los Angeles Union Station (serves Gold Line)	Blue to Imperial/Wilmington (serves Green Line)	Blue to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Red Line)	Blue to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Purple Line)
Gold Line	Gold to Los Angeles Union Station; Red/Purple to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Blue Line)	N/A	Gold to Los Angeles Union Station; Red/Purple to 7th Street/Metro Center; Blue to Imperial/Wilmington (serves Green Line)	Gold to Los Angeles Union Station (serves Red Line)	Gold to Los Angeles Union Station (serves Purple Line)
Green Line	Green to Imperial/Wilmington (serves Blue Line)	Green to Imperial/Wilmington; Blue to 7th Street/Metro Center; Red/Purple to Los Angeles Union Station (serves Gold Line)	N/A	Green to Imperial/Wilmington; Blue to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Red Line)	Green to Imperial/Wilmington; Blue to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Purple Line)
Red Line	Red to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Blue Line)	Red to Los Angeles Union Station (serves Gold Line)	Red to 7th Street/Metro Center; Blue to Imperial/Wilmington (serves Green Line)	N/A	Concurrency (see below)
Purple Line	Purple to 7th Street/Metro Center (serves Blue Line)	Purple to Los Angeles Union Station (serves Gold Line)	Red to 7th Street/Metro Center; Blue to Imperial/Wilmington (serves Green Line)	Concurrency (see below)	N/A

Concurrencies

A map of the concurrencies in the Metro Rail system, primarily in Downtown LA.

A concurrency occurs when two or more lines run on the same track. The Chicago Loop (more info in a future book, Getting around Chicago by Rail...maybe) is an extreme example, when 4 or 5 lines share the same track. Metro Rail currently has 1 concurrency. The Red Line and Purple Line share 6 stations between Los Angeles Union Station, the eastern terminus for both lines, and Wilshire/Vermont. After Wilshire/Vermont, the Red Line stops at 8 more stations before terminating at North Hollywood and the Purple Line stops at Wilshire/Normandie and terminates at Wilshire/Western. Since the Red/Purple concurrency travels through the heart of downtown, which makes it the most heavily used of all Metro lines, and the Purple Line goes to only have two stations of its own (no concurrency with Red), the Purple Line serves mainly to relieve the Red Line's heavy traffic. Before its designation as a line in 2006, it used to be another branch of the Red Line. In fact, if you exit from Wilshire/Normandie or Wilshire/Western, you'll notice that the markers are red.

In the future, the Expo Line will start at 7th Street/Metro Center, like the Blue Line, and share tracks with the Blue Line until the next station (Pico), where the Expo Line will continue along Exposition Blvd. This will be the second concurrency Metro Rail will have.