L.A. Metro broke ground Wednesday on a $429 million Bus Rapid Transit line connecting North Hollywood to Pasadena. The 19.5-mile route faces a lawsuit from Burbank over bus-only lanes and is expected to open by February 2028.
A $429 million bus rapid transit line that will connect North Hollywood to is officially under construction. L.A. Metro held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday at Glendale City Hall, marking the start of major work on what officials are calling the missing link between the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.
The 19.5-mile route will carry up to 30,000 riders a day on zero-emission electric buses through five communities: North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock, and Pasadena. The line features 22 new BRT stations and is expected to open by February 2028.
The BRT line starts at the North Hollywood Metro B, D, and G Line station, then runs south on the 134 Freeway before exiting onto Olive Avenue in Burbank. From there, it travels through the Burbank Media District and downtown, then onto Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale. The route continues along Central Avenue and East Broadway, then onto Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock and Pasadena, ending near the Metro A Line Memorial Park Station.
"We are breaking ground on a project that will meaningfully reduce travel time and greenhouse gases, while connecting job centers, schools and neighborhoods across the two valleys. This is long overdue and much needed," said Kathryn Barger, Fifth District LA County Supervisor and L.A. Metro board member.
According to Anthony Defrenza, L.A. Metro deputy executive officer for project management, a complete end-to-end ride will take about 67 minutes. That represents a 44% time savings over existing transit options, which can take 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours using Metrolink and buses with transfers, said Anthony Crump, L.A. Metro's executive officer of community relations.
The project is not without controversy. The city of Burbank has refused to issue construction permits for bus-only lanes on Olive Avenue, arguing that converting two of four lanes into dedicated bus lanes will snarl car traffic and hurt local businesses.
On May 19, L.A. Metro sued the city of Burbank to force it to release the permits. The lawsuit seeks to allow two lanes on Olive Avenue to become bus-only, leaving two lanes for general vehicle traffic.
"Sometimes the decision to approve quality of life in a community is unpopular," said Ara Najarian, Glendale City Councilmember and longtime L.A. Metro board member who proposed the BRT idea in 2015. "Leadership means pushing forward against naysayers and against the ignorant city officials both in our city and next door."
No elected official from Burbank spoke at the Wednesday groundbreaking. Konstantine Anthony, a Burbank City Council member in favor of the BRT, attended the ceremony but declined to comment directly on the litigation.
Karen Ross, co-owner of Tallyrand Restaurant on West Olive Avenue, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in February 2024 that slimming the road with exclusive BRT lanes will deter customers trying to reach her eatery.
Glendale Mayor Ardy Kassakhian spoke at the groundbreaking but used the platform to criticize SB 79, a state law facilitating housing production near high-quality transit stops. Kassakhian characterized the law as his city "surrendering our local planning authority."
"I support this BRT, however I urge that this transportation project does not become a vehicle through which the state of California imposes land use mandates that were never part of our original local understandings," Kassakhian said.
The project was funded in 2016 through Metro's Measure M sales tax, which programmed $266 million toward the line. The full project budget of $429 million is set for a vote by the Metro board today, according to Streetsblog Los Angeles.
The contract to build the project was awarded on December 5, 2024. Preconstruction work began in December 2024, and construction is already underway at two locations in Pasadena: on Holly Street adjacent to the A Line station, and at Colorado and Lake boulevards.
"When going to the San Fernando Valley, if you try to make that trip on public transit it can be unbearably slow," said Adrin Nazarian, Los Angeles Councilmember. "Los Angeles is a world-class metropolis. We need to start acting like one."
About 700,000 vehicles travel daily in the BRT corridor, making it one of the most heavily traveled corridors in Los Angeles County without a premium transit service, Metro reported. The line is intended to ease congestion on the 134 and 210 freeways and provide faster access to major employers including DreamWorks Animation, Disney, and Warner Bros. in Glendale and Burbank, as well as Parsons and Caltech in Pasadena.
This article was generated with AI assistance.