Metro is trying to make the Blue Line—its deadliest rail line—safer

Sorely needed safety features will be added to 27 crossings and stations along Metro’s oldest rail line, the Blue Line, which runs from Downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach. KPCC reports that $30 million worth of upgrades are bringing pedestrian gates, new signs, repaved sidewalks, and better platform access for disabled riders to the 26-year-old line. (These types of upgrades “are already in place on Metro’s newer lines,” KPCC notes.)

Adding the new features to stops in Compton, Long Beach, and Los Angeles proper began this February and is scheduled to be complete in October 2017.

The upgrades couldn’t have come to a better line. The Blue Line is also Metro’s “deadliest” rail line, says KPCC, “with more than 120 fatalities since it opened in 1990 and one of the worst crash records in the country.” It’s also the rail line with the highest ridership numbers—more than 80,000 trips a day.

These additions “will slow people down,” Paul Gonzalez, a Metro spokesman, told KPCC. “And we want you to look both ways to see if there’s a train coming.”

• Blue Line safety upgrades underway for Metro's most dangerous line [SCPR]