On Saturday, May 17, L.A. Metro hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of Segment A of the Rail-to-Rail Active Transportation Corridor. The project transformed a once-abandoned rail line into a 5.5-mile path for walking, biking, and other forms of “active transportation” where pedestrians actively use their body to travel.
The event drew a wide range of attendees, including city officials such as Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and Councilmembers Curren Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, as well as staff from various city departments, community organizers, and local residents who gathered to mark the milestone.
“We need to take this business of climate change seriously and figure out how we transport ourselves from place to place,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, President of the Los Angeles City Council, in his speech to the attendees of the event.
Spanning from Metro K Line’s Fairview Heights Station in Inglewood to Metro A Line’s Slauson Station, the 5.5-mile corridor offers a new way of transportation for neighborhoods across South Los Angeles and Inglewood.
The Rail-to-Rail project was first proposed in 2014 by former board members Mark Ridley-Thomas and Gloria Molina.. After years of negotiations, grant funding, community engagement, and design revisions, the project finally broke ground in 2022. Metro estimates the total cost at $166 million, according to a press release.
In his speech, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson recognized early champions of the project like Stephanie Wiggins, Mark Thomas, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, highlighting their efforts, along with those of everyone else involved, as a testament to what’s possible through collaboration.
But the spirit of collaboration doesn’t stop with the officials and planners who brought the project to life. According to Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, community members also have a role to play in caring for the new space. “Family, we can do better too,” she said during her remarks, urging residents to help maintain the path through small, everyday actions.
Echoing Mitchell’s call to action, Council President Harris-Dawson added, “The first order of business for our community is to use the trail, and the second order of business is to keep it in pristine condition.”
Among those already answering that call is Angel, a local resident who brought his young nephew to the ribbon-cutting ceremony to experience the new trail firsthand.
When speaking with Angel, he shared that he appreciates the corridor as a much safer way to bike through the neighborhood. “The people [in cars] don’t care about us on the bikes,” he said, underscoring the dangers cyclists face on local streets without dedicated bike infrastructure.
A nearby father, who declined to give his name, echoed Angel’s sentiments. “Now I have a safe place to ride bikes and skateboard with my kids,” he said, emphasizing how the new trail offers families a rare sense of security in a city dominated by car traffic.
Looking toward the future of the project, Councilmember Curren Price of District 9 highlighted three new parks currently in development along the corridor. These spaces, he said, aim to “[serve] all youth to learn visual media art, get exposed to broadcasting, game design, performing arts, and more.”
In addition to the parks and ongoing efforts to rename the corridor, another segment of the project remains underway. According to L.A. Metro’s website, Segment B is currently in the Design and Environmental Clearance phase, and Metro held community update meetings to involve residents in shaping the project’s development. Segment B will extend approximately four miles east along Randolph Street, from the Metro A Line Slauson Station to the Los Angeles River, ultimately connecting the cities of Bell, Maywood, and Huntington Park, as well as the unincorporated Florence-Firestone community.
To keep up to date with Metro’s various project, visit their website: https://www.metro.net/projects/.
This story has been corrected from a previous version which incorrectly stated the estimated cost of development at $143 million.