August 3: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History

1953: Los Angeles Railway introduces Freeway Express Service on the Beverly Line.

The service between Beverly & Western and downtown — billed as “a new, modern type of rapid transit suitable for this community” — reduces the running time by about seven minutes, although “a few satisfied patrons…insist that they get to town a half-hour quicker.”

More information on the service, along with similar plans for the Harbor Freeway, can be found in the October, 1953 issue of Two Bells, the Los Angeles Transit Lines employee news magazine.

 

1954:  Metropolitan Coach Lines acquires the assets of the Glendale-based Asbury Rapid Transit System (ARTS).

Asbury buses at Glendale Yard, February 28, 1958. Click for more information

The 17 routes, 140 route miles, and 98 coaches were transferred along with Asbury’s 140 employees.

More information can be found in 25th anniversary commemorative article in the August, 1979 issue of Headways, the Southern California Rapid Transit District employee news magazine.