Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS) is a major transportation hub for Southern California, a region with a total population of 20 million. It is the busiest passenger rail hub in the Western United States.

LA Union Station (LAUS), originally known as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, opened in 1939 as a joint venture between the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads. The station replaced and consolidated the local terminals of the three railroads, as well as providing a new hub for Pacific Electric interurban, Los Angeles Railway streetcar and local bus lines. The chosen site at Los Angeles Plaza (across the street from El Pueblo de Los Angeles- the oldest section of the city) unfortunately required demolition of most of the city’s original Chinatown. Residents and businesses displaced were relocated to the present Chinatown location just north of Union Station. The grand station quickly became a key hub and icon of Los Angeles, as described by the station’s official website:

The Station was designed by the father-and-son architect team of John and Donald Parkinson with an innovative blend of Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival and Art Deco [Streamline Moderne] architecture now commonly referred to as Mission Moderne. The stunning facility was completed in 1939 for a reported $11 million and opened with a lavish, star-studded, three-day celebration attended by a half million Angelenos.

Within just a few years of opening, Union Station transformed into a bustling 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation with as many as 100 troop trains carrying tens of thousands of servicemen through the terminal every day during World War II.

By the 1950s Americans favored cars and planes to the rails, and there were fewer passengers throughout the Station, but it remained a vital part of LA’s transportation scene for decades. Union Station was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 101 in 1972 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places and California Register of Historical Resources in 1980.

In the eight-plus decades since its opening, Union Station has captured the spirit and soul of Los Angeles and has emerged as a vital portal to the promise of the California dream and a vibrant destination for arts and culture.

LAUS is the only Amtrak station to have the distinction of hosting the Academy Awards, in 2021. The elegant station has made Hollywood cameos in many movies, TV shows, music videos and commercials over the years.

In FY2024, LAUS saw just over 1 million Amtrak passengers and about 2 million on Metrolink, or 3 million in total. This works out to be an average of over 8,200 ‘mainline’ riders per day, down from a pre-pandemic peak of around 12,000. In FY2024, Metrolink’s average weekday ridership at LAUS was 6,310. Amtrak runs 12 Pacific Surfliners [13 expected by end of 2025] between LA and San Diego (plus north of LA, 3 daily trains ending in Goleta and 2 per day to San Luis Obispo) and is the termination/origination point of three long distance routes: the Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief and Sunset Limited. Six of Metrolink’s eight regional lines currently terminate at LAUS. Direct connections at LAUS between multiple modes of public transportation have steadily improved in recent years. These include three LA Metro rail lines, the J bus rapid transit line, along with local, regional and intercity bus routes of multiple operators. In FY2025, LAUS saw an average weekday total of 13,989 LA Metro rail transit riders (on the A, B, and D lines), and 555 J line BRT riders. 

Since Los Angeles Union Station opened in 1939, it always has been a stub-end station for mainline regional, intercity and long-distance trains, which all have to enter the station in one direction, and then have to reverse to get out. This has always been the station’s primary constraint, capping its capacity at about 180 trains per day. The Link Union Station (US) project aims to fix this. The current owner of Union Station, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is the lead agency on the run-through track project.

The Link US project’s centerpiece is a set of new run-through tracks, built south from the station on a multitrack bridge structure over the 101 freeway, joining the existing north-south tracks along the LA River southeast of the station. LA Metro is currently considering alternatives where eight or ten existing platform tracks will be extended southwards, merging into a viaduct over the 101 that would carry a minimum of four tracks. The run-through tracks will increase Union Station capacity (from 180 to 278 trains daily, a more than 50% increase) and reduce train dwell times (from twenty to five minutes). Through-running will unlock many new single-seat ride possibilities, including new Metrolink through service directly connecting Ventura County and San Fernando Valley with Orange County, or a new Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service going north of LA to Santa Clarita, along the route of Metrolink’s Antelope Valley Line. California High Speed Rail service from Northern California is expected to arrive sometime in the later 2030s. While the largest single feature of the Link US project will be the eight or ten new run-through tracks, other components of the project include upgraded platforms and station amenities, with a wider and more spacious passenger concourse and walkways.

To say that run-through tracks at LA Union Station are long overdue is an understatement, as it should have been a run-through station from the start. The project will create enormous benefits for Metrolink, Amtrak, and future HSR riders, but also for the mobility of Los Angeles and Southern California as a whole. It will improve everything about passenger rail transportation in the whole region. As described in a comment letter to the above-mentioned October 2025 LA Metro board meeting by Adriana Rizzo of Californians for Electric Rail:

“Through-running at Union Station, which LinkUS accomplishes, will bring LA up to international standards as befits a true world city LinkUS is essential for high-speed rail to reach Anaheim, and timely delivery of this project will speed up the arrival of HSR to LA.

…These service benefits will unlock more Metrolink and Metro ridership alike, and reduce traffic and pollution throughout the region. 

LinkUS is a project of regional importance that will transform transportation not just in the city of Los Angeles, but throughout Southern California and the Metrolink system.  Through-running takes Metrolink one step closer to an international, S-Bahn-style transit system that efficiently serves urban and regional riders alike with fast, frequent, seamless service.”

As described by Joe Linton in an October 17, 2025 article in Streetsblog LA:

The mega-project includes building new bridge structures over and along the 101 Freeway and extensively retooling of the historic station – all while keeping trains running. Early estimates anticipated Link US would cost around $3 billion; now just the initial phase (mainly extending tracks over the 101) could cost that much.

Union Station run-through tracks are a critically important upgrade that will greatly expand rail capacity. Many rail travelers – and probably all rail-geeks – understand this, but the benefits are insider-y enough, that there is no serious Link US project champion on the Metro board. Nobody at Metro opposes it, but it’s not quite a top priority for anyone.

For at least a decade, the Link US project has proceeded in fits and starts. The project underwent a community input process that spent a bit too long considering some ill-advised alternatives. In 2019 the Metro board approved what appeared to be final project designs and environmental studies. Even at that time, the board was trimming the overall Link US plan to try to arrive at an initial phase that would proceed with funds already secured.

But construction costs still exceeded funding at hand, throwing the project into limbo – and out of contention for a possible pre-2028 Olympics opening.

The LinkUS project has a long history, proceeding off and on over the past quarter century. The first environmental approvals, for an earlier version of the run-through tracks design, happened way back in 2005. LA Metro began preliminary engineering for the project in 2014, and a recommended alternative configuration was approved in 2017. In 2019, the LA Metro board approved the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the what was then thought to be the final design of the Link US run-through tracks and improvements. The preferred Build Alternative had ten run-through tracks. Even by 2019, the project had been scaled down somewhat from the original vision to reduce costs.

Pre-construction activities, including final design and engineering under a Construction Management/General Contractor (CMGC) delivery process and acquisition/demolition of existing buildings south of the station across the 101 freeway, were approved in 2022. Meanwhile, further cost-cutting (value engineering) design changes were made to evaluate an alternative, eight run-through tracks resulting in a Supplemental EIR (SEIR) process. The design modifications made to the LinkUS 2019 Final EIR design, were defined by the 2025 SEIR as the Build Alternative Design Option 8-track project variant. As described by the California High Speed Rail Authority November 20, 2025 board meeting memo, this option consisted of the following design reductions in project scope compared to the 10-track preferred Build Alternative:

• Vignes Street Bridge – No reconstruction required versus full reconstruction
• Cesar Chavez Bridge – Partial reconstruction versus full reconstruction
• Partially Elevated Rail Yard – 9 to 12-foot raise versus 15-foot raise
• Fewer Raised Platforms – 4 platforms raised versus 6 platforms raised
• Reduced Extent of Concourse-Related Improvements – 100-foot wide Expanded Passageway versus 140-foot wide Expanded Passageway; Removal of West Plaza and Grand Canopy Design Option.
• Fewer Run-Through Tracks on Single Aerial Viaduct from LAUS to West Bank/LA River – 8 run-through tracks versus 10 run-through tracks from LAUS to the 101-viaduct, a Narrower structure over US-101, four run-through tracks (instead of six) at the southern edge of the viaduct, two HSR/regional rail shared run-through tracks (instead of four run-through tracks with two exclusive to HSR) from the southern edge of the viaduct to the northern edge of the Los Angeles to Anaheim HSR project section, and an all viaduct structure versus combination of bridges and embankments
• Less construction activity with reduced environmental impacts
• Reduction of cost

According to the Build Alternative Design Option, a viaduct with two through-tracks will be built in Phase A of the project (expected to be completed in 2031) with the remaining six built during Phase B (opening date TBD). However, the ten-track Build Alternative is not completely off the table, if enough funding could be found for it in the years ahead.

Nearly $1 billion has been secured for the project, out of a total estimated cost of $3 billion for Phase A of the project. In 2022, LinkUS secured $423 million from California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA), from (2008) Proposition 1A bond funds, with an additional $527 million from state and local sources. Like most infrastructure projects in recent years, cost estimates for LinkUS have steadily increased.

BNSF Malabar Yard in Vernon

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the project is a small BNSF freight yard located in the city of Vernon, three miles away from Union Station itself. The new Link US run-through tracks joining the existing north-south tracks along the LA River will require acquisition and dismantling of BNSF’s West Bank Yard, which is used to assemble freight trains and store rail cars. LA Metro worked with BNSF to look for other nearby locations to replace the West Bank Yard storage and staging tracks. After evaluating several alternatives along the BNSF mainline southeast of downtown LA, BNSF and LA Metro settled on a reconfiguration of the existing BNSF Malabar Yard in Vernon as the preferred ‘off-site mitigation’ for the Link US project.

The plans call for closure of a grade crossing at 49^th Street, and a new 1,000’-long connector track between two existing track segments along 46^th Street. This new track connection will require a new grade crossing at Seville Avenue and acquisition/demolition of parts of existing industrial properties. Project impact-mitigation measures proposed to the city of Vernon include train and traffic safety features, 25 new bus shelters, 8 improved crosswalks, and rail crossing ‘quiet zone’ infrastructure.

However, the City of Vernon and businesses adjacent to the Malabar Yard have voiced opposition to these plans. Vernon is disputing LA Metro’s claims that the proposed changes at Malabar Yard will result in fewer trains per day blocking street at-grade crossings. The neighborhood (as is most of the City of Vernon) is an industrial area, densely packed with existing businesses.   

The City of Vernon has refused to permit these changes to Malabar Yard when BNSF proposed them as far back as 2006, citing impacts on street traffic, air quality and adjacent businesses. According to the city, BNSF has declined to commit in writing to city of Vernon to a plan for reduced freight train activity which blocks Vernon streets. The City of Vernon has also threatened to sue LA Metro under the Californian Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), despite stating that it strongly supports the LinkUS project itself. As described by Joe Linton in Streetsblog LA, “It’s not clear where this all goes. Perhaps, Metro leadership can pull together an arrangement that satisfies BNSF and Vernon, both of which have reputations of being hard to work with. One hopes the arrangement won’t mean further cost increases or further delays for this essential project.”

Approval of environmental documents clears way for construction starting in early 2026

At the LA Metro board meeting on October 23, 2025, two agenda items on Link Union Station passed unanimously by all eight board members present. One (2025-0805) was certification of the project’s Final Final SEIR. The other motion (2025-0931) committed LA Metro “to continue to work towards resolution of priority outstanding issues with the City of Vernon and the BNSF Railroad”. 

There were over 60 total commenters- about half of whom associated with City of Vernon, who were opposed to/expressed concerns about the BNSF Malabar yard changes proposed as part of Link US project mitigation. Vernon stakeholders were particularly concerned about trains blocking street traffic and business activity, along with emissions from locomotives. The other half of the public commenters were project supporters, including many from construction unions along with public transportation and rail advocates, the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, the LA Chamber of Commerce, and a handful of public officials.  

LA Metro still needs to negotiate a deal with BNSF and the City of Vernon. At the October board meeting, Chair Fernando Dutra and board members including Aja Najarian and Tim Sandoval emphasized the critical importance of the project and the urgency of certifying the EIR, while acknowledging City of Vernon’s concerns. The BNSF Malabar yard redesign is in its early phases, so LA Metro is confident that those concerns will be worked out. LA Metro will be seeking state funds for the Malabar Yard project.

One last approval of the revised project scope/SEIR is needed, by CHSRA, which is funding a significant portion of the project. Pursuant to a 2019 MOU between the State of California and the Federal Railroad Administration that was renewed in 2024, CHSRA is responsible for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) through 2034 for the Link US Project. CHSRA is now preparing to issue the Final Environmental Impact Statement/Record-of-Decision under NEPA, which final approvals by LA Metro and the CHSRA CEO expected in December 2025.

In August 2025, FlatironDragos was chosen as the prime contractor for pre-construction activities. Demolition of industrial buildings in the footprint of the elevated run-through tracks was completed in 2025. Early works, including pre-construction and utility relocation, will begin in 2026. Construction of the substantial structures of the project is slated to begin in 2027.