LOS ANGELES — Angelenos will soon be able to travel Metro from East Los Angeles to Santa Monica and from Azusa to Long Beach without transferring trains. They’ll also be able to visit various points in downtown LA by rail for the first time when the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority opens its highly anticipated Regional Connector Transit Project June 16.

What You Need To Know

  • The new Metro Regional Connector Transit Project is a 1.9-mile underground tunnel with three new stops bridging the gap between the Blue and Gold lines

  • The connector brings together the Gold, Blue, Expo, Red and Purple lines at the 7th Street/Metro Center station

  • The project cost $1.8 billion and took 7.7 million working hours to build

  • The Regional Connector Transit Project opens June 16 and will be free to ride during its opening weekend

“Over the past 30 years, Metro has stitched together an expansive rail network that stretches from the South Bay and Santa Monica to East LA and the San Gabriel Valley, but we’ve always had a missing link through the downtown core,” Metro Chef Executive Stephanie Wiggins said Monday during a sneak preview of the new system. “But with the Regional Connector, that link is missing no more.”

Metro's Regional Connector has three new stops in downtown Los Angeles. (Spectrum News/Susan Carpenter)

The Regional Connector bridges the gap between the Blue and Gold lines with three new stops through downtown — at Grand Avenue in Bunker Hill, on 2nd Street at Broadway and between 1st and 2nd streets in Little Tokyo and the Arts District. It also brings together five existing Metro train lines — the Blue, Gold, Expo, Purple and Red lines — at the 7th Street Metro Center station.

“We thought this would never come. We had all these rail lines coming into downtown and no way to easily transfer from one to the other,” said Metro Board Chair Ara Najarian, who first proposed the idea for the connector in 2006.

Metro Construction Director Mat Antonelli says it took 7.7 million working hours to build the $1.8 billion Regional Connector. (Spectrum News/Susan Carpenter)

Construction on the $1.8 billion project didn’t begin until 2014. It has taken workers nine years and 7.7 million working hours to complete, having encountered sewer pipes, old rail spurs and a building foundation while tunneling up to 100 feet under downtown LA for the 1.9-mile connector.

Riders who travel to and through downtown on the new Regional Connector could save up to 20 minutes from no longer needing to transfer trains, Metro said. Still, travelers intent on riding the rails from Azusa all the way to Long Beach will spend more than two hours to make the trip.

The 61-foot-tall piece from Taiwanese-American artist Pearl C. Hsiung is one of eight site-responsive pieces Metro has incorporated into the Regional Connector stations. (Spectrum News/Susan Carpenter)

Riders who stop at any of the new stations through downtown will be treated to an impressive array of home-grown art. Metro has incorporated the work of eight artists into site-responsive works. The Broadway station, sited next to the former Los Angeles Times building, will feature the work of acclaimed Times photographer Clarence Williams, while the Bunker Hill station showcases a three-story tall piece by Pearl C. Hsiung that draws on the SoCal artist’s Taiwanese American experience.

Metro rides will be free during the Regional Connector’s opening weekend.