With the completion of the New Blue Improvement Project, L.A. Metro’s new rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) line renaming convention will go into effect with Metro’s Blue line now being referred to as the A Line. This begins a three-year process to rename all Metro Rail and BRT lines by 2022.

Under the new system, each Metro Rail and BRT line will be designated by a letter and color. The Metro board approved a new line naming convention in November 2018, citing the need for more consistency as the system grows.

The new naming convention helps alleviate several issues. In the past, most Metro Rail lines were named after colors except for the Expo Line and the Crenshaw/LAX Line that are named after street names and places — which riders may find confusing. Metro’s system map has also been reliant on colors and can be difficult to read for those who are color blind. Adding letters will help avoid this problem.

Starting with the A Line, most station signage will simply show the letter A within a colored dot. The rest of Metro Rail and the Silver Line and Orange Line will transition to the new naming convention when the Crenshaw/LAX line opens. The Crenshaw/LAX Line currently does not have a letter name as Metro’s operation staff is still working on finalizing the line’s operational plan.

“We believe this is great news for the region because we have big plans for new rail and bus rapid transit lines in the years to come,” said Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington. “This new naming convention will help keep our system easy to navigate and make it more user friendly — and, thus, improve the customer experience.”

Under the new naming convention, the Red Line will eventually become the B Line, the Green Line will be the C Line, the Purple Line the D Line, and the Expo Line the E Line, to name a few examples. The Gold Line will become the J Line until the Regional Connector opens and ties together the Blue, Expo, and Gold Lines. The eventual Azusa to Long Beach line created by the Connector will be known as the A Line, while the East Los Angeles to Santa Monica line will be the E Line.