El Monte Busway

The El Monte Busway (also known as the I-10 ExpressLanes) is a 12-mile (19 km) shared-use express bus corridor (busway) and high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes running along Interstate 10 (San Bernardino Freeway) between Alameda Street near Los Angeles Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles and a point west of Interstate 605 (I-605) in El Monte, California. From Alameda Street to Interstate 710 (I-710) in Monterey Park, the El Monte Busway runs parallel to the north side of the freeway. After the I-710 interchange, these lanes merge back to the median of I-10. Eastbound buses exit the El Monte Busway at El Monte station before the HOT lanes for other vehicles end west of I-605. Buses also make intermediate stops at Cal State LA station and LA General Medical Center station. The busway opened in January 1973 to buses only, three-person carpools were allowed to enter in 1976, and the facility was converted to HOT lanes as part of the Metro ExpressLanes project on February 22, 2013. The entire bus route along the El Monte Busway between Alameda Street and El Monte station's bus entrance at Santa Anita Avenue carries the hidden state highway designation of Route 10S.

The El Monte Busway is used by two bus rapid transit routes: the J Line, operated by Los Angeles Metro and the Silver Streak, operated by Foothill Transit. It is also used by several Metro Express and Foothill Transit bus services, most of which only run during weekday peak periods.

The busway now carries 16,000 bus passengers per day with 49 buses using the system each hour at peak times and was described by the United States Department of Transportation as one of the most successful HOV facilities in the country in 2002.

The El Monte Busway was conceived in 1969 as a way to allow travelers to avoid traffic on Interstate 10 (San Bernardino Freeway), promising an 18-minute trip between El Monte and Downtown Los Angeles, compared to 35–45 minutes in the general-purpose lanes. The project was developed jointly by the California Department of Public Works, Division of Highways (a predecessor of today's Caltrans) and the Southern California Rapid Transit District (SCRTD) (a predecessor of today's Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority). The 53 million dollar project was paid with federal, state and SCRTD funding and was also intended to be an experiment testing the feasibility of joint highway-bus operations and to increase the overall people-carrying capacity of freeway corridors.

The project was built in a right of way located north of and in the median of the freeway that was owned by Southern Pacific Railroad who purchased it from the bankrupt Pacific Electric streetcar system. In exchange for giving up part of their property, Southern Pacific would get new tracks capable of handling heavier freight loads compared to the old streetcar tracks. The project would also include a viaduct in El Monte to elevate Southern Pacific trains as they moved between the area near the east end of the busway to the mainline tracks near the present-day El Monte Metrolink station.

The formal groundbreaking for the El Monte Busway took place on January 21, 1972.

The El Monte Busway opened in stages, with the seven-mile eastern segment between Interstate 710 (then-signed as SR 7) and Santa Anita Avenue opening in January 1973. The El Monte station near the Santa Anita Avenue terminus would open later on July 14, 1973. The eastern section is located in the median of Interstate 10, with only paint lines separating traffic on the busway from the general-purpose lanes. Railroad tracks are also located in the median, separated from vehicle traffic with concrete barriers.

The western segment has a unique design that took longer to build. Traveling from east to west, a flyover ramp near Interstate 710 moves the lanes north of Interstate 10 to a station near California State University, Los Angeles. Just west of the Cal State LA station, the westbound busway lanes crossover the eastbound lanes, reversing the normal placement of the lanes. The reversed lanes allow buses to serve a single island platform station at the Los Angeles General Medical Center but prevent vehicles from entering the busway from the general-purpose lanes of Interstate 10 in the eastbound direction.