Palms (Los Angeles Metro station)

Palms
File:PalmsStationUnderConstruction.jpg Los Angeles Metro Rail's new light-rail station at Palms and National, under construction as of November 2014.
Location	10001 National Boulevard, Los Angeles
Coordinates
Owned by	Metro
Platforms	1 center platform
Tracks	2
Construction
Parking	none
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Status	Under construction
History
Opened	1875
Closed	1953
Rebuilt	2015 (expected)
Previous names	The Palms; Bay View
Services
Preceding station   Metro Rail   Following station Westwood/Rancho Park toward Downtown Santa Monica Expo Line Phase 2 (future) Culver City toward 7th Street/Metro Center   Former services   Pacific Electric Talamantes toward Rustic Canyon Air Line Culver Junction toward Pacific Electric Building

Palms station is an elevated light-rail station in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system, at the intersection of National Boulevard and Palms Boulevard in the Palms District of Los Angeles. The station is scheduled to offer service in 2016 with the opening of the Expo Phase 2 of the Expo Line.

Location and design

This station is in Palms, a dense residential neighborhood just south of the 10 Freeway and north of Culver City. It is also within walking distance of Castle Heights and Cheviot Hills

The station location is adjacent to the Santa Monica (10) Freeway, just west of the three-way intersection of National, Palms and Exposition boulevards and perched on an embankment above National Boulevard. Access will be provided by stairs and elevators at the east end of the station.

New construction will incorporate an existing steel bridge from the Air line era and add a new concrete bridge, both immediately east of the station over the National/Palms intersection, as well as re-use an existing rail tunnel west of the station.

History

Main article: Palms-Southern Pacific Railroad Depot

File:Palms Depot.jpg

The Palms original depot building from 1875 now at Heritage Square Museum.

File:The Palms Depot Sign.jpg

Station sign from The Palms train depot now in Heritage Square Museum

Bay View was a stop on the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad. It was renamed The Palms in 1886.

The Eastlake style Palms-Southern Pacific Railroad Depot building was situated approximately 600 yards (550 m) west of the present station location, on the south side of the tracks, and remained in active rail service until the closure of the Pacific Electric Air Line in 1953.

Used in many motion pictures, the building eventually fell into disrepair and abandonment, but was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1963. A grassroots organization, S.O.S. (Save Our Station), moved it in February 1976 to the Heritage Square Museum grounds in the Montecito Heights community of the Arroyo Seco. It now serves as the museum's gift shop and visitor center.

Nomenclature

Originally slated to be named "National/Palms," the new station will be named simply "Palms" as a result of a request by the Palms Neighborhood Council. The council's resolution stated that:

the Pacific Line Palms station was an important landmark on the west side of the city, and the community that grew around it is one of the oldest on the west side of Los Angeles. Our stakeholders feel the naming of the station is not only an important branding opportunity for Palms, but an opportunity for Los Angeles to reinstate a link to the history in one of its oldest and most diverse communities.

On April 25, 2013, the Metro board of directors voted in favor of "Palms" as the official name for the new station.

External links

• Metro Expo Line Construction Authority
• Project Website, Metro Rail Expo Corridor, Phase 2 to Culver City
• Time lapse video of a soon-to-be upgraded portion of the line from six blocks west of Robertson Boulevard north- and westward to Pico Boulevard through the Palms and Cheviot Hills areas Location of old Palms station approximately 53 seconds in.