El Monte Busway

The El Monte Busway is an 11 miles (18 km) shared-use bus corridor (transitway) and high occupancy vehicle lane running west along Interstate 10 (San Bernardino Freeway) from Interstate 605 and El Monte Station via transitway stations at California State University Metro Station, USC Medical Center Metro Station into Downtown Los Angeles and its terminus at Union Station.

Together with the Harbor Transitway it forms a key part of the Los Angeles County Metro Liner, used by the Silver Line bus rapid transit line, Metro Express Foothill Transit and other bus services. It 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 busway, which opened in 1973 for buses only was extended to three-person carpools in 1976. The Silver Line was introduced in 2009 and the El Monte Station was rebuilt to double is capacity to 40,000 passengers by late 2012. Along with the Habor Transitway, the busway is being upgraded to high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes as part of the Metro ExpressLanes project with a completion late in November 2012. A new transitway station will be constructed at Patsaouras Transit Plaza close to Union Station by June 2014.