Background
Metro was formed on February 1, 1993, by the California State Legislature which merged two rival agencies: the Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD) and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC).
The RTD was founded on August 18, 1964, to operate most public transportation in the urbanized Southern California region, including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, and Riverside counties. RTD replaced the major predecessor public agency, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, and took over eleven failing other bus companies and services in the Southern California region. Services outside of Los Angeles County began to be divested in the early 1980s.
The LACTC began operation in 1977 after a state requirement that all counties form local transportation commissions. Its main objective was to be the guardian of all transportation funding, both transit and highway, for Los Angeles County.
The bickering between the two agencies came to a head in the 1980s. At that time, the LACTC was building the Blue Line (now A Line) light rail line between Los Angeles and Long Beach, while the RTD was building the Red Line (now B Line) subway in Downtown Los Angeles. It was revealed that due to disputes between the agencies, the LACTC was planning to end the Blue Line at Pico Station, instead of serving the 7th Street/Metro Center station being built by the RTD six blocks north.
Metro has assumed the functions of both agencies and now develops and oversees transportation plans, policies, funding programs, and both short-term and long-range solutions to mobility, accessibility and environmental needs in the county. The agency is also the primary public transit provider for the city of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, providing the bulk of such services, even though the city's own Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) operates a smaller bus only public transit system of its own called DASH within the MTA service area in the city of Los Angeles, often overlapping with some Metro Bus routes and stops in several neighborhoods primarily in the central part of the city.
Since 1995, the agency has been based out of the Metro Headquarters Building, a 26-story high-rise office tower located next to Los Angeles Union Station, a major transportation hub and the main train station for the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which it has also owned since purchasing it in 2011.
Metro operates the second-largest public transportation system in the United States by ridership with a 1,433 mi2 (3,711 km2) operating area and 2,000 peak hour buses on the street any given business day. Metro also operates 125.1 miles (201.3 km) of urban rail service. Metro has 10,290 employees, making it one of the region's largest employers.
Metro also partially funds sixteen municipal bus operators and an array of transportation projects including bikeways and pedestrian facilities, local roads and highway improvements, goods movement, Metrolink regional commuter rail, freeway service patrol, and freeway call boxes within Los Angeles County.
To increase sustainability in transportation services, Metro also provides bike and pedestrian improvements for the over 10.1 million residents of Los Angeles County.
Security and law enforcement services on Metro property (including buses and trains) are currently provided by the Transit Services Bureau via contract, in conjunction with Metro Transit Enforcement Department and the Los Angeles Police Department (Union Station and all Metro rail services within the City of Los Angeles).
