Driverless trains could carry passengers along Washington’s Red Line and beneath Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Mountains, as the two transit authorities are among several nationwide pursuing projects to expand capacity and bypass highway congestion.
Driverless rail has operated for decades, although adoption among transit systems in North America remains limited. Vancouver’s SkyTrain launched in 1985 using computerized train controls that automatically managed movement and maintained safe distances between trains, with human controllers supervising service from a central facility. Honolulu opened its automated Skyline system in 2023, following a core-systems contract signed in 2011.
SkyTrain’s SelTrac system connected onboard computers with trackside equipment through a cable between the rails, allowing computers to control propulsion, braking and door operations. Its moving-block signaling adjusted the safe separation between trains as they traveled, rather than relying solely on fixed track sections. That communications-based approach is also central to Washington’s proposed modernization, while Los Angeles would incorporate automation into a new underground line.
WMATA Red Line Modernization
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s estimated $1.6 billion Red Line Modernization Project would upgrade the entire 32-mile corridor, including railcars, stations, rail yards and operating systems. Metro selected the Red Line because it is the system’s oldest and busiest route, operates separately from the other lines and has a relatively compact infrastructure footprint. Those characteristics make it the starting point for a broader modernization effort that could eventually extend across the network.
The project would address peak-period crowding while replacing aging equipment and changing how trains operate. The Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) July project profile says Metro expects to increase throughput from 15 to 20 trains per hour, expanding corridor capacity by approximately one-third. Metro also anticipates improvements in safety, reliability and efficiency, with platform barriers helping prevent passengers and debris from entering the tracks.
Metro suspended automatic train operation after a 2009 Red Line collision killed nine people, a crash investigators attributed to a failure in the automated signaling system. It restored automatic acceleration and braking on the Red Line in December 2024, with an operator remaining in each train’s cab. The modernization project would add systems needed to support unattended service.
The scope includes communications-based train control along the line, three rail yards and the Greenbelt test facility, plus conversion of 360 existing and forthcoming railcars. Platform screen doors would be installed at 20 of the Red Line’s 27 stations, alongside upgrades to train-control rooms and primary and backup command centers. The work creates potential contracting opportunities across signaling, vehicle equipment, station infrastructure, communications and systems integration.
Metro’s April board presentation described the project as capable of Grade of Automation Level 4 operations, the classification for unattended train operation. The board endorsed modernization and authorized development spending and pursuit of federal funding. It also required quarterly reports covering procurement, design, implementation, budgets and federal grant activities, with further board approvals required for later grant phases.
The Fiscal 2027-32 capital plan includes $913 million for Red Line modernization, compared with the approximately $1.6 billion total estimate reported by FTA. Metro intends to seek up to 60 percent of the project cost through the federal Capital Investment Grants program and has entered its Core Capacity Project Development phase. Entry advances the funding process but does not constitute a federal construction grant commitment.
Core Capacity funding requires at least a 10 percent increase in an existing corridor’s carrying capacity, rather than a corresponding increase in actual ridership. FTA recognizes signal and control upgrades that allow additional trains through a corridor as potential capacity improvements, while requiring routine rehabilitation costs to be distinguished from expansion costs. Washington’s projected increase in train frequency provides the capacity rationale for pursuing that category.
Initial procurement has begun, with Metro’s supplier portal listing its Phase I program management consultant solicitation, Event 10877, among those under evaluation. Earlier agency materials targeted train-control and platform-door design procurement in 2027, making subsequent notices important for firms tracking those packages. FTA’s July profile anticipates a construction funding agreement in 2028 and completion in 2034, both planning milestones rather than guaranteed dates.
LA Metro Sepulveda Transit Corridor
Los Angeles Metro’s Sepulveda Transit Corridor would create an underground rail connection between the San Fernando Valley and Westside beneath the Santa Monica Mountains. It would provide an alternative to driving through Sepulveda Pass on Interstate 405, where Metro says a comparable trip often takes 40-80 minutes. The agency projects an approximately 20-minute end-to-end rail trip, representing potential savings of 20-60 minutes each way.
Today, Metro’s Line 761 buses cross the pass but contend with the same congestion as motorists. The proposed subway would operate independently of road traffic while connecting several existing and planned transit services. Its full alignment would run from the Van Nuys Metrolink Station to the E Line at Expo/Sepulveda, including a station on University of California-Los Angeles’s campus and connections with the G and D lines.
Metro’s board selected the preferred underground heavy-rail route in January and directed further work on an approximately 8.4-mile initial segment between the G Line in Van Nuys and D Line in Westwood. The agency projects that connection would take about 10 minutes and is considering phased construction as funding becomes available. Selection of the preferred route focuses environmental review but does not constitute final project approval.
The authority began soliciting private-sector predevelopment proposals in 2019 and awarded two major planning contracts in March 2021. A Bechtel-led team received $69.9 million to develop its heavy-rail concept, while LA SkyRail Express received $63.6 million for a competing monorail proposal. Those contracts supported development of the alternatives rather than construction, placing private-sector teams in the process years before route selection.
The selected concept calls for automated trains every 2.5 minutes during peak periods, a single-bore tunnel and platform screen doors. Metro says the trains could not operate directly on its other lines or use existing maintenance facilities, requiring a new maintenance and storage facility. An earlier alternative carried a preliminary $24.2 billion estimate in 2023 dollars, which Metro will update for the selected alignment, a shorter route with one fewer station.
Sepulveda remains in environmental review, with scoping comments due Nov. 18 and public meetings beginning Nov. 4. Metro’s board has identified the project as a priority for the federal CIG program’s New Starts category, which supports new lines rather than the existing-corridor expansion Washington is pursuing. The agency is refining the project’s design, funding strategy, construction schedule and delivery approach, including whether a public-private partnership offers better value than traditional delivery.
For prospective contractors, the role of the existing development team is consequential. Metro says Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners continues working on the selected concept and could negotiate an implementation agreement to deliver it. The agency also retains the option to pursue another delivery method, making that decision an important milestone for firms assessing future prime-contract and subcontracting opportunities.
Photo by Hannibal Photography from Pexels
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