The Future is Now [CRRC HR4000's]
- Feb 12
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 13
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of new train cars.
Yes, it’s finally here! The long awaited CRRC’s HR4000’s have arrived to service the D Line. Before we dive in, let’s take a look at the backstory.
Context
LA Metro has a subway system with 2 lines the B & D Lines. The B is a 14.7 mile line running between Union Station and North Hollywood. This is LA’s first subway line that opened in 1993. The D line is 5.1 mile line that runs between Union Station and Wilshire/Western in Koreatown. It is currently undergoing an (7 mile!) extension to the westside, UCLA and the VA medical center.
LA Metro runs a fleet of Breda A650s. The cars were manufactured by the Italian company Breda at its Pistoia plant in Italy between 1988 and 1997. This means they are almost 30 years old and of need of replacement. Also Metro needs more trains to run more frequently on the D line extension once opened (The first phase to La Cinega coming this year!)
“Shortly after the groundbreaking of the D Line Extension in 2014, procurement started for new trains to run on the extension.[7] A request for proposals was issued by Metro in June 2016.[8] Two bids were received – CRRC and Hyundai Rotem.[8]
In December 2016, it was recommended that the contract be awarded to CRRC,[9] and the contract was signed in April 2017.[10] CRRC was awarded the contract as they had the lowest price, the "highest technically rated proposal" and a U.S. content of 65%.[11] The contract had a base order of 64 HR4000 cars – 34 cars for Section 1 of the D Line Extension and 30 cars to replace the older Breda A650 trains (cars 501-530) – at a cost of $178 million” Taken from wikipedia
Construction of the trains began in 2021, with the first train entering service only on the D Line on December 20, 2024, due to testing on Section 1 of the D Line Extension.[1]
Features
By far the biggest change is the new seating orientation. This is called longitudinal seating, where your back faces the trains windows and is in line with metro systems across the world. This is the standard for most subway systems. While this does mean less actual seating, there is an increase in overall capacity for standing passengers and those with items such as suitcases or bicycles.
Open-gangway. Just like metro’s light rail fleet, (A, C, E, K) these trains are married pairs meaning you can finally move between each (pair of cars, not the entire train like New York City or Tokyo)
Rider Experience
The inside of the train car is much more modern, with a new train smell, more areas to stand, flip up and down chairs give a sleek feeling to it,
It has proper in train signage, a full color LCD display listing the next stop, dot matrix display for longer announcements and LED color signs for the route map
There are full color LED destination signs on the side and Front ends of the trains making it much easier to see what service it is running. This is a much needed improvement compared with the green monochrome flip dot signs, that were really faded and small which were hard to read.
It’s very spacious inside which I enjoy, as it’s a lot easier to move around.
The openness gives it a safer feeling because you can see everything nearby without having to look over your shoulder.
It has a new sound with a ridiculous horn
It has a brand new motor which of course sounds very similar to asian systems and also similar to trains in the Tokyo Metro fleet.
The lighting inside is SO MUCH BETTER, it’s not dimly lit like a movie scene anymore and feels like a proper office.
Their are security cameras now, keeping watch of everything inside
New USB-A charing ports exist if you need a quick charge (though I would only do that as a last resort, not sure about the security of that)
Future
Due to Covid and all the associated delays as well as new federal legislation regarding CRRC only 64 out of optional 218 will be built and delivered and LA Metro has already placed an order with Hyundai Rotem of Korea to build the HR5000 fleet before the olympics and be operable with the existing HR4000 fleet. While myself and many other transit fans will miss the bredas when their eventual retirement happens, I'm excited for the future of LA's subway and this upgrade was only the first part of it. We've finally entered the 21st century with these trains and well on our way towards building a world class transit system for all.
Resources
If you'd like to see more of these new trains I highly recommended you check out
If you like to find an HR4000 in the wild for yourself: https://where-hr4k.samuelsharp.com
Use Catenary Maps to track down other transit vehicles in Los Angeles and across the World! https://catenarymaps.org/home
Streetsblog LA: https://la.streetsblog.org/2024/12/20/new-metro-subway-railcars-started-service-today
Eric Brightwell: https://ericbrightwell.com/2024/12/25/nobody-drives-in-la-metros-new-subway-cars-have-arrived-in-los-angeles/
Aether Visuals: https://youtu.be/AbnSti3iSvE?si=ZYnCACIsWNtR0nSe
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