The Santa Ana Line was an interurban railway route connecting Los Angeles and Santa Ana in Orange County. It ran between 1905 and 1958 (with the southern end truncated to Bellflower in 1950) and was predominantly operated by the Pacific Electric Railway for its history.

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Santa Ana
A PE train on San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, en route to Santa Ana in the 1940s
Overview
Owner	Los Angeles Inter-Urban Electric Railway (1905–1911) Pacific Electric (1911–1953) Metropolitan Coach Lines (1953–1958) Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (1958)
Line number	11 (to 1958) 34 (1958)
Locale	Los Angeles and Orange County, California
Termini	Downtown Los Angeles Santa Ana, California Bellflower, California (after 1950)
Stations	30
Service
Type	Interurban
System	Pacific Electric
Operator(s)	Pacific Electric
Rolling stock	PE 300–400 Class (last used)
History
Opened	November 6, 1905
Closed	July 2, 1950 (to Santa Ana) May 24, 1958
Technical
Line length	34 mi (55 km)
Number of tracks	1–4[1]
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	600 V DC Overhead lines
Route map Legend Pacific Electric Building to Northern Division  J   R   S   J   S  to Sierra Vista–Watts & South Pasadena Local Amoco Air Line Vernon Avenue  V  Slauson Junction Whittier / Fullerton Fleming Florencita Park Florence Nadeau Graham Latin Watts end of local service to Long Beach & San Pedro Palomar Modjeska Park Lynwood Lugo Morton Los Angeles River Michigan Avenue Paramount New York Avenue Crutcher Rendalia Bellflower terminus after 1950 Woodruff Avenue Palo Verde San Gabriel River Gallina Dolley Artesia Thornton Crescenta Coyote Creek Bingham Moody Cypress Halcon Shirley Hanson Lobo Stanton Vignolo Cordoniz Harperville Mesto Metate Garden Grove Dueno Buaro Willowick Golf Course Santa Ana River West Santa Ana to Orange Santa Ana to Huntington Beach Substation No. 14 Santa Ana SP Depot This diagram: view talk edit

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The route began operation on November 6, 1905^[2] under the Los Angeles Inter-Urban Electric Railway;^[3] Pacific Electric leased the line starting in 1908 and fully acquired it in 1911 under terms of the Great Merger. The Santa Ana Line was designated as route number 11 during most of its operational life.^[4] Santa Ana's status as the county seat and largest city in Orange County at the time allowed for high ridership.^{[citation needed]} The railway built a new station in the city in late 1927, and cars were rerouted to serve it.^[4]

Cars ceased running to the Santa Ana Southern Pacific Depot in November 1945. By 1950, service had halved from its peak only five years earlier and the line was cut back to a minor station in Bellflower on July 2,^[4][5] becoming the Bellflower Line. (PE continued to serve the Bellflower to Santa Ana segment with motor coaches.^[6]) The service was then disposed of by Pacific Electric, being taken over first by Metropolitan Coach Lines in 1953 before being commuted to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1958, the same year it was discontinued; the last train ran on May 24, 1958.^[4] Bellflower Line service was briefly designated as line 34 for just over a month prior to discontinuance.^[4]

The Santa Ana Line ran from the Pacific Electric Building in Los Angeles to the Southern Pacific depot in Santa Ana, California via the Watts Line and West Santa Ana Branch.^[8] The latter segment's diagonal running was a stark contrast to the cardinally-aligned road grid of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

The route was quadruple-tracked through the Watts trunk line, while the Santa Ana Branch was double-tracked except at single-track bridges.^[1]