The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (sometimes referred to as LAMTA or MTA I) was a public agency formed in 1951. Its original mandate was to do a feasibility study for a monorail

Monorail

A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track...

 line which would have connected Long Beach

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

 with the Panorama City

Panorama City, Los Angeles, California

Panorama City is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. It is known as the San Fernando Valley's first planned community.-Description:...

 district in the San Fernando Valley

San Fernando Valley

The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...

 via Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

.

The agency's powers were expanded in 1954, authorizing it to study and propose an extensive regional transit system. In 1957, another expansion of the agency's powers authorized it to operate transit lines, and it subsequently purchased the bus and streetcar lines then being operated by Metropolitan Coach Lines, which had taken over passenger service of the Pacific Electric Railway

Pacific Electric Railway

The Pacific Electric Railway , also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses...

 in 1951, as well as the bus and streetcar lines of the Los Angeles Transit Lines, successor to the Los Angeles Railway

Los Angeles Railway

The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in central Los Angeles, California and the immediate surrounding neighborhoods between from 1901 and 1963. Except for two short funicular railways it operated on tracks...

. The MTA began operating the lines on March 3, 1958, and continued to do so until the agency was reorganized and relaunched as the Southern California Rapid Transit District

Southern California Rapid Transit District

The Southern California Rapid Transit District , was the successor to the original Metropolitan Transit Authority after it virtually went bankrupt...

 in September 1964.

During the MTA's tenure, the last remaining rail transit lines in Los Angeles were abandoned and replaced with bus service, the last former Pacific Electric line in 1961, and the last former Los Angeles Railway lines in 1963.

Rail Lines

Name	Parent Company	Abandoned
Bellflower	Pacific Electric Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway , also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses...	1958
Long Beach	Pacific Electric	1961
San Pedro via Dominguez	Pacific Electric	1958
Watts Local	Pacific Electric	1961
J	Los Angeles Railway Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway was a system of streetcars that operated in central Los Angeles, California and the immediate surrounding neighborhoods between from 1901 and 1963. Except for two short funicular railways it operated on tracks...	1963
P	Los Angeles Railway	1963
R	Los Angeles Railway	1963
S	Los Angeles Railway	1963
V	Los Angeles Railway	1963
5	Los Angeles Railway	1963