Watts resident Lexi Casas, 17, takes the Blue Line to her hostess job at a restaurant in Belmont Shore.

On Friday, while waiting for a southbound train at the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station in South Los Angeles, she was surprised to learn the heavily used line will be closed for upgrades starting Jan. 26 for two, four-month periods.

Instead of a one-seat ride, Casas must exit halfway through and board a shuttle bus to reach her workplace in Long Beach. So, like others, she’s considering taking to the freeways. But there’s one problem. Her dad doesn’t trust her driving skills.

“I may have to learn how to park,” she said. “Or I get my dad to drive me.”

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia had expressed concerns earlier this year that many constituents would simply drive instead of hassling the train/shuttle service. That would cause a loss of train ridership, plus add congestion to local streets and additional smog emissions to the air.

It’s also an outcome LA Metro is trying to avoid by adding three shuttles alongside the closed portions to serve otherwise stranded Blue Line passengers.

While LA Metro plans on stepping up its outreach in the next few weeks, the agency is moving forward with major overhauls on all or portions of three train lines that will inconvenience more than 100,000 daily train riders in Los Angeles, the South Bay and Long Beach.

Schedule of closures

— The southern section of the Blue Line, from Willowbrook/Rosa Parks to Downtown Long Beach Station will close from Jan. 26 (4 a.m.) to late May 2019.

— The northern section of the Blue Line, from Willowbrook/Rosa Parks to 7th Street/Metro Center will close from late May 2019 until late September 2019.

— The western section of the Green Line, from Hawthorne/Lennox Station to Redondo Beach Station will close from Jan. 4 (9 p.m.) until Jan. 20 (3 a.m.).

— During the northern Blue Line closure, the Expo Line service will be closed for 45 days at 7th/Metro and Pico Station. Expo Line trains will continue to run between LATTC/Ortho Institute Station and Downtown Santa Monica. Exact closure dates have not been announced.

The public can expect to see more service interruptions as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority attempts to complete 28 rail and roadway projects by 2028, the year the Olympic Summer Games come to Los Angeles.

“We need to keep moving forward with these other projects coming on line,” said Jose Ubaldo, LA Metro spokesman.

Crenshaw Line

In January, workers will finalize connecting equipment, electric overhead lines, signals and communication systems between the western section of the Green Line and the future Crenshaw/LAX Transit Line, set to open sometime in 2020, Ubaldo said.

Some trains will be tested on the Crenshaw Line during the 2 1/2-week period in January.

The line will extend northerly from the Green Line at the Crenshaw Station. A shuttle service will take Green Line passengers to and from the Crenshaw Park-n-Ride at Crenshaw Boulevard to Marine Avenue in Redondo Beach.

During the brief construction window, six of the 14 stations will be closed: Hawthorne/Lennox, Aviation/LAX, Mariposa, El Segundo, Douglas and Redondo Beach.

Blue Line

The Blue Line, operational since 1990 and the first light-rail line built in Los Angeles County, will undergo $350 million in upgrades.

This includes: replacing the overhead power system; new tracks in some segments; adding four crossover tracks to reduce service interruptions and upgrading train control signals.

The Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station will be closed for eight months.

It will receive a new mezzanine, canopies, entrances, a customer service center, a Metro police/security center, bike hub, signs (it will be re-labeled as the A Line), digital, 55-inch touch-screen map displays and fresh paint and landscaping at every station, said Aida Safaei, community relations manager for the Blue and Green line projects.

The Blue Line takes 73,000 daily riders each weekday, one of the busiest in the LA Metro system.

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How a North Carolina teen helped sell the LAPD’s unwanted fleet of electric cars David Martinez, 19, a resident of Huntington Park, was aware of the closure and said he would be willing to take one of three shuttle buses run by LA Metro to complete his ride.

“But $350 million to fix it up, that is a waste of money,” he said.

He also was concerned about new digital maps being vandalized.

Safaei said Willowbrook/Rosa Parks will have amenities such as a manned ticket counter to help passengers get a senior or student discount card. Currently that service is only available at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Jaz Marie, a Compton resident, said she’s concerned about walking to a shuttle from a closed station after work. She gets off around 11 p.m.

“That is the only issue: It is late and it is cold and dark; as a woman I’m concerned,” she said.