General Info

Montebello Transit, of Montebello Calif., serves the communities of Alhambra, Bell Gardens, Boyle Heights, Commerce, Downtown Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, La Mirada, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, San Marino, South Gate, South San Gabriel, and Whittier. Transportation service began in Montebello in 1910 with one motorized coach. Montebello was predominantly an agricultural community, but World War I and the discovery of oil in the Montebello Hills quickly changed the community. By 1917, there were four private companies competing for passengers among the influx of workers drawn to the area. Two years after the incorporation of the City of Montebello, the city officially began a municipal bus service. Six years later, the city sold the operation to the Motor Transit Company, a division of Southern Pacific Railroad. Motor Transit later became the Pacific Electric operators of the famed red cars.