Public Transportation in Los Angeles

Despite the common perception that Los Angeles is the ultimate car city, there is an extensive public transportation system here with a 1,433 square mile operating area. This system is very well-used; Los Angeles is second in the United States in terms of public transportation patronage, behind only New York City. Here are some of the services available and some notes on how to use them.

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The lovely FlyAway bus

FlyAway Bus

The Los Angeles FlyAway Bus is a great service that will whisk you away from the airport for cheap. There are 4 Fly Away “lines;” they go to Union Station, Van Nuys, Westwood, and Irvine. The one-way fare is $7 for Union Station, Van Nuys, and Westwood; $25 for Irvine. From the airport, you board the bus on the lower level under the sign that says “FlyAway, Buses and Long Distance Vans.” It is important that you pay careful attention to which destination your bus is going to! There should be a sign on the front of the bus with this information. If you are starting FROM the airport then you just board and pay upon arrival at your destination. On the other hand, if you are traveling TO the airport, then you pay at the kiosk before boarding. Please click through the link above for the schedules.

I use the Union Station FlyAway bus on a regular basis and am always ready to sing its praise. It is a great way to access the Red Line subway from the airport. The bus runs regularly enough to be really convenient.

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Red Line - Beverly and Vermont stop

Subway – Metro Rail and Metro Liner

Los Angeles does have a subway system, run by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Its clean, easy to use, and efficient. The only problem is that it serves only a part of the geographical area of the Southland. If your destination does happen to be in this area then you have a great mode of transportation at hand. Luckily, many destinations for travelers are within the range of the subway, including downtown LA, the Hollywood and Highland area, and Pasadena.

The subway system (“Metro Rail”) is organized into the Red, Purple, Blue, Green, and Gold Lines. The Purple Line is actually a variation of the Red Line: the Red Line runs from Union Station to North Hollywood while the Purple Line runs from Union Station to Wilshire and Western. For these two lines, it is important to look carefully at the destination on the train as you are boarding to see where it is going; the Red and Purple trains are very easy to confuse and both of them service many of the same stations.

So how does the subway work? Tickets are purchased from automated ticket vending machines within the stations. Most of your needs will probably be served by either a single ride fare ($1.50) or a day pass ($6). The single ride fare is only good for one ride in one direction on one line. Every time you transfer lines you need to pay a new single ride fare! The day pass is pretty self-explanatory and is a good solution if you are traveling a lot on any particular day. Weekly passes and Monthly passes are also available, they can be purchased at over 600 locations that are listed on the  www.metro.net website.

Up to now, the subway system has been run on a honor system with officers scattered through the system to  randomly check if riders  have their transit passes. This is starting to change now. The turn-styles, working on the TAP (Transit Access Pass) Card system, have already been installed in the stations, they are just not yet  functional.

There is also the Orange Line and the Silver Line. These are bus lines rather than trains and are known as the “Metro Liner” system. The Orange Line operates very much like the subway lines while the Silver Lines has its own rules (unlike the other lines it costs $2.45 to ride the Silver Line).

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Take the bus to the beach

Metro Buses – Metro Local, Metro Rapid, and Metro Express

The bus system in Los Angeles is where much of the transportation action happens. The fares structure for buses is very similar to the Metro Rail system: $1.50 for a single ride, $6 for a day pass, and of course Weekly and Monthly passes. For the single ride fair, you pay cash on the bus (no change provided!).  Within the Metro system itself there are no transfers; you pay $1.50 each time you board a Metro bus. You can however buy transfers to buses of other municipalities  (Metro-to-Muni Transfer) for 35 cents. There are additional charges (70 cents per zone) on freeway buses. Please note that to buy a day pass on-board a bus you must already have a TAP card with you.

In an effort to help riders get to their destinations quickly, Metro has created a number of limited-stop bus lines which can be distinguished by both color and bus number.  (Frequent buses and traffic light synchronization also help with this effort).  The normal local buses are orange in color and do indeed make frequent stops. Metro Express buses lines, of which they are only  few lines, are blue in color.

More commonly seen are the many red Metro Rapid buses, with numbers in the 700s. A number of these in particular are very popular and useful buses that may come in handy on a visit to Los Angeles. The 780 runs from Hollywood to Pasdena, the 720 runs from Union Station to the Pacific Ocean via Wilshire, and the 704 runs from Union Station to the Pacific Ocean via Santa Monica. The 302, a limited-stop bus rather than a Rapid bus, is also worth noting; it travels from Union Station to the ocean by way of Sunset Boulevard. (Be aware that sometimes the buses have a shorter, partial run during non-peak hours so check the schedules!).

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Affordable short-run buses

DASH

The DASH system is a cheap (35 cents fare) bus system that is run by LADOT (Los Angeles Department of Transportation). The buses have shorter runs that simplify many day-to-day transportation needs.

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Commuter trains

Metrolink

Another piece of the pubic transportation web in SoCal is the commuter train system, Metrolink. These trains run longer distances, cost more than the inner-city buses and subways, and run at less frequent intervals and mostly during commuter hours. This is definitely the hardest system to navigate because you need to know the schedules ahead of time and the logistics of buying a ticket and finding boarding the right train are a little trickier. However,  the benefits of mastering this system is that you gain access to such a wide geographical area for very affordable fares.

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Union Station from the air

Exploring Los Angeles via public transportation is a very fruitful way to see the city. Yes, you will spend more time on the logistics of getting from place to place. At the same time, you will skip a lot of the stress of traffic (and parking!), and you will get a better sense of the city and its people.

[I found these NY Times Freakonomics articles interesting and relevant. Photos courtesy of fredcamino, Noah Albert, fredcamino, prayitno, and kla4067]