Decades after rail first broke ground in Los Angeles County, Angelenos will be one step closer to an airport connection with Friday afternoon’s opening of the LAX/Metro transit center.
The station at Aviation Boulevard and 96th Street will connect to the K Line and C Line and, starting next year, to Los Angeles International Airport’s long-awaited automated people mover train. For now, free shuttle buses running every 10 minutes will transport travelers along the 2.5-mile route between the center and LAX.
The transit center was budgeted at $900 million and includes a 16-bay bus plaza with electric bus infrastructure, a bicycle hub and a pickup and drop-off area for those who want to avoid the airport’s traffic-choked horseshoe loop. Metro parking lots near the station will offer short-term parking.
A ribbon cutting is planned for 1 p.m. to commemorate the center’s launch and Metro is offering free rides across its system through the weekend. The station opens to the public at 5 p.m.
“When the people mover finally opens, then we will have an international airport that will connect people from literally inside the terminals to the world and beyond through Metro,” County Supervisor Janice Hahn said during a Metro Board of Directors meeting in April.
From downtown, travelers headed to the transit center would board the A Line to the C Line or the E Line to the K Line. In other areas, including Redondo Beach, Norwalk, Leimert Park and Inglewood, travelers could use one line; in Pasadena and Long Beach, they would need two; those headed from Hollywood or Universal Studios would need to take three trains.
Most major cities already have a direct airport rail connection. The absence at LAX has long left travelers baffled, particularly first-time visitors and international passengers expecting a world destination like Los Angeles to have streamlined transit to its main airport.
A variety of factors led to the delay, including reported concerns among airport officials over potential lost parking profits, Federal Aviation Administration pushback, and competing interests over taxpayer dollars.
The debate was renewed more than a decade ago and plans for the airport’s people mover connection and Metro’s station were ultimately approved. The station is one of Metro’s “28 by 28” transit projects ahead of the Olympics.
“It was such a black eye on the system and on the rail leaders that they couldn’t connect Metro rail to LAX,” said Ethan Elkind, a rail expert who authored “Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the Future of the City.” He added that the station and the upcoming train “fills in this big missing gap in the system.”
Elkind said it’s unclear how many residents will end up relying on the train entirely to get to the airport if they have to change lines while balancing luggage or kids. But it will likely help the employees who make the trek to the airport every day. Tens of thousands of people work at the airport, on top of the hundreds of thousands of weekly travelers.
The train is the most anticipated project under the airport’s $30-billion overhaul ahead of the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028. Airport leaders and transit experts believe the automated train will significantly ease traffic at 1 World Way.
