How to take public transportation in L.A. guide

This page is a reference to anything you need to know in regards to public transit in LA. It will change as LA is not a static city. If you have any suggestion or know of any tips, feel free to drop The Bus Bench a line.

If you scroll down to the bottom there is every transit provider that exists in LA County (at least in our world.)

The biggest thing you can do to help the environment in LA is to stop owning a personal vehicle. We want to help you navigate one of the alternatives, but we're not going to lie. Public transit isn't pretty, but it is very entertaining if you have the right perspective.

browne@shametrainla.com

Also if you have a particular question feel free to ask us either via email or in the comment section. If we can't find the answer we'll find someone who does know the answer.

General public transit good practices.

Get change the night before. The correct change. Without change you're not going anywhere. This is LA nothing opens up until at least 8am (and chances are they are going to open late, if the open around the 6amish mark.) If you have to be somewhere by 8am you may have to leave at 6am depending on your location. When I lived in Los Feliz I wasted lots of time buying Starbucks coffee just so I could get change. In Boyle Heights, I just had to bargain with bus drivers to let me on for free (Montebello bus line drivers are more flexible than Metro.) Metro doesn't give change and neither does any of the other lines. I've often seen people try to get on the bus with a twenty dollar bill or a credit card. The bus isn't a night club. It's not about status. The bus driver isn't going to make an exception, because you have the money, but just can't give it to him or her currently. The bus is the great equalizer. Credit cards can only be used to purchase your fare for the  Metrolink and Metro Rail. Also dollar bills often don't work, so coin change unless you don't care if you're one of those people who hold up the line for five minutes trying to get the machine to take your dollar while everyone stares at you.

Check the schedule. While going to trip planner or calling          1-800-COMMUTE       (          1-800-266-6883       ) is a good start. Metro runs on a timetable. A timetable isn't a schedule a timetable means around or sort of. You're probably going to miss the bus you were planning on taking. You want to know the time of the next bus arrival, well if you had a schedule you can find out the eta of the next train or bus. At the very least get the time you want and the next two times, trust me on this. Of course you can check the schedule on your phone, but what if the your phone doesn't have service? What if your battery dies or you just don't feel like checking your phone while an individual with no home asks you for change over and over again? Riding public transit involves paying a bit more attention to your surrounding area and some sites take longer to load than others.

Get a map of the location of where you are going. Metro (and many of the other lines) is not going to always drop you off exactly where you need to go. You could be across the street, but maybe you're 1/4 of a mile a way or 3/4 or even more than a mile away. If you don't have a map how are you going to find where you are going if you have never been there before? (Load it in your phone. You don't want to be out somewhere you're not familiar, fooling around with your $500.00 phone. Don't be a dumbass.) Also as a pedestrian the streets look alot different than from your car. Many places I knew exactly how to get to via car as a pedestrian I was completely confused. Driving around for two minutes to a place you pretty much know the location of is like walking twenty minutes. You don't want to do that. Know exactly where you are going unless you like the hot L.A. sun.

Check the return route before you leave the house. Keep this in mind, many busses run less frequently after 6 or 7 pm and if it gets very late (late night busses run every 30 to 60 minutes) some busses stop running completely. The Metrolink doesn't run after rush-hour. The Metro Rail doesn't run after about 12 am. Have you ever been to a bar and then missed the last train to only sit out on the bus stop at Sunset and Vermont at 1:30am? It will be the longest time you ever waited in your life...trust me getting a route home is good for your sanity and essential to your safety.

Ask the driver. If you're going somewhere very far MAKE SURE to ask the driver is the bus going to where the timetable claimed it was going to go. There are short lines.(I swear the short lines always drop you off into the middle of some neighborhood where someone has just gotten shot the night before and the next bus doesn't come for another hour.) Also ask the driver in regards to the frequency of the line for your return trip home. Keep in mind though this is LA, people don't like giving the answer, "I don't know." Sometimes the driver will lie and say, "Yeah," or "Every twenty minutes," to whatever you ask just to get you out of their face. They make 10 dollars per hour so...

Get the number of a cab. I don't think there is any kind of bill of rights in regards to public transit. The bus might not come. If you have chosen for environmental reasons to get rid of the ball and chain of a car, you calling your friend at 1am to pick your drunk ass up, isn't going to do much to help the cause. If you don't have a car, because you're broke, well if you keep calling your friends to pick you up, eventually you will no longer have friends to call. Friends only like giving you a ride at the most once per month.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                   ABOUT METRO (MTA, RTD)

Vocabulary words:
White shirts- A term for the junior "rent-a-coppish" sheriffs that actively write tickets for various heinous offenses from fare evasion to loud music. Those tickets are $250.00. I almost got a ticket once for the heinous offense of drinking an ice blended mocha. That's one of the nine no's on the train. They are only around the Metro rail. On the bus feel free to eat, drink, play your Ipod very loud, have a fight with your boyfriend on your cell phone, hell have a fight with your boyfriend on the bus. The only thing you have to do on the bus is have enough money to get on.

Sheriffs- They also write tickets, but usually they are at various train stations for presence. Rarely do they write tickets (or do anything) except for when teenagers start running. It's an easy kill. If you run from a cop, well you deserve a fine. They are only on the Metro rail. On the bus feel free to eat, drink and molest your fellow passengers.

Zones- A bus that goes on the freeway goes through zones. Think of it like this when you take the 10 Freeway you go past several transportation landmarks, one zone would be Cal State LA, two zones would be the El Monte Transit Station, three zones would be Cal Poly Pomona. If your bus gets on the freeway it's going to have zones. Those zones make you pay more or less depending on how far you go.

Transfers-transfers are a little bit of extra fare that you pay to ride another line for free or a reduced rate. In the past when the MTA was the RTD you could buy a transfer from one MTA line and use it on another MTA line, this is no longer the case. Transfers are becoming less popular now and many lines are greatly limiting the flexibility of them if not just getting rid of them all together.

_____________________________________________________________________________

What's METRO?

Run by: CEO Roger Snoble and the Board of Directors the president currrently is Antonio Villaraigosa
Service area size: 1,433 square miles
Short version of what it runs: The Metro busses and Metro rail (they fund the Metrolink, but are not part of the Metrolink, but they are. It's complicated. Just know your fare is no good there) they also fund the freeway patrol and call boxes.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Fares:
One way fare: $1.25
Transfer fare: Only good for agencies outside of metro (does not include the LADOT) 30 cents
Day pass fare: $5.00
Express zones: Expresses are busses that go on the freeway. 60 cents per zone (on top of your fare)

Prepaid Fares:
Weekly pass: $17.00
Monthly pass: $62.00 (This will be replaced by the TAP)
Freeway Express: $18.00 per zone
EZ transit pass: $70.00 (EZ transit allows you to ride these lines in addition to Metro: Antelope Valley Transportation Authority (AVTA), Beach Cities Transit, Burbank Local Transit, Carson Circuit, City of Commerce, Culver CityBus, Foothill Transit, Gardena Municipal Bus Lines, Glendale Beeline, Huntington Park COMBI, LADOT (DASH and Commuter Express), LAX FlyAway (discount), Long Beach Transit, Montebello Bus Lines, Monterey Park Spirit Bus, Norwalk Transit, Pasadena Arts Shuttle, PV Transit, Santa Clarita Transit, Santa Fe Springs MetroExpress, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, South Pasadena Gold Link, Torrance Transit and Torrance MAX)
Tokens: Buy a ten one way fares for $12.50, which is saving you like, no money and you can't use it to buy a day pass on the rails and some operators of busses won't let you buy a day pass with them, so I'm not sure why you would get tokens, but that's an option.
Find out where to buy them at METRO.

____________________________________________________________________________

Odd Quirks. Lots of quirks.

The Metro tends to be a bit disgusting, maybe I'm too girly, but this is the most dirty line, but it's the most useful line and for most public transit riders this is the most important line.

First off the Orange Line is a bus, if you're looking for a train you will be looking for a long time. It's sort of obvious, but it's hard to tell which side is going south and which side is going north. I'm very bad at the direction thing. I only know in LA (LA in my world is 323, 213 and 310)  because I go in my head: the beach is west and the away from the beach is east and towards the valley is north, but if I'm outside of downtown or Hollywood I can't tell. I can't give you any advice on getting on the right bus, just get there early and ask a fellow patron.

On the Metro rail the Red Lines and the Purple Lines are hard to tell apart. Recently they have installed an electronic message board, but sometimes it doesn't work. You have to look on the electronic sign on the side of the train, which you don't know to look at until you realize that the Red Line and the Purple Line are different lines. Different lines that run on the same track and go initially in the same direction. The Purple Line goes the same way as the Red Line until a certain point then it goes off onto Wilshire and ends in Koreatown the Red Line goes along Vermont and ends in North Hollywood, so sort of a big deal if you don't get on the right train.

Another painful aspect of Metro is the fares. It's a confusing fare system. The particulars of Metro fares. It seems simple, it's mostly simple, but like the English language there are some odd quirks.

You have to buy a fare each time you change trains or busses. The Metro train(rail) and the Metro bus are part of the same agency. Don't buy a transfer on the train and think you can use it on the bus you can not. This goes without saying, but also don't do the reverse, a bus transfer isn't going to let you ride the rail for free. Don't be over confidant in this technique if your plan is to fare evade. If this is your plan when the white shirts stop you, may I suggest you have a plan b, because you will get a ticket.

A riding the METRO quiz.

1. I'm coming from downtown LA (Pershing Square) to Los Feliz (Sunset and Vermont) I get on the wrong line. The Purple Line instead of the Red and I realize this too late. I get off at Wilshire/Western to go back. What's my fare?

The fare to your destination would be $2.50. Now if you had got off at MacCarthur and got on to the correct train (the Red Line) you would have been fine to continue with your $1.25 fare, meaning if a white shirt had stopped you would not have gotten a ticket, but coming back from Wilshire/Western on a Purple Line when your ticket said Pershing Square technically you should have bought a new one way fare, because that's a return trip. You could probably get away with this, but just so you know you just fare evaded. There are no mistakes at Metro.

2. I'm going to the Airport. I'm leaving from my snazzy new place by 7th and Metro so I take the Blue Line. I then have to transfer to the Green Line? What's my fare?

The fare to destination would be $2.50 (and that includes a free shuttle to the airport from Aviation station.) The Blue Line and Green Line are different lines. You must buy another ticket to go from the Blue Line to the Green Line and let me add this is strictly enforced between the Green and Blue Lines. Don't try to be cute. I think Metro get's half of its fare evasion profit from the Rosa Parks Green/Blue Lines station where people have to transfer to get on the train to go to the airport. May I also suggest that next time you try LAX flyaway. It's only four dollars and takes you directly to LAX in a comfy charter bus from Union Station.

3. I'm coming from my sister-in-laws house in Glendale. I'm taking the 180 so that I can transfer to the red line. What's my fare?

The fare to your destination would be $2.50. You can't transfer to the red line in a monetary way. You can physically transfer, but you still must pay a new one way fare.

4. I live in the Historic Core of downtown LA. I want to go to a Laker game, because I'm one of those jock types that likes sports. I take the Red Line one stop, only one stop and then I get on the Blue Line only like two stops. What's my fare?

First off you really should walk, because you're pretty close, but you wanted to take the train, ok. Your fare is $2.50. Even if you go one stop on the Red Line to transfer (but remember you can't get a discounted while transferring within the Metro system, transfers between lines whether it is rail or bus no longer exist in regards to fares, every new board is a new fare) to the Blue Line it's still considered a transfer. And the saying "only" doesn't make any difference, though you're in luck. On Laker Nights when yuppie types such as yourself take the train, rarely do the white shirts enforce this rule. But just so you know if you didn't buy another one way ticket at the Blue Line's 7th and Metro Station you have just fare evaded.

_____________________________________________________________________________

                                             LADOT

Vocabulary words:
Zones- A bus that goes on the freeway goes through zones. Think of it like this when you take the 10 Freeway you go past several transportation landmarks, one zone would be Cal State LA, two zones would be the El Monte Transit Station, three zones would be Cal Poly Pomona. If your bus gets on the freeway it's going to have zones. Those zones make your pay more or less depending on how far you go.

Transfers-transfers are a little bit of extra fare that you pay to ride another line for free or a reduced rate. In the past when the MTA was the RTD you could buy a transfer from one MTA line and use it on another MTA line, this is no longer the case. Transfers are becoming less popular now and many lines are greatly limiting the flexibility of them if not just getting rid of them all together.

________________________________________________________

What's LADOT?

Run by: General Manager Rita L Robinson and the Transportation Commission and Taxi Cab Commission
Short version of what it does: In addition to running the DASH, City Ride and the Commuter Express it is in charge of ATSAC, parking enforcement, "Watch the Road" traffic safety campaign, preparing neighborhood based traffic and transportation plans, signalized intersections and city owned parking garages.

_______________________________________________________

Fares:
Dash one way: 25 cent
Dash with a a EZ transit pass or Metrolink (not Metro Rail, Metrolink is different)  pass/ ticket: Free
Transfers: You can't buy a transfer on a Dash

Commuter Express one way: Can vary from 90 cents to $3.10 depending on how many zones you are going. If you have a Metrolink ticket/pass you get a 90 cents discount.
Transfers: 25 cents can be used on other Commuter Expresses (and other agency lines, you may still have to pay a bit) but not the Dash.

City Ride is for disabled passegers. I have never taken it, so here's the website.

Prepaid fares:
Dash monthly: 9 dollars
Dash Tickets: 60 tickes for 15 dollars
LADOT Monthly: Good on Dash and Commuter Express varies from 40 dollars to 99 dollars depending on the amount of zones that you want.
EZ Transit Pass: Same as the METRO EZ Transit pass 70 dollars- 160 dollars depending on the zones that you want.

Want to buy find out where to buy LADOT prepaid fares go here.

_______________________________________________________

Odd Quirks. You can not take your bicycle on the Dash. On paper the Dash looks great.The Commuter Express looks great. Why would you take Metro when the LADOT seems so much more convenient. The Commuter Express run by the LADOT is awesome. It's clean, on time and pleasant, but there is a problem if you don't live out in the suburbs, there is no reason to get on the Commuter Express. It's an express so it doesn't stop once it gets out of Covina or Tujunga, it just picks up suburbanites and drops them off. The Dash yeah it's a quarter, but outside of downtown LA it's extremely unreliable and while the service is expanding the short distances it goes via it's individual circuits just seem to fill in the gaps of  Metro. You could do better on a bike, hence outside of downtown the majority of the people you see on the Dash are very, very old. In Los Feliz I think the elderly people thought it was their own sight seeing touring trolley or something, because they'd sit on there and just talk and talk and talk. I had no idea where they were going. The same people would be on it each time I would get on at varying times of the day.

"Hello dear. How are you today? Would you like some muffin," nice old lady on the Los Feliz Dash.

LADOT seems good in theory, but while it does some things very well, if you need to keep your job do not depend on the Dash to get you there except in downtown where it runs ok.

_______________________________________________________

                                  METROLINK

Vocabulary words:
Transfers-transfers are a little bit of extra fare that you pay to ride another line for free or a reduced rate. In the past when the MTA was the RTD you could buy a transfer from one MTA line and use it on another MTA line, this is no longer the case. Transfers are becoming less popular now and many lines are greatly limiting the flexibility of them if not just getting rid of them all together.

________________________________________________________

What is the Metrolink?

Run by? Chair of the Board of Directors Ron Robert and Executive Board CEO David Solow, Southern California Regional Rail Authority
In short what it does? In 1991 LA, Orange, San Bernardino, Ventura and Riverside Counties joined together to form the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. It runs trains from the suburbs (you know the people with the crazy two hour and three hour commutes with no accidents)  of the aforementioned communities to the more urban Los Angeles into the the work centers of Los Angeles.

_______________________________________________________

Fares:
One way ticket prices vary: If you teach at Cal State LA, but live in the art colony in Pomona your one way fare would be $7.50 for the weekday. $5.50 for the weekend. If you lived in a loft in downtown LA, but were an adjunct professor at a college in Orange your fare would be $7.75 for the weekday and $5.75 for the weekend. The prices can vary but mainly hover around the $10 dollar mark. For a round trip ticket you get about a 1.50 or so discount.

Prepaid fares:
Monthly fares also vary. They can be from around $200.00 to $300.00 per month with a discount in the month of December. You can also buy ten trips at a time, again the price varies. The fare calculator is your friend.

Transfers: Your Metrolink ticket works like an EZ transit pass. (Note an EZ transit pass is not valid as fare on the Metrolink also the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus DOES not accept Metrolink tickets/passes as fare).  It's good on a variety of local busses, such as the Dash, Metro and Montebello in addition to many other lines. Keep in mind the zones, if you work so far away that you have to get on the Metrolink and get on a bus that goes on the freeway and cross zones your Metrolink gives you a discount not a free ride. No one makes this obvious until you try to board an express bus (a bus that goes on the freeway.)

I missed my train what do I do: Since the Metrolink takes you a very long way. I've dececided owing to Matthew our friendly MetroLibrarian to add his comment. "if you have a monthly pass, and you are traveling between two stops that Amtrak Pacific Surfliner also stops at, your Metrolink pass covers the Pacific Surfliner as well (along the Orange and Ventura county Metrolink lines, within the same stataions)" Good to know.

_______________________________________________________

Odd Quirks. Your Metrolink ticket/pass does not work on Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus.

If you live out in Orange, the Inland Empire or Santa Clarita (or work, those in education know that tenure is dead, pasting five teaching jobs together is becoming unfortunately very common) I don't know why you wouldn't take the Metrolink. I've been on it. It's awesome. It's beautiful and clean AND they have a conductor. It is a bit pricey, but if you live out in the burbs driving is more pricey. The passengers seem to all know each other and bring each other croissants and donuts. They exchange pictures of their kids. No lie it's awesome. Also since your ticket works like an EZ transit pass you can catch a Commuter Express or a train to your destination. Much better on your sanity than driving for long distances each day. The draw back is if you miss your train (which I did once coming back from Orange County) you have to pay large amounts of money (not break your bank, but an extra 10 of 15 bucks) to buy an Amtrak ticket (Metrolink runs on existing tracks)  back into civilization. The Metrolink doesn't run after rush hour. If you are taking the Metrolink you went pretty far and across your county line, so no one is going to pick you up. Good luck getting a bus across counties. If you call trip planner they tell you some insane itinerary, like transfer five times and then walk until you pass out. And this is in Orange County. I would suppose if you got stranded in Antelope Valley trip planner would just tell you to drop dead or to find a Motel 6.

In other words, if you are pretty established in your job and you have a certain time you leave everyday the Metrolink is great. If you have a boss that asks you to work late, this may not be a good option unless you're cheating on your spouse with someone at the office. If that is the case then the Metrolink would be a fabulous option.

_______________________________________________________

Links to LA Country Transit Providers in alphabetical order.

Antelope Valley Transportation Authority (AVTA)
Beach Cities Transit
Bellflower Bus
Big Blue Bus
Carson Circuit
Cerritos on Wheels
City of Commerce
Commuter Express
Compton Renaissance Bus          310-605-5505       (It does exist, I saw it once.)
Culver CityBus
Downey Link
Foothill Transit
Gardena Municipal Bus Lines
Glendale Beeline
Huntington Park COMBI
LADOT (DASH and Commuter Express)
LAX FlyAway
Long Beach Transit
Montebello Bus Lines
Monterey Park Spirit Bus
Norwalk Transit
Paramount
Pasadena Arts Shuttle
PV Transit
Santa Clarita Transit
Santa Fe Springs MetroExpress
Santa Monica Big Blue Bus
Silver Streak Foothills
South Pasadena Gold Link
Torrance Transit
Torrance MAX
South Bay MAX

Comments

[soledadenmasa]

Metro still has tokens? DAMN... I haven't used them since I got a monthly pass in 2003. Back then, tokens were actually worth the cost. A 90 cents token covered a 1.35 bus fare! Now a token cost the same as a fare? Damn, I'm surprised.

[Mark Panitz]

Metrolink tickets are NOT honored
by Santa Monica Big blue buses
even though they are part of the EZ pass program

[Browne]

You are right Mark. I'm working on a Big Blue section tonight and I'll make the changes. As car drivers share tips on secret ways and good parking we must share the secrets of good transit.

That was some good transit Mark!!

Browne

[Alex]

I've riden the MTA since I was 8 years old. I'm 21 now & I still ride it at least six days a week. Usually going to work at 6am. I really wish MTA would run 24/7. Things would be a lot better. Hell, I think it would even save lives. You'd be able to just hop on the bus or metro & not have to worry about driving your car under the influence. I remember getting stranded outside the universal city station & having to wait from 1am till 5am outside till the subway started running again, not a fun time.

Also you forgot to mention that every bus has at least one mentally insane person on it. Usually they talk to themselves outloud or urinate/defecate in their seat.

[BusTard]

I hear ya, Alex.
I was faced with the same ordeal right after the Red Line opened up that way nearly a decade ago—when for a brief period I made residence on Wilcox Place over the Dragonfly, and made the mistake of attending some dim "film" up the hill at Universal—and when I realised I had missed the night's final Red Line run, I walked under the 101 to catch the 126 (146?) or somesuch line, outside the Subway sandwich shop.

[Matthew]

On the Metrolink and missing your train front, you should probably mention that if you have a monthly pass, and you are traveling between two stops that Amtrak Pacific Surfliner also stops at, your Metrolink pass covers the Pacific Surfliner as well (along the Orange and Ventura county Metrolink lines, within the same stataions).

[browne]

That's some good transit Matthew. I've made the notation (and I added yours too!! Mark)

Browne

[Nancy]

Today I took the Commuter Express instead of Metro to work. That meant I had to wake up nearly 2 hours earlier, but the 549 goes straight from my residence at Sepulveda/Ventura to my office at Pass/Alameda. It seemed all worthwhile when I got on board and discovered the plushy seats, air-conditioned comfort and quiet clientelle.

Then the Commuter Express failed to show up in the evening. There I was, sitting at the stop marked 549 Encino. I stood there for 45 minutes, a period of time that, according to the schedule, two different buses were supposed to arrive, and eventually just gave up and walked over to the Metro 96 stop down the street. That bus, of course, showed up - and on time, I might add.

What gives? Is there someone I can complain to about this? It sucks to be stranded! Is this what you meant by "outside of downtown LA it's extremely unreliable" in your post?

[Browne]

Nancy,

That sucks and I say that having been stranded. I'm going to write a post write now explaining this in more detail. LADOT (which runs the Commuter Express) had a complaint line, but then they changed it. I callled LADOT and I think it was because people started calling them on the BS of them constantly NOT showing up. Or showing up insanely late and this was in regards to just the Dash. I will find a number for you, because it's not on the website.

But know this complaints via phone tend to go in a blackhole and complaints via handwritten letter tends to go in a pile somewhere.

[browne]

http://lacitydot.com/busforms/admin.cfm?page=ladot_bus_complaint1c.cfm

Here is the complaint form.

[Nancy]

Thanks, Browne!

I submitted my feedback using the URL you provided. Hopefully they step up with service.