After almost 20 years of waiting, Los Angeles International Airport is getting a station on the city’s growing Metro system—but the station is almost two miles from the airport, and for at least the next couple of years passengers will need an Uber or taxi to finish the trip to the terminals.
The station will open June 6, and provide access to the city transit systems C and K lines, running to Long Beach and Downtown L.A. respectively. The missing link is the airport train, an automated people mover that will connect the station on a loop through the airport’s terminals. That system, called the APM, won’t be ready until sometime next year, although it’s been in the works since 2014.
Once the APM opens, passengers can travel from the Metro Transit Center to LAX Terminals 24 hours a day. Trains will run every two minutes during peak hours the trip on the APM will take 10 minutes. It will be free for ticketed passengers, airport employees and people picking up or dropping passengers.
The airport operator projects 30 million riders annually, 27% less traffic around the notoriously jammed terminal roadways and a reduction of 117,000 vehicle miles a year. It’s also a key project ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which is being hyped as a potentially car-free event.
