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The New Fly Zone
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| An express bus service connecting Union Station with LAX was inaugurated March 15. It is now attracting more than 500 riders a day. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
Express Bus Service From Union Station to LAX Fills a Niche
by Andrew Moyle
When officials from Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began offering express bus service between Union Station and Los Angeles International Airport, they thought they were filing a niche. Indeed, they are finding an audience; six weeks in, the service, known as the Union Station FlyAway, is pulling more than 500 passengers a day.
While LAWA has an entire floor of the MTA's Gateway Transit Center parking structure just for its service, there has been a surprise. In addition to the park-and-ride crowd, a healthier than expected ride-and-ride market has boosted FlyAway's numbers.
"One of the things we're excited about is the number of people who have gotten to the Union Station FlyAway by taking public transportation," said Tom Winfrey, a LAWA spokesman. "It's about getting cars off the road."
Though the numbers for the first few weeks are still being tabulated, roughly a quarter of FlyAway riders are transit-only, Winfrey said.
The Union Station FlyAway follows the model of the successful Van Nuys FlyAway, which over 31 years has carried an average of 1,952 passengers a day from Van Nuys Airport to LAX. The Downtown Los Angeles service promises to shuttle riders from the train station to the airport in 45 minutes. In fact, in non-peak hours the Union Station FlyAway often makes LAX in 35 minutes, though one-way commute times during rush hour can approach 60 minutes.
Morning, noon and night, the blue buses leave Berth 9 at the south end of Union Station's Patsaouras Plaza every half hour (every hour on the hour from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.). They follow a no-nonsense route south on the 110 Freeway and into the westbound carpool lane of the 105 Freeway for the smooth ride to the airport. Once there, they stop at all seven terminals on the departure level.
Return service from LAX follows the same schedule as the outbound route, with buses stopping beneath the green "FlyAway, Buses and Long-Distance Vans" signs on the arrival-level bus medians. Whichever the direction, the one-way fare is $3 per person ($2 for children 2-12).
While the price is low, officials are hoping that people going to and from LAX will also be drawn by the ease of not having to drive and find parking in the expensive lots around the airport.
"It's not as bad on your nerves," FlyAway driver Robby Gentle said as she eased into traffic. "Mine are already shot, so...," she trailed off, chuckling.
Test Trip
On a recent round trip - leaving Union Station at 3 p.m., hanging out at LAX and then a return FlyAway ride departing at 5 p.m.) - passengers came from seemingly every walk of life.
For Suffolk, England, resident Lynn Mercer and her daughter, Katie, FlyAway was an easy end to a two-week trip of RVing south from San Francisco and then taking in the sights of Los Angeles via "the tube."
"I think it's brilliant. Our impression was you had to get taxis everywhere if you didn't have your own wheels," said Mercer, a commercial building interior designer. "What did they do before this?"
Harry Monson echoed the point. Fresh off a flight from Amsterdam, the retired math teacher needed to get to his home in Riverside, but didn't want to pay for a private car or van, or hit up a friend
"That's too far to ask anybody to take you," Monson said. Instead, he aimed to reach Union Station and then board Metrolink's 91 Line to downtown Riverside, a convenient option at the $4.75 senior fare.
The FlyAway may help make up for one of Los Angeles' mass-transit fumbles - the fact that the LAX Green Line station doesn't take passengers to the airport, instead requiring them to get off the train and then board another shuttle.
That's why the FlyAway appeals to people like Silver Lake resident and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer Stefani Royal, who used to commute on the Green Line. Now the direct route to LAX, where she staffs an airport security checkpoint, lets Royal save time for her 16-year-old son, Michael.
"Probably a half hour each way," she said.
TSA reimburses Royal for the Metro Rail, but the FlyAway charge comes out of pocket, she said. Still, the extra minutes are well worth the $3 fare, she said.
LAWA and the MTA hope more riders come to the same conclusion. As part of their three-year agreement, LAWA will spend up to $50,000 to improve parking level P4 at Gateway Transit Center. It also upgraded a ticket kiosk at the south end of Patsaouras Plaza, where it sells FlyAway tickets.
The MTA receives just $1,000 a year in fees from LAWA, but is hoping to net between $44,000 and $210,000 in parking revenue over the first three years, at $4 per car, per day.
That's a lot of parking spaces to fill. So far, the Union Station FlyAway is averaging 510 passengers per day, Winfrey said, but spread among the 90 trips back and forth during its 24-hour schedule, that's less than six riders per trip.
Never fear, Gentle says.
"Once the people catch on, it'll pick up," the veteran bus driver said.
Contact Andrew Moyle at andrew@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 4/24/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
While LAWA has an entire floor of the MTA's Gateway Transit Center parking structure just for its service, there has been a surprise. In addition to the park-and-ride crowd, a healthier than expected ride-and-ride market has boosted FlyAway's numbers.
"One of the things we're excited about is the number of people who have gotten to the Union Station FlyAway by taking public transportation," said Tom Winfrey, a LAWA spokesman. "It's about getting cars off the road."
Though the numbers for the first few weeks are still being tabulated, roughly a quarter of FlyAway riders are transit-only, Winfrey said.
The Union Station FlyAway follows the model of the successful Van Nuys FlyAway, which over 31 years has carried an average of 1,952 passengers a day from Van Nuys Airport to LAX. The Downtown Los Angeles service promises to shuttle riders from the train station to the airport in 45 minutes. In fact, in non-peak hours the Union Station FlyAway often makes LAX in 35 minutes, though one-way commute times during rush hour can approach 60 minutes.
Morning, noon and night, the blue buses leave Berth 9 at the south end of Union Station's Patsaouras Plaza every half hour (every hour on the hour from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.). They follow a no-nonsense route south on the 110 Freeway and into the westbound carpool lane of the 105 Freeway for the smooth ride to the airport. Once there, they stop at all seven terminals on the departure level.
Return service from LAX follows the same schedule as the outbound route, with buses stopping beneath the green "FlyAway, Buses and Long-Distance Vans" signs on the arrival-level bus medians. Whichever the direction, the one-way fare is $3 per person ($2 for children 2-12).
While the price is low, officials are hoping that people going to and from LAX will also be drawn by the ease of not having to drive and find parking in the expensive lots around the airport.
"It's not as bad on your nerves," FlyAway driver Robby Gentle said as she eased into traffic. "Mine are already shot, so...," she trailed off, chuckling.
On a recent round trip - leaving Union Station at 3 p.m., hanging out at LAX and then a return FlyAway ride departing at 5 p.m.) - passengers came from seemingly every walk of life.
For Suffolk, England, resident Lynn Mercer and her daughter, Katie, FlyAway was an easy end to a two-week trip of RVing south from San Francisco and then taking in the sights of Los Angeles via "the tube."
"I think it's brilliant. Our impression was you had to get taxis everywhere if you didn't have your own wheels," said Mercer, a commercial building interior designer. "What did they do before this?"
Harry Monson echoed the point. Fresh off a flight from Amsterdam, the retired math teacher needed to get to his home in Riverside, but didn't want to pay for a private car or van, or hit up a friend
"That's too far to ask anybody to take you," Monson said. Instead, he aimed to reach Union Station and then board Metrolink's 91 Line to downtown Riverside, a convenient option at the $4.75 senior fare.
The FlyAway may help make up for one of Los Angeles' mass-transit fumbles - the fact that the LAX Green Line station doesn't take passengers to the airport, instead requiring them to get off the train and then board another shuttle.
That's why the FlyAway appeals to people like Silver Lake resident and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer Stefani Royal, who used to commute on the Green Line. Now the direct route to LAX, where she staffs an airport security checkpoint, lets Royal save time for her 16-year-old son, Michael.
"Probably a half hour each way," she said.
TSA reimburses Royal for the Metro Rail, but the FlyAway charge comes out of pocket, she said. Still, the extra minutes are well worth the $3 fare, she said.
LAWA and the MTA hope more riders come to the same conclusion. As part of their three-year agreement, LAWA will spend up to $50,000 to improve parking level P4 at Gateway Transit Center. It also upgraded a ticket kiosk at the south end of Patsaouras Plaza, where it sells FlyAway tickets.
The MTA receives just $1,000 a year in fees from LAWA, but is hoping to net between $44,000 and $210,000 in parking revenue over the first three years, at $4 per car, per day.
That's a lot of parking spaces to fill. So far, the Union Station FlyAway is averaging 510 passengers per day, Winfrey said, but spread among the 90 trips back and forth during its 24-hour schedule, that's less than six riders per trip.
Never fear, Gentle says.
"Once the people catch on, it'll pick up," the veteran bus driver said.
Contact Andrew Moyle at andrew@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 4/24/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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