Many of our guests who come to experience the magic of Pacific Park travel on the Metro, LA’s light rail system. The Metro Expo Line runs on an east-west route that connects Downtown LA to Santa Monica and conveniently ends in Downtown Santa Monica, at 4th and Colorado, a few blocks away from the Santa Monica Pier. The Metro is a time and money saver, with one-way trips costing only $1.75 and rides past the traffic on the I-10 freeway.
To help prepare you for your visit to Pacific Park, we wanted to make you aware of these important station closures happening starting this month.
Metro is making improvements on the Blue Line, their oldest line. They began construction in late January 2019 and will continue through September 2019. Metro is investing $350 million to enhance safety, increase reliability and improve the customer experience on the Blue Line. Two of the Blue Line stops run along the Expo Line, and construction will affect two of the Expo Line stations during the summer.
Starting June 22nd, two of the Expo Blue Line stations (Pico Station and 7th St/Metro Ctr) will be out of service until Friday, August 23rd. However, there will be an alternate way to connect between the last stop on the Expo Line (LATTC/Ortho Institute) and these closed stations. The Metro will be working with Express Big Blue Bus Shuttle Service to provide shuttles that have direct service between 7th St/Metro Ctr and LATTC/Ortho Institute. In planning your commute or visit for leisure to the Santa Monica Pier area, be sure to allot for some extra time, since the shuttle detours can take 20-45 minutes.
More Information About the Shuttle Service:
Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know if you will be using the shuttle bus service between lines:
- The Big Blue Bus shuttle service will operate on weekdays only beginning Monday, June 24th until Friday, August 23rd.
- The buses will run every 15 minutes between the hours of 5am-8am, and 3pm-6:30pm
- Metro will also be providing four extra bus shuttles between these stations during the construction period.
- Shuttle hours vary between busses, but the 856 Local and 864 Local run the same hours as the rail line.
- The Metro shuttles are free transfers with TAP or $1.75 each. The Big Blue Bus shuttles are $1.25 each or $.50 for the interagency transfer.
You can learn more about the Big Blue Bus shuttle service and its Expo Line stops by visiting their site here. For more information about the Metro Blue Line station closures, visit their site here.
For more information on how to travel around Santa Monica via the Expo Line, or car-free in general, check out some ideas here.