Flying into LAX can feel like landing in a much poorer city than Los Angeles. For many of the 75 million passengers who use LAX each year, the experience is miserable.
It’s old-fashioned and clogged with cars. The limitations of LAX’s outdated horseshoe layout result in horrifying and unpredictable traffic, a situation that’s only compounded by the effect of Los Angeles’s historic disdain for proper civic planning. Even if you try to use rideshare, the pickup zone is marooned in a bleak remote parking lot accessible only by shuttle bus. The whole thing feels more like a medieval goat market than a gateway to one of the country’s most important cities. The plain truth is that LAX’s ugly chaos is embarrassing.
In LA, property developers have always called the shots. As a consequence public transit has been an afterthought for 70 years. But a series of major upcoming international events taking place in the city, including games for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the 2028 Summer Olympics, have finally spurred the City of Angels to fly a little faster.
There are a lot of city improvements on the books as LA prepares for the hoped-for influx of visitors. One of the first openings happens this June 6. As part of $30 billion in updates, LAX will commence Metro train service at a dedicated station built for the airport.
That’s right: Los Angeles, of all places, beat New York City’s LaGuardia and built a train station first.
How LAX’s Metro Transit Center works
The time has passed for making cheap jokes about whether LA has a subway/metro system. The city has had one for 35 years now, and there are nearly 110 miles of regular Metro service at some 120 stations, many of which are aboveground, allowing riders to enjoy the sunshine. The system is affordable, too—just $1.75 a ride, no matter how far you go. People aged 62 and older can ride for just 35¢–75¢.
You can use the LA Metro to get to Santa Monica in the west, Burbank in the north, Long Beach in the south, or downtown Los Angeles. The system reaches as far as 45 miles east of the Pacific Ocean—and as of June 6, trains go to LAX as well.
LAX/Metro Transit Center is a $900 million, custom-built station at Aviation Boulevard and 96th Street, to LAX’s northeast, connected to the massive LAX Economy Parking structure that opened in 2021.
Throughout 2025, Metro passengers have to take a regular, free shuttle bus from the Transit Center to the airport terminals. But in “early 2026,” project managers say, the shuttles will be superseded by a brand-new Automated People Mover elevated shuttle train that will whisk passengers on a less-than-10-minute ride to the terminals every 2 minutes in peak hours.
Getting to LA from LAX’s Metro station
The new Transit Center will contain a giant Consolidated Rent-a-Car Facility, which LAX has given the throat-clearing nickname of ConRAC. The new system will make it much easier to pick up a car. Instead of catching one of the fleets of shuttle vans that currently jam LAX, you’ll just take the People Mover to this central station, where all the major car renters will soon be located—some of them seem to be waiting for the People Mover to be completed before moving in.
But the Transit Center’s connection to LAX also means you won’t need to rent a car if you don’t want to. The Transit Center includes a bunch of stalls for bus connections for services from various LA-area municipalities. Routes that will be served include Metro Bus lines to South Gate (102), Norwalk (111), Downey (117), Whittier (120), and Long Beach (232); Santa Monica Big Blue Bus (3, Rapid 3) to Santa Monica; Culver CityBus (6 and Rapid 6) to Culver City and UCLA; Beach Cities Transit (109) to Redondo Beach; GTrans (Gardena) Line 5 to Willowbrook/Rosa Parks station (where there are connections to Metro A Line and El Segundo) and Torrance Transit Line 8.
As for Metro train connections, the new LAX/Metro Transit Center is on the Metro’s K Line, which is pink on maps, and the C Line, which is green. Truth be told, neither line is very rangy.
So far, there is no one-seat train service from LAX to places like Santa Monica, downtown Los Angeles, Universal Studios, and Hollywood. You’ll need to change trains to reach most major tourist landmarks. You may even need to change twice. But it can be done—and that’s a huge victory.
Most of LA’s best-known attractions are to the north of LAX. Take the K train north to Expo/Crenshaw. From there, you can change for an E Line (yellow) west to Santa Monica and the beach.
Or you can take the E Line seven stops east to 7th St./Metro Center in downtown Los Angeles, where you can choose from a few more useful lines. The B Line (red) goes to Hollywood and Universal Studios. The D Line (purple) goes west to attractions like the La Brea Tar Pits and the Academy Museum. The A Line (blue) goes north to Pasadena.
LA’s Metro still won’t let you use your phone or credit card to tap and pay. You have to buy a TAP card for $2 and load it with value, the way they used to do back in olden times. To take care of that, there will be TAP kiosks at the Transit Center. TAP cards also work on buses.
One day, maybe Los Angeles’s Metro will give us one-seat access to the big tourist draws—but at least we have the train station at LAX now. Its debut will open the city’s adventures to a lot more people—affordably.
