Take a dedicated bus to your seat section at Dodger Stadium to see The Boys in Blue this season? Or if that’s not good enough, Dodger fans might ride a sky-high gondola to and from the stadium — in the future.
On Thursday evening, March 30, as the Los Angeles Dodgers play their season home opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the only transit choice is the Dodger Stadium Express, a dedicated bus running on game days from Union Station and from the South Bay bus depot along the 110 Freeway to the parking lots at Dodger Stadium.
The bus is free to ticket holders and has been used by hundreds of thousands of fans and concert-goers since 2010 to bypass traffic and avoid the steep parking fees at the stadium atop Chavez Ravine. This season, LA Metro is running 12 buses from the west side of Union Station starting 90 minutes before first pitch and five from the Harbor Gateway Transit Center two hours before game time.
“It’s a great service that saves baseball fans from the hassle of driving and parking at Dodger Stadium,” said LA Metro spokesman Dave Sotero in an email. “Best of all, it is free.”
This is the first time since the pandemic broke out in March 2020 that the Express is returning to full ridership. In 2019, 307,000 fans took the Express from Union Station, and 70,000 from Harbor Gateway. But last year, Union Station shuttled 123,000 riders and Harbor Gateway had 34,000, Metro reported.
This is also the first year that the Express bus will run for all 81 home games.
Its robust return comes a few months after the release on Oct. 17, 2022 of a draft Environmental Impact Report for the Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LA ART), a proposed aerial gondola starting near Chinatown and ending at the stadium. The project is being put forth by Frank McCourt, former L.A. Dodgers’ owner, whose company, McCourt Global, owns 50% of the parking lots at the stadium. McCourt is working arm-in-arm with LA Metro and Climate Resolve, an environmental…
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