As LA prepares for the Olympics, a lot is riding on its transit system

Everyone knows Los Angeles is addicted to the car, that traffic is unbearable and that public transit is a joke — with trains that go nowhere, buses that are crowded and filthy, connectors that are impossible to navigate and the inexplicable fact that a rail network stops just out of reach of the airport. 

Since everyone knows those things as facts, they were certain that this year’s FIFA World Cup would be a disaster, and that the Olympics, coming in 2028, will be a worse one.

Except the World Cup wasn’t a disaster. And the trains do connect. And the transit system, though a source of exasperation for generations, is showing signs of delivering on its promise. 

Whether LA’s buses, people movers and trains will run on time during the Olympics is still in question. A lot rides on it. A successful Olympics could highlight LA’s place on the world stage and deliver a victory to California’s governor and LA’s mayor. But if the transit system buckles, it could be a global embarrassment for the city and for California.

LA has had more than a head start. The expansion and modernization of the Los Angeles transit system has spanned decades and required efforts from local, state and federal agencies.

But the mayor who contributed most to it was Antonio Villaraigosa, who served from 2005 to 2013. 

Villaraigosa did not come to office as a transit buff. He was a former union organizer whose driving messages revolved around social justice more than trains and buses. But he came to see public transit as a way of uniting a diffuse city, and he used his office to muscle the money and sew together the network.

Ever the salesman, Villaraigosa worked all the political levers. He persuaded voters to approve Measure R in 2008, creating a 30-year, half-cent sales tax that will ultimately generate some $36 billion in revenue for the system. 

That’s a lot of money, but even that is nowhere near enough to meet LA’s transit needs, so Villaraigosa organized labor and business leaders to lobby Congress for a funding strategy that pledged federal help to local jurisdictions that were demonstrating commitment by raising their own money.

The results were the Transportation Infrastructure and Innovation Act, TIFIA, and America Fast Forward, both of which rewarded federal support to local governments that were doing their part, using taxpayer commitments for transportation improvements.

Today, Villaraigosa is on the edge of the spotlight he once so enthusiastically commanded. 

He finished well out of the money in the June gubernatorial primary, losing to Xavier Becerra, whom he handily defeated in the 2001 Los Angeles mayor’s race. Times change, and this year Villaraigosa had a hard time getting voter attention in the crowded gubernatorial campaign after being on the sidelines for a few years.

But Villaraigosa is irrepressible. When we spoke last week, he rattled off his transportation successes with the same cheerful blend of data and tales that have always been at the core of his impossible-to-ignore personality. 

I asked about where LA is on transportation and then sat back as he launched into a long list of achievements studded with observations about politics and progress.

Villaraigosa recalled clearing the federal blockade on tunneling through areas of the city that had methane, ending a long standoff with then-Congressmember Henry Waxman.

“He endorsed me,” Villaraigosa said. “I went back to him and said ‘I would like you and 

I to select some experts to study this.’ The experts said yes … True to his word, he removed the federal prohibition.”

Then there was the issue of money. As Villaraigosa recounted it, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein was not particularly receptive to calls for a new financing mechanism, but former Sen. Barbara Boxer was, so he worked with her. Feinstein eventually came around after what Villaraigosa described as gentle pressure.

“We had pickets outside her office,” he said, relishing the memory.

Congress approved TIFIA and America Fast Forward. The money began to flow, and  the pieces fell into place. The Gold Line Extension, reaching from downtown to areas east, broke ground in 2009. Villaraigosa, grinning broadly, sat in the train conductor’s seat. 

The Foothill Extension followed, stretching through the San Gabriel Valley. Now known as the A Line, it travels through Pasadena, Arcadia and Azusa, with plans to continue marching eastward.

That opened up the East, but Los Angeles is a vast city, and the network still had huge holes. The Crenshaw Line opened in 2022 and traversed communities in South Los Angeles, bringing a boon to businesses along the route. 

And construction along Wilshire Boulevard, blocked for so many years by the federal government’s prohibition against drilling in areas that had methane, at last is reaping visible success. This spring, the LA Metro transit agency opened four stations along the boulevard, connecting Koreatown to the Westside and allowing Dodger fans in that part of town to ride the rail to games.

That link in the rail network took 65 years to build and was made possible by Villaraigosa’s work on Waxman. When it opened, the LA Times, citing transit experts, called it a “landmark achievement in L.A. public transit history.” 

And still the network was riddled with holes, especially downtown, where lines narrowly missed each other. The Regional Connector addressed that gap. It opened in 2023, and riders can now go from Azusa to Long Beach and from East to West Los Angeles.

Villaraigosa looks back fondly on all of that. 

“It was a war,” he said, but he meant that as a good thing.

Those investments have not solved all of L.A.’s transit troubles. Ridership fell apart during COVID and has struggled to rebuild. President Donald Trump’s immigration sweeps chased more riders away. And anytime there is a notable crime on a bus or train, a shudder runs through the system. 

But the region’s buses and trains faced a test this summer with the World Cup and it did just fine. 

Ridership jumped by 2.4 million riders in June over June 2025, and the system saw its biggest surges on lines around stadiums before and after games. Metro reported no security incidents around the Cup matches. 

The Olympics will pose a far greater and more sustained transportation challenge.

Visitors will come from around the world, and the Olympics will be compressed into 16 days of events at dozens of venues spanning the region. A visitor who wants to catch one event in Carson, another in Long Beach and another in Pasadena will depend on a transit system that can connect all that, especially since parking at venues will be scarce.

Mayor Karen Bass has touted the games as an opportunity for the region’s transit network to show its strength. But there’s much to be done between now and then. Metro needs to acquire scores of special buses, and the rail lines still need some patching.

Most notably, there remains the strange fact that a traveler arriving at LAX cannot catch a train from the airport. Bridging that gap has bedeviled transit planners for years. 

But even there, the slow, slow signs of progress are visible. Empty people-movers now cruise around the airport, as engineers test that system. Bass promises it will be ready well in time for the Olympics, and Villaraigosa agrees.

“It’ll go to the airport,” he said, “finally.”