Metrolink To The Ballgame

[WhoozOn1st]

SoCal's Metrolink is reprising its Angels Express trains for Angels home games at the Big A this season, and has added service from Riverside for Angels Friday home games.

Take the Metrolink Angels Express Train to Angel Stadium

"With the Metrolink Angels Express dropping you off at the Angel Stadium parking lot, you can avoid all the traffic and parking hassles. From the train station, it is a short walk to the stadium. So what are you waiting for? Get on board the Metrolink Angels Express Train and arrive at the ballpark relaxed and ready to root, root, root for the team!"

Also...

"For a limited time only, you can get a complimentary Angels game ticket voucher when you buy a round-trip ticket for the Metrolink Angels Express Train through OCTA [EDIT: Orange County Transportation Authority]. To receive a voucher, you must purchase your ticket online, at the OCTA store or via phone."

Angel Stadium, viewed from the Anaheim Amtrak/Metrolink station platform; station office is at left.

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[WhoozOn1st]

When posting the above I thought about also mentioning L.A. Metro's Dodger Stadium Express, but decided against it. Although the idea is to ride a train to Los Angeles Union Station to get to Dodger home games, the service itself is provided by buses from LAUS. And as noted by L.A. Times sports columnist T.J. Simers, with help from readers who have used the system to get to games, it doesn't work too well:

"I get a bunch of emails after the Dodgers' opening day, prompted by the Dodger Express from Union Station.

"'There is nothing express about it," [a reader] says. 'Left Union Station at 11:45, at about 12:49 just before Innes Avenue we decided to get off and walk into the stadium. We had just passed the parking lot booths when the two jets flew over [Opening Day festivities] … this is two consecutive years we have taken this so-called express and it is horrible. Could someone at The Times look into this?'

"[Another reader] concurs: 'We left at 12 straight up and did not get dropped off at Dodger Stadium until 1:40. Total distance: 1.76 miles. You would think after 50 opening days they could do something about the traffic. Can you see if you might help?'"

The columnist's help: "Don't take the Dodger Express."

Of course you can't blame the Dodgers for the poor performance, since they contribute no funding to operate the service. Perhaps that will change along with the impending change of team ownership, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[trainman74]

Well, the big problem with the bus is something the Dodgers can't really control -- the traffic on Sunset and Elysian Park boulevards, which accounts for most of its route between Union Station and the stadium. Once it gets to the stadium, it has its own lane into and through the parking lots, and moves along pretty well.

I'm not sure how the Dodgers could improve the situation much beyond, say, building a monorail from Union Station to the stadium -- or moving to a new stadium downtown, as some have proposed.

I took the bus to the one Dodgers game I went to in 2011, on April 15, and it was fine -- however, that game was far from being a sellout, so there was less traffic to deal with than on Opening Day (even though it was a Friday evening).

 

[fairviewroad]

Yeah, opening day is probably not the best barometer of how a system works. For those people complaining about how long the bus ride took...what makes them think their

car would have traveled any faster?