Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Petaluma North station at 320 Corona Road. Trains began stopping at the new station after the ceremony, and a schedule change will occur the following Monday, January 13.
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SoCal’s full weekend Amtrak and regional rail shutdown
This upcoming weekend (Jan 11-12, 2025), Amtrak Surfliner will shut down completely to accommodate track construction in different counties. Additionally, Metrolink will suspend service on the Ventura County, Orange County, and Inland Empire-Orange County lines, which share tracks with Amtrak Surfliner along parts of the corridor. At the south end, Coaster service will also be suspended. Coast Starlight trains, which travel along the entire West Coast, will have service temporarily truncated at Emeryville.
No bus bridge will be provided by any agency for any segment. Although options are available on certain parts of the corridor, traveling longer distances will be difficult. Between San Diego and Los Angeles, intercity buses like Flixbus/Greyhound, or other providers are options. Along the Central Coast, Flixbus offers two trips, along with intercity buses serving LAX.
The Amtrak San Joaquins offer a connection between Northern and Southern California through the Central Valley. Buses connect with trains at Bakersfield to various parts of Southern California.
Local transit provides an alternative for shorter distances, generally within a county. Metro bus service is available at Amtrak and Metrolink stops north of Los Angeles in LA County. Metro Route 161 connects the Metro G Line’s Canoga Station with Thousand Oaks. The VCTC Hwy 101 bus runs from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard on Saturdays.
Metro Route 460 connects Downtown Los Angeles with Disneyland. Riverside Transit Agency’s Route 200 links San Bernardino, Riverside, and Disneyland. OCTA’s Route 90 runs parallel, though not adjacent, to Amtrak and Metrolink between Tustin and Capistrano Beach. NCTD’s bus route 101 also parallels Amtrak and Coaster between Oceanside and UCSD, with a transfer to the San Diego Trolley for Downtown San Diego. Weekend local transit, however, does not exist between Oceanside and Orange County.
SoCal Transit services impacted by wildfires
Damages caused by high winds and wildfires in various parts of the Los Angeles region are impacting services.
Buses into Palisades area:
- Metro Bus Lines 134 and 602, and Big Blue Bus Line 9 are cancelled.
- Big Blue Bus Line 14, 15 is suspended north of Montana Ave. Line 43 will not serve stops north of Montana Ave, detours at 26th & Montana.
- No Topanga Beach Bus service until further notice.
Buses into Altadena/Pasadena:
- Limited area for Metro Micro, no service north of Washington for Metro 660, 662.
- Pasadena Transit route 32 remain suspended until further notice. No service north of Washington Blvd.
Check with Metro, Big Blue Bus, Pasadena Transit, and LA County Public Works for latest updates as situation changes. Fares are suspended for Santa Monica, Pasadena Transit, and Metro until further notice.
City of Gardena’s GTrans to formally discontinue bus to Downtown LA
For many years, several non-Metro bus agencies in Los Angeles County operated buses from their respective areas to Downtown LA, particularly those without Metro Rail service. Gardena was one of them. Its downtown bus (1X) also directly served Little Tokyo, connecting the Japanese American communities in Gardena and Los Angeles.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, GTrans temporarily cut the route to terminate at Harbor Freeway Station due to falling ridership and a reduced transit workforce. Riders could continue to Los Angeles via the Metro J (Silver) line. However, the line was still officially supposed to serve Downtown Los Angeles. This weekend’s service change will make the temporary change permanent.
1X used to serve Downtown LA seven days a week, but weekend service has been limited to Harbor Freeway Station since 2012. Weekday peak hour service to Los Angeles was available until March 2020. GTrans, like many other transit agencies, is slow to recover peak hour office worker ridership.
Its larger neighbor to the south, Torrance Transit, still operates a bus to Downtown Los Angeles six days a week.
Review of 2024. Looking ahead to 2025
Looking back, 2024 has been a year of significant change. The “face” of both BART and Caltrain transformed as BART fully retired its two-door legacy fleet, and Caltrain introduced electric trainsets while retiring its gallery cars. In Seattle, the Link system added a new line connecting Redmond and Bellevue and expanded northward from Northgate to Lynnwood, replacing many express buses serving Seattle from Snohomish County. In Los Angeles, Metro recently introduced new metro cars made by CRRC for the B and D lines, as the first phase of D line extensions further west is nearly complete. Many transit agencies saw improved ridership as more workers returned to the office, and more services were restored as additional transit workers were hired.
Next year, both Muni and BART will raise fares, and the tolls for Bay Area Toll Authority bridges will increase by $1. BART will begin installing the CBTC system, which will enhance capacity but requires service adjustments. As a result, Millbrae riders will need to transfer between trains at SFO in the evening. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will open Petaluma North Station soon after the new year and extend northward to Windsor sometime in 2025.
In Sacramento, the SmaRT Ride microtransit will be transformed into a different program with fewer vehicles, a reduced budget, and limited eligibility.
In Seattle, Link Line 2 is expected to connect South Bellevue to Seattle across Lake Washington once the I-90 track re-work, which delayed the project, is complete.
LA Metro is also expected to open the LAX Metro Center and the first phase of the D Line extension to Wilshire/La Cienega sometime next year. The D Line extension is significant due to the high bus ridership on Wilshire and the speed improvements a new subway line will bring.
However, 2025 is worrisome, given the increasingly chaotic political climate and the hostility towards transit among elected and unelected decision-makers. Bay Area transit agencies will also face a fiscal cliff as ridership remains slow to return and one-time pandemic-era grants run out. Over the last few decades, Bay Area transit have seen fiscal cliffs with economic recessions (drop in tax revenues, and falling ridership with higher unemployment), but no recession has such a deep and lasting impact on transit service as COVID. Development in autonomous vehicles, backed by wealthy Silicon Valley tech bros, could impact the public’s attitude towards transit. Even if the technology is perfected, these vehicles can’t assist senior and disabled riders and do little to address traffic congestion due to the inefficiency of single-occupancy vehicles.