Los Angeles has long carried a reputation as a city hopelessly wedded to the automobile, where traffic is a daily grind and public transit is treated as an afterthought or a punch line. Trains that seem to go nowhere, crowded buses, confusing transfers, and a rail system that famously stops just short of the airport have all fed that narrative for decades.
So when the FIFA World Cup arrived in Los Angeles this year, plenty of skeptics assumed the region’s transit network would buckle under the pressure — and that the 2028 Olympics would be an even bigger disaster waiting to happen.
That’s not quite how it played out. The World Cup came and went without the transit meltdown many predicted. Trains actually connected where they were supposed to. And a system that has frustrated commuters for generations is finally starting to show real signs of maturing into something functional.
Whether Los Angeles’ buses, shuttles and rail lines can handle the far greater test of the Olympics remains an open question, and the stakes are high. A smooth Games could cement LA’s reputation on the world stage and hand a political win to both the governor and the mayor. A stumble, on the other hand, could turn into an international embarrassment for the city and the state.
The good news is that Los Angeles didn’t start from scratch. The push to modernize and expand the region’s transit system has unfolded over decades, drawing on local, state and federal cooperation. But no single figure did more to drive that transformation than former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who led the city from 2005 to 2013.
Villaraigosa wasn’t known as a transit wonk when he took office. A former labor organizer, his political identity was built around social justice, not subway maps. But he came to view public transportation as a tool for stitching together a famously fragmented city, and he used the power of his office to secure funding and push projects forward.
Ever the dealmaker, Villaraigosa worked every angle available to him. He convinced voters to pass Measure R in 2008, a 30-year, half-cent sales tax expected to generate roughly $36 billion for transit improvements over its lifespan.
Even that enormous sum wasn’t enough to cover everything Los Angeles needed, so Villaraigosa brought together labor unions and business leaders to lobby Congress for a new approach — one that would reward local governments willing to raise their own money with matching federal support. That effort led to the creation of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, known as TIFIA, along with the America Fast Forward program, both of which funneled federal dollars to cities demonstrating their own financial commitment to transit.
These days, Villaraigosa finds himself on the periphery of the political spotlight he once commanded so easily. He finished well behind in June’s gubernatorial primary, losing out to Xavier Becerra — the same rival he beat decisively in the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race. Political fortunes shift, and after several years away from elected office, Villaraigosa struggled to break through in a crowded field of candidates.
Still, his enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed. In a recent conversation, he ran through his transit accomplishments with the same energetic mix of statistics and storytelling that has always defined him. Asked about the state of transportation in Los Angeles, he launched into a detailed recounting of battles won, deals struck and political relationships carefully managed.
He recalled, for instance, breaking through the federal ban on tunneling through parts of the city with underground methane deposits — a restriction that had stalled transit expansion for years and put him at odds with then-Congressman 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 matter of financing. According to Villaraigosa, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein was initially cool to the idea of a new federal funding mechanism, while Sen. Barbara Boxer was far more receptive. He worked closely with Boxer, and eventually Feinstein came around after what he described as some friendly persistence.
“We had pickets outside her office,” he recalled, clearly still amused by the memory.
Congress ultimately approved both TIFIA and America Fast Forward, and the funding began flowing into Los Angeles. Projects that had been stuck on the drawing board started breaking ground. The Gold Line extension, running from downtown into the eastern part of the city, broke ground in 2009, with Villaraigosa famously posing in the conductor’s seat.
The Foothill Extension came next, pushing the rail line through the San Gabriel Valley. Today known as the A Line, it runs through Pasadena, Arcadia and Azusa, with further eastward expansion still planned.
That opened up the eastern part of the region, but Los Angeles remained a sprawling puzzle with major gaps. The Crenshaw Line, which opened in 2022, cut through South Los Angeles neighborhoods and brought new energy to businesses along its route.
Meanwhile, construction along Wilshire Boulevard — long blocked by that same federal restriction on methane-prone areas — has finally paid off. This spring, LA Metro opened four new stations along the boulevard, linking Koreatown to the Westside and giving Dodger fans in that part of the city a direct rail route to games.
That particular stretch of track took 65 years to complete, made possible only after Villaraigosa’s work with Waxman cleared the way. When it opened, the Los Angeles Times quoted transit experts calling it a “landmark achievement in L.A. public transit history.”
Even then, the network had holes, particularly downtown, where separate lines came agonizingly close without actually connecting. The Regional Connector filled that gap when it opened in 2023, allowing riders to travel from Azusa all the way to Long Beach, and from the eastern edge of the city to the westside, without having to switch systems entirely.
Villaraigosa looks back on that era with obvious pride. “It was a war,” he said — though he meant it as praise, not complaint.
None of this has completely solved Los Angeles’ transit challenges. Ridership collapsed during the pandemic and has been slow to recover. Immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration have further discouraged some riders. And any high-profile crime aboard a bus or train still sends a ripple of anxiety through the system.
But this summer’s World Cup offered a genuine stress test, and the region’s transit network largely passed. Ridership climbed by 2.4 million trips in June compared with the same month last year, with the biggest surges recorded on lines serving stadiums before and after matches. Metro reported no security incidents connected to the tournament.
The Olympics will demand far more. Visitors will pour in from around the globe for a compressed 16-day stretch of competition spread across dozens of venues throughout the region. Someone hoping to catch an event in Carson, another in Long Beach and a third in Pasadena will have little choice but to rely on public transit, since parking near many venues will be extremely limited.
Mayor Karen Bass has framed the Olympics as a chance for Los Angeles’ transit system to prove itself on the world stage. But there’s still work to do before the Games arrive. Metro needs to bring on a large fleet of specialized buses, and several rail lines still require finishing touches.
Perhaps most glaring is the fact that travelers landing at LAX still can’t hop directly onto a train — a gap that has frustrated transit planners for years. But even on that front, progress is finally visible. Empty automated people-mover cars are now making test runs around the airport as engineers work out the system’s kinks. Bass has promised it will be operational well ahead of the Olympics, and Villaraigosa is confident she’s right.
“It’ll go to the airport,” he said, “finally.”
Original source: CalMatters
