LA Metro’s ultimatum: no extra buses for LA28 if federal funding isn’t imminently secured

LA Metro has spent years pleading for the federal government to issue $2 billion to support public transportation and temporarily double L.A.’s bus fleet during the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics. With the Games looming and no federal funding in sight, LA Metro is now saying that if the government can’t guarantee the money by the end of 2026, the transportation agency won’t provide any extra buses — leaving LA28, the Olympics organizing committee, to figure out a different way to accommodate Olympic and Paralympic traffic. 

LAist reports:

LA28 also does not appear to be ready to pay for a temporary bus system, should federal funding never arrive. Its $7.1 billion budget does not include a line item for transit. This in turn puts the city of L.A. at risk because Los Angeles is the financial backstop for the Games. L.A. and the state of California will cover cost overruns from the Olympics and Paralympics, should they occur.

Metro’s enhanced bus service is “seen as the cornerstone of the region’s strategy to get people around Los Angeles during the summer of 2028,” Libby Rainey and Kavish Harjai write for LAist. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover told LAist that a bus program for the Olympics would be a part of the Games "one way or another in some scale or form."