Culver City bus connections with the Expo Line

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With the Expo Line’s Culver City station opening at noon on Wednesday, June 20, Culver City bus has issued the above map showing bus connections from the station.

Two Culver City buses stop near the Expo Line station:

Culver City Line 1 runs along Washington Boulevard from Venice Beach in the west to Washington and Fairfax in the east.

Culver City Line 7 runs east/west from Venice & Culver to Marina del Rey primarily along Culver Blvd.

In addition, Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus has service changes going into effect June 17 in part to help with connections to the Expo Line. This includes the 12 and Super 12 line running between the Culver City station and UCLA. The entire Big Blue Bus system map is here.

Also stopping near the Culver City station are Metro’s 33 and 733 — the local and rapid bus that run along Venice Boulevard — and the 220, which runs between Culver City and the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. In addition, the 534 line stops on Venice Boulevard; the 534 runs between the Washington/Fairfax transit hub and Santa Monica and the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu.

20 replies

  1. It should be pointed out that the MTA 534 runs as a freeway express from the Culver City Expo station to Bundy, then as a local up Bundy and west on SaMoBlvd. Very handy.

  2. @Culver City person

    Most certainly describes government stupidity at its finest, ain’t it?

  3. “rather than hire more LOCAL PEOPLE to check fares and maintain order and security on the trains”

    And where are the funds to hire the extra people are going to come from? Higher taxes? Higher fares? MORE service cut backs?

    Metro isn’t a for profit enterprise; what additional long term labor cost, including benefit packages, health care, raises, etc. for years and years to come across many station and each and every additional station that gets added as the system expands, that has to be applied to do this will have to come from somewhere.

  4. You are absolutely right Mike, no one pays a fare, that’s why you never see the Ticket Vending Machines having any money taken out and why Metro takes in no money in pass sales.

    Better to send tons of money for turnstiles, faregates to a San Diego firm, who then buy their components from overseas and make the system even more user-unfriendly, rather than hire more LOCAL PEOPLE to check fares and maintain order and security on the trains. I guess the turnstile mechanics will get some work out of it.

  5. I don’t understand MTA’s de facto honor system. I’ve taken rail in Chicago, New York, Washington and Philadelphia and they all either have conductors/trainmen to check for tickets or one has to pay to enter the system. I’ve only once been asked to show my pass in LA — although I seldon ride during rush hour. Has the sheriff’s department decided that the man hour investment would not be justifed by the reveune in citations and increased compliance? Well at least they are consistent. They seldomt enforce the bans on solicitation or loud music (at least not on the Blue Line) either.

  6. @Mattapoisett
    “A note about fares: It won’t be $2 round trip from the Expo Line. You can get an Interagency Transfer. For a transfer from Metro to CC Bus, SM Big Blue, etc its 35¢ and from CC Bus to Metro, SM Big Blue it’s only 40¢. So, the fare from Venice Beach to DTLA via the CC Bus #1 and the Expo Line is only $1.40. The fare from DTLA to Venice Beach, would be $1.85”

    Thanks for explaining this as it was totally confusing for me. Bringing that to light, this really doesn’t make any sense at all.

    This is basically saying: going from Culver City to DTLA, you’re getting a better deal by using CC Bus + Expo Line since it only costs $1.40, whereas if you just ride it from the Culver City Station to DTLA using just the Expo Line, it’ll cost you $1.50.

    But, coming back the other way around, you’ll get a better deal by just getting off at the Culver City Station and walking to Culver City as it costs $1.50 instead of $1.85 for transferring from the Expo Line to the Culver City Bus.

    Now I agree that we need some sort of fare reform! This thing is too confusing. The agencies need to get together and come up with something more rationale. It makes no sense that it’s cheaper to do a CC Bus + Expo Line transfer when going into DTLA, whereas it’s cheaper to just get off at Culver City Station and walk when coming back to Culver City.

  7. The link to the Big Blue Bus system map is still the old map (it still shows the 5 continuing down Pico instead of turning south on Robertson to the Culver City station. It would be nice if Santa Monica (my fair city) would release a new map….

  8. I just realized that the construction around Venice and Robertson appears limited to nighttime hours, so perhaps the impacts on circulation around the new Culver City Station will be minimal? Will sidewalk closures also be at nighttime only? Or will those be in effect all the time?

  9. You can buy a transfer from the ticket vending machine for 35 cents and ride Culver City Bus for free from the station.

  10. A note about fares: It won’t be $2 round trip from the Expo Line. You can get an Interagency Transfer. For a transfer from Metro to CC Bus, SM Big Blue, etc its 35¢ and from CC Bus to Metro, SM Big Blue it’s only 40¢. So, the fare from Venice Beach to DTLA via the CC Bus #1 and the Expo Line is only $1.40. The fare from DTLA to Venice Beach, would be $1.85

  11. Stupid and useless honor system brings no revenue to Metro and it just cost money to operate the system. And no one is going to ride the Culver City Bus for 0.7 miles between the Culver City Station to Downtown Culver City either so people will just walk.

    Net revenue to both Metro and Culver City = close to zero. Scratch head why farebox recovery ratio still sucks. Then come back with the always the same solution = come back crying to tax payers for more of their paychecks and use the tried-and-true scare tactics of “without tax hikes, we’ll have to cut back services or raise fares!”

    That’s how government works.

  12. Expo Authority just posted a construction notice for Phase 2 work that will involve sidewalk closures and turn restrictions at and around the intersection of Venice and Robertson through September. For example, left turns will be prohibited from NB Robertson to WB Venice, and the Big Blue Bus service changes have rerouted the 12 bus along this exact path. Any word on detours (for pedestrians and drivers) during the construction?

    • Hi Nick;

      I don’t have any word yet on detours. I’ll look into it and we’ll try to post any info on bus detours in the area.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  13. comment/reply to
    Culver City person
    you forgot that a person
    can get inter-agency transfer from the ticket vend machines when they buy their ticket to ride expo
    cost is35 cent
    so you would pay $1.85
    o

  14. It should be noted: Though the CCB #1 runs fairly frequently 7 days a week, the #7 only runs once an hour weekdays 7am to 7 pm

  15. Most people riding the Metro Rail system are riding for free anyway. Don’t worry, the freeloaders will come and visit Culver City. When they think $2 roundtrip for a short ride into town or walk, they’ll walk.

  16. While I’m excited about the news about more connections at the opening of the Expo Line Culver City station, I do have a concern that the shuttle is a grand opening only thing.

    So any other days that will mean a person would have to pony up an extra $2 round trip for a short ride just to get from the station to Downtown Culver City on the Culver City Line 1 bus. I have my doubts that that’s going to attract any long term ridership numbers into Downtown Culver City.