The free rides will be in effect between the hours of 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. on the nights and early morning hours of Dec. 24 to 25 and Dec. 31 to Jan. 1. Customers boarding a Metro Bus, including the Metro Orange and Silver Lines, or the Metro Red, Purple, Blue, Expo, Green or Gold rail lines during the designated hours will receive a free ride to their destination.
Metro Rail, Orange and Silver Lines will operate all-night service on New Year’s Eve for those staying out extra late and to encourage easy travel to the Rose Parade in Pasadena. However, free fares only apply until 2 a.m. Those traveling after 2 a.m. will need to TAP to ride. Metro Day Passes are valid until 3 a.m.
Metro will operate on a Sunday/Holiday schedule Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, both of which fall on a Thursday this year. This means bus lines without Sunday service will not operate on those days. Enhanced Metro Rail service will be provided for Grand Park’s New Year’s Eve event and for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena. We’ll have more specific details on holiday service throughout the next few weeks.
Categories: Go Metro
[…] All Metro buses and trains, including the Orange and Silver Lines, will be running all night into the wee hours of the morning and are FREE from 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. After 2:00 a.m., you’ll have to TAP to ride. Metro Day Passes are valid until 3 a.m. Enhanced Metro Rail service will be provided for Grand Park’s New Year’s Eve event and for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena. […]
Maybe Mythmas should be banned again, as it was for a few hundred years from the civil war to the 19th century, just to give everyone a break. Lots of turkeys and chickens will be happier too and may die happily from natural causes in their old age. Whatever. Have a happy Saturnalia!
I will add my $0.02 about the New Year’s schedule too. At least the Metro Rail and the busses like the 780, 180, 485, etc. that feed into Pasadena need to run all night. The use of public transit for the Rose Parade is a very good thing. I have been regaled repeatedly with accounts of the days of the Pacific Electric and the Rose Parade (by those that lived near the route back in the 1940’s). There were dozens and dozens of extra cars positioned, on various lines) for the outbound run after the parade. And they left -full-, car after car. If there were extra Gold Line 3 car trains ready (borrwing stock from other lines and running 2 or 3 minute headways) and extra Rapids ready for the 780, and maybe even 2 special lines that ran to El Monte Station and the Orange line direct (running from the east and west ends of the parade route on Colorado, respectively), this would be a great thing. People would see the benefits of public transit.
The cost of December transit passes should be reduced by the value of 2 days of rides. If non-regular riders are getting 2 evenings of free rides, it is only fair to give regular riders free rides on those days also. I don’t have a problem with free rides for the other people, but the regular riders should share in the benefit. Metro’s management and board of directors members are inconsiderate for ignoring us.
Why the 2 AM cutoff of New Year’s Eve? Does Metro not understand that most bars, clubs and events extend beyond 2 AM on New Years Eve? Why not go all the way and actually discourage drunk driving by making transit free until at least 3 or 4 AM?
I agree that giving people free rides on New Years’ is more important than on Christmas Eve. While it’s a nice touch to get people to evening celebrations at churches and with families, ridership on Christmas Eve has got to be one of the lowest hours for all Metro service since almost every store and most businesses are closed. I would take the five hours of Christmas Eve free service and add it to New Years’ to make it from 6 pm to 4 am.
The 2 am cutoff on NY Day just doesn’t make sense! Bars and clubs close at 2 am (if not later). By the time you get your coat, get a sidewalk bacon-wrapped dog, say bye to your friends and walk over the a metro stop, it’s way after 3 am. METRO, just once can give a present to us on this very dangerous day of driving and waive fares for 24 hours to encourage public transit?