July 20 Special Olympics press conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Speaker panel included officials from Special Olympics, former L.A. City Mahyor Antonio Villaraigosa, Metro and L.A. Tourism Board

Officials commemorate 47th birthday of Special Olympics. Metro was the official transit provider of the Special Olympics World Games 2015 in July.

Metro joined Special Olympics organizers at a L.A. Convention Center press conference on Monday morning to promote the Special Olympics, which officially comes to L.A. later this week.  The Opening Ceremony will be held at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, July 25, and attendees are urged to take Metro the event, as public parking at the venue will be extremely limited.

Here’s the official press release:

Metro today announced that it is gearing up to support the 2015 Special Olympics Games in Los Angeles, offering safe, frequent and reliable transit services and support to the half million spectators expected to attend the weeklong series of events July 25 to August 2.

Metro is the official transit provider for the Special Olympics World Games and, with 87 miles of rail service and more than 2,200 buses, can help keep the region moving efficiently during the games. Metro provides transit services to all major Special Olympics sports venues including UCLA, USC and Memorial Coliseum, L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Live, Long Beach Marina and Balboa Sports Center.

For the Opening Ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Colesium Saturday, July 25, Metro will be providing expanded service. With approximately 60,000 spectators from all over the world expected to attend the opening ceremony, Metro will be offering enhanced capacity on the Metro Expo Line, with trains that allow Metro to move several hundred people per trip, per direction. Spectators can exit the Expo Line at Expo Park/USC Station and take a short walk to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum close by.

Metro also will provide additional service on Metro Bus Lines 204 and 754 that run along Vermont Avenue to get attendees to the opening ceremony. Additional service will also be provided on the Metro Silver Line from South Bay to El Monte.

Metro will provide extended, late-night service on its rail lines and Metro Orange Line until 2 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, for the opening ceremony. Late-night service will also be provided on Friday, July 31, and Saturday, August 1.

To better assist spectators using Metro Rail, Metro will be deploying additional transportation and maintenance operations staff, safety ambassadors, mobile fare collectors, security officers and customer service personnel. Metro’s customer information center also will offer extended hours for those who need assistance with trip planning services to the games.

Spectators interested in seeing Los Angeles’ world-class destinations via Metro while they’re in town can take advantage of special Destination Discounts available to Metro transit customers. For a listing of participating destinations, please visit metro.net/discounts.

Metro also ensures that its transit services are fully accessible to all customers including those with disabilities. The agency is the primary funding source for Access Services, the federally-required ADA paratransit service provider for Los Angeles County. Metro will coordinate with Access Services to ensure that their team is ready to support Metro patrons that need accessible transportation to the games.

Metro is also releasing an updated version of its Go Metro mobile app to coincide with the games. Among other improvements, the updated version will feature a Special Olympics Metro map highlighting stations near World Games venues and will utilize Gimbal beacons and geo-targeting technology powered by the Urban Airship platform for delivering special messages to Go Metro app users at venue-adjacent Metro stations during the games. For more information on the mobile app visit http://www.metro.net/mobile/.

Metro has produced a video promoting Metro Rail to the Special Olympics. News media interested in sharing the video on their web sites and/or social media channels can access the video here..