After many years of waiting, the first segment of the K Line is opening to the public at noon on Friday, October 7.  

The entire Metro bus, rail and bike system will be free from Friday through Sunday, Oct. 9, to celebrate our newly expanded transit network and show everyone the many places that are easy-to-reach via Metro.  

Among some of the big events you can ride free to this weekend: USC football at the Coliseum on Saturday night, Rams-Cowboys at SoFi on Sunday, CicLAvia in downtown L.A. on Sunday and the LAFC-Nashville match on Sunday at Banc of California Stadium in Exposition Park.  

And, of course, you can ride Metro free to the K Line corridor if you would like to take the new train for a spin.  

We’re very excited to finally get riders on board your new train. 

There has been talk about improving or restoring rail transit to the Crenshaw Corridor since the late 1940s. That is not a misprint. The K Line is finally happening because L.A. County voters in 2008 approved a half-cent sales tax (Measure R) to fund many projects, the K Line included.  

The K Line’s first segment to open serves the Crenshaw Corridor, Inglewood and Westchester. The K Line will speed up transit, add capacity to our system and will be a key first step toward a rail corridor that will one day stretch from Torrance to LAX to the Crenshaw Corridor to West Hollywood and Hollywood. More below on that.  

We know there’s a ton of interest among readers about the K Line and opening weekend, so let’s get straight to it:  

•On Friday, we’re opening the first seven stations of the K Line — between Expo/Crenshaw Station and Westchester/Veterans Station. Trains on the K Line will begin running around noon. You can board trains at any of the K Line’s seven new stations. As with other rail openings we’ve had, there may be lines on opening weekend — especially when service begins Friday. 

•There will be a public celebration — The K Line Fest at Leimert Park Plaza — from noon to 6 p.m. on Friday that will include live music and dance from noteworthy local artists, food and booths with information from a variety of agencies and  organizations, including Metro. Click here for the stage line-up. 

•A new commemorative K Line TAP card will be available for purchase for $2 starting Friday at TAP vending machines at the seven K Line stations and Metro Customer Centers. Here’s the design at right.

•The easiest way to reach the K Line via transit is to take the E Line, our light rail line that runs between downtown Los Angeles and downtown Santa Monica. Metro Bus Lines that connect to the K Line will include Lines 40, 108, 111 and 210. To plan your transit trip, we recommend using the Transit app for smartphones or the trip planner on metro.net. 

•There will be a shuttle bus running between the K Line’s Westchester/Veterans Station and the C Line’s Aviation Station. The shuttle bus will begin service Oct. 7 and run duringK Line service hours. Riders can catch a shuttle to LAX terminals from the C Line’s Aviation Station.  

•The K Line will run every 10 minutes during weekday peak hours, every 12 minutes during off-peak weekday hours and weekend days and every 20 minutes in early mornings and evenings after 8 p.m. Here’s the schedule. Note: the K Line will run every 10 minutes all-day servicefor opening weekend; the normal schedule will begin Monday, Oct. 10.

•To ride Metro Bike free this weekend, select 1-ride and use code 100722 at Metro Bike stations.

•We will be running a shuttle bus between the K Line and SoFi Stadium for Rams and Chargers games beginning later this NFL season, as well as for the College Football National Championship game at SoFi on Jan. 9, 2023. We’ll continue to run the SoFi shuttle between the C Line’s Hawthorne/Lennox Station and SoFi for every Rams and Chargers game. We’ll let everyone know via this blog and Metro’s social media when the K Line’s SoFi shuttle begins service. 

•Looking beyond this coming weekend, the K Line is a great way to get to the extremely popular Taste of Soul on Saturday, Oct. 15, which takes place between Barack Obama Boulevard and Stocker Street. Taste of Soul attracts many thousands of people and the K Line is an easy way to reach the festival without the hassles of traffic and parking. Use the K Line’s Expo/Crenshaw, Martin Luther King Jr. or Leimert Park stations or the E (Expo) Line’s Expo/Crenshaw Station.

We want to emphasize: this is the first K Line segment to open. We’re not done!

The K Line’s Aviation/Century Station is expected to open in 2023 along with a rail connection to the C (Green) Line.

The LAX/Metro Transit Center Station along the new K Line tracks is under construction — at Aviation and 96th — and is planned to open in 2024. That station will serve as the transfer point between the Metro system and the LAX Automated People Mover that will take riders to and from airport terminals.

The building of that station involves work along the new K Line tracks — the reason why we’re not opening the K Line to Aviation/Century and the C Line at this time. We want to keep workers safe and we want to get the work done as quickly as possible. 

This segment of the K Line is the first step in a much longer north-south rail corridor. The extension of the C Line to Torrance is in the environmental study phase, as is an extension of the K Line north to Wilshire Boulevard and the D Line, West Hollywood and the B Line in Hollywood. These are longer range projects. But both already have hundreds of millions of dollars of local funding thanks to sales tax measures approved by L.A. County voters in 2008 and ’16. 

The K Line helped Metro pioneer three key programs that are now here to stay. Our Business Interruption Fund and Business Solutions Center helped local businesses during construction — and will be deployed to other Metro transit projects. Similarly, our Project Labor Agreement helped local workers get jobs building the K Line, providing many a pathway to a new career.

Finally, this: we broke ground on the K Line in 2014 and we know that construction of this $2.2-billion project has been a slog, as is often the case for major infrastructure projects.  

We cannot thank enough the residents and businesses along the rail line for their patience, support and oversight of this project. In the days and decades ahead, the K Line will carry tens  of millions of people. Not only will the rail line better connect our region, but it will better our region to the world via LAX.  

Please join us in celebrating this victory for Southern California. We can’t wait to see everyone on board.