The main concourse of Union Station, Los Angeles’ central rail and transit hub, sure holds up. Yes, a recent refurbishment has helped the building, but even without that, there is no visit here that would conclude with any thought other than: “yeah, that’s a beautiful station.” Inlaid floors, painted floral vaulted ceilings, walnut furnishings, and polished metal come together in this mission-style architectural gem to perfection, and while its days of propelling thousands of eager passengers around the country are over – as are the days of American passenger rail, at least for now – Union Station still plays a central role in all things transit here in the City of Angels.

Union Station was constructed in 1939 – meaning it just celebrated its 85th birthday – and designed by the famed father-son Parkinsons, who also are responsible for Los Angeles landmarks like City Hall and the LA Memorial Coliseum (click here to read about the Coliseum). It is said that the festivities around the opening attracted the who’s who of California and, well, some things just never change. Union Station has been in more films than most actors, hosted the Academy Awards as recently as 2021, and is as much a part of the Hollywood fabric as any other spot in a city full of them.

Union Station sits in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, just east of the financial district, and across the street from Olvera Street, where LA began. (Click here to read about Olvera Street.) Easily visible by its clock tower, currently done up for the holidays as of this writing, the building itself is easy to explore as a part of just about any downtown itinerary, especially when you consider its centrality to modern Los Angeles’ transit system.

Yes, LA has a transit system. I realize this city is best known for its hundreds of thousands of cars seemingly parked in bumper to bumper traffic, a reputation that is rightly and justly earned. But did you know that Los Angeles has bus, light rail, heavy rail, and subway lines? Well, it does, and here at Union Station, many of those meet. (LA is also building transit at a faster rate than just about any city in the country. It’s just a huge area with a population of people who have been brought up needing to drive everywhere, so it takes time to both construct an appropriate system and convince people to use it. We will get there.)

So today, let’s explore Union Station and the Los Angeles transit system, moving around the building as we jump between vehicle types.

If you fly into LAX and want to head downtown, the best way is the Flyaway Bus, a service that offers regular – and affordable – connection between the airport and a few different locations in the city. Taking it here means arriving at Union Station’s bus plaza on the eastern side of the station. This is a newer section, and transiting a tunnel beneath the tracks is necessary to reach the station proper. But here also, the building is stunning, with a semi-dome and magnificent mural depicting some of the diversity of the city.

If you are taking buses around LA via its literally hundreds of routes on clean-air vehicles, this is where you’re likely to end up if you connect to Union Station. Los Angeles once had one of the most vibrant tram networks around, but the so-called Red Car, the largest electric rail system in the world in the 1920s, was dismantled in subsequent decades, due largely to pressure applied to public entities by auto and gasoline companies. So growing up here in the 1980s, the bus was all LA really had.

That changed in 1990, when the first “new” light rail line opened, the Blue Line (now part of Metro’s A Line). The A Line still stops here at Union Station on its way from Long Beach to Azusa (and soon beyond), and as we walk through the tunnel under the heavy rail tracks, we can find stairs to that platform.

Today, Metro operates four light rail lines, though only the A Line stops here. (A recent realignment through downtown means the E Line skirts Union Station as it travels between East Los Angeles and Santa Monica.) These light rail lines, more of which are under construction or in the planning phases, form the backbone of long distance transit within LA proper, as one will sit on the A Line for well over an hour to ride it from end to end. Remember, Los Angeles is big!

In addition, there are two heavier rail subway lines that are part of the Metro network, the B and D Lines, both of which stop here at Union Station on a platform down below the concourse level. This is one terminus for both lines, with the B Line traveling to North Hollywood and the D Line to West LA, and soon all the way to Westwood and UCLA. (There are also two BRT – bus rapid transit – lines in the network, the G and J Lines, helping to connect communities that are not currently on the rail networks.)

Metro is a fairly easy system to use. Riders purchase a TAP Card, load it with money at a machine, and simply tap it on a reader before entering a platform or upon getting onto a bus. For $1.75 including transfers for 90 minutes, it is a great deal. Just remember to tap again each time you transfer so the system is aware you did so, even though you won’t be charged a second time within that hour and a half window.

Of course, while the active platforms make up the current practical utility of the building, the highlight of Union Station is the concourse and its adjoining ticket plaza. Walking into these areas immediately reminds you why Union Station is known as the “last great rail station.” It is elegant, with subtle nods to both the era of luxury rail travel and the city around it. We look up and we look down, noting both the inlaid stone floors and the painted ceilings, as well as the myriad of colored tiles between. These touches are understated compared to some of the Baroque rail masterpieces of Europe, but seem totally at home here in Los Angeles.

The floor plan is open, one huge room and a side area that I referred to as the ticket plaza. Furnishings here are mainly original, done in walnut. Note the plush waiting areas (only open to heavy rail passengers awaiting departure), information booth, and the huge ticket counter. The dark wood feels at home between the stone flooring and floral ceilings.

And oh, the brass chandeliers. Each is more than ten feet across, and each is also original to the building. As are the metalwork grates, window embellishments, and doors.

At one time, Los Angeles’ Union Station would have hosted dozens of long distance trains per day. Today, Amtrak runs service from here up and down the Pacific Coast as well as to Chicago. But the majority of departures are for Metrolink, a heavy rail service that connects Union Station to the Los Angeles suburbs (as far as Orange County and San Bernardino), with stops between.

Los Angeles definitely gets the – deserved – reputation of being a city built for drivers and cars. Union Station is a reminder that this wasn’t always the case. And if Metro and Metrolink (and the literally dozens of other bus systems operated by other cities within the LA metro area) continue to grow as they have been, it might not always be the case. Los Angeles can be a transit city. But no matter if you are a driver or a Metro rider, Union Station will capture your heart. Stop in for a visit, for a happy hour drink at Traxx (the ghost pepper margarita is amazing), or connect to the transit system. Admire the beauty, and appreciate the effort it takes to create a world-class station.

Like it? Pin it!