The World Cup was an L.A. public transit success. The Olympics will be a much bigger test

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Set us as preferred Two years from now, the Olympics will have just wrapped up with the Paralympics on the horizon.Spectators will know which countries dominated, what athletes made history and, perhaps the biggest question of all, how everyone handled the traffic.Local leaders have pointed to the success of public transit in Los Angeles during the World Cup — a significant, albeit much smaller test run ahead of the 2028 Games — as a sign for what’s to come.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, now Metro’s chair, declared the city ready to host this massive undertaking.But years-long plans to prepare the sprawling county for hundreds of back-to-back events over several weeks are still far from complete.“It’s something that can be done very quickly.

But the track record of the city of Los Angeles makes me strongly question their ability to do things quickly,” said Juan Matute, deputy director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies.The World Cup was widely considered a success for public transit throughout the country.In Los Angeles, fans poured into Metro stations and onto buses to get to SoFi Stadium and watch parties and more than 212,000 rides were taken on the enhanced bus service, the agency said.

During the Iran vs.New Zealand game, for example, Metro said rides on the K Line and C Line — those closest to SoFi Stadium — were up 41% and 23% respectively compared to a typical Monday.At a recent state of the agency address, Metro Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins touted Metro’s World Cup numbers.

There were zero security incidents during the games, Wiggins said, and June ridership was over 26 million total, up 2.4 million from last June.She credited the spike largely to World Cup travel and the much-anticipated opening of several D Line stations along Wilshire Boulevard, but June 2025 was also the a...