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ChineseFlyAway, all the way
As of late I’ve been addicted to a show on the Discovery Channel called “The Deadliest Catch.” It’s about the Alaskan fisherman that risk life and limb for the jackpot of money that is Alaskan King and Opilio crab. However, sometimes luck isn’t always on their side and the pots dropped into the freezing water below don’t produce the prized crab of Bristol Bay. The deckhands and captain alike grow weary and frustrated as they wonder what they did wrong. This is how I felt Sunday afternoon when I took my first FlyAway ride from LAX to Union Station and little Rosalie our driver must have felt like Jeff, Captain of the Billikin, when gates kept coming up empty and our ship left for Union Station with just nine crabs to count. Just nine.
I couldn’t and still can’t believe it. Nine. NINE. LAX is one of the busiest airports in the world and yet its city created and sponsored shuttle to the heart of LA’s transit system is an empty pot of frozen water with some chopped up herring. At three dollars a person the trip made a grand total of twenty-seven dollars!! What the hell is wrong with this city? Or is it even the people’s faults? I was going to take it no matter what, whether it was absurdly out of the way and long or expensive or dirty or whatever (as you may have already figured out from previous posts and comments I’m extremely pro public transit, zealous about it in away) but it wasn’t any of these things. Instead, it was the best commute to the airport I’ve ever had, aside from expensive private car services that work pays for. But it wasn’t even that far off. It may not be a pimped out town car and driver with creative facial hair, a squeaky clean bald head, and a penchant for winking at you, but its a damn plush coach bus with nice seats, leg room and air condition, and Rosalia takes your bags just as good as Garabed could ever do (and without all the winking). Furthermore, the FlyAway pick up was easy to find, exactly on time, and it took just 30 minutes to get to Union Station. A redline train later and I was walking in my neighborhood an hour after I first got on the bus at Terminal 1.
I guess this post is a mixture of two things. Promotion and confusion. The FlyAway is great and yet it seems no one knows about it. Why? And what can be done to make sure it doesn’t get canceled because of lack of rider ship?
Discussion
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The trick is to do a better job of promoting all that parking underneath Union Station. At $6 a day for parking that is better than anything within five miles of the airport. If you’re from the San Gabriel Valley, Glendale, or the Eastside, Union Station is extremely convenient for both drivers and transit riders.
I took the Flyaway about a month ago for a flight to NYC. My flight was early (7AM on a Friday morning. I took the Red Line from Hollywood/Western to Union Station. I was cutting it a little bit close because the Red Line doesn’t start running until 4:40AM and I wanted to get there at least an hour and half in advance. Through an idiotic move on my part I missed the first train to Union Station (out of habit I waited for the train on the NoHo side and only once the Union Station train passed did I realize my mistake) and had to wait 12 minutes for the next one. Got to Union Station in time to catch the 5:30AM FlyAway which departed right on schedule. Unfortunately, like Tyke mentioned, there were only about 5 passengers on at that time. I was amazed at what a nice bus it was, expecting a more typical city bus. The awesome driver got us to LAX in exactly 25 minutes so I made it with just over an hour to spare, not ideal, but I caught my plane.
Interestingly, we decided to take NYC Public Transit to JFK in New York and it was definately not as good of an experience as the fly away. Had to take a really long and crowded subway ride to Queens and then wait in a long ass line for a city bus that stopped at every block. Apparently we could have transfered from the subway to an airport monorail or something, but we failed to do that. All in all, the FlyAway was a much better experience.
To me the FlyAway represents a great opportunity for public trans in LA, and a great service to the people of Los Angeles. Driving to LAX is often a nightmare, taxi cabs are usually exremely expensive ($60 to Hollywood), SuperShuttles are expensive and you may as well ride a bus, and as Hank said, parking is expensive. People of LA, please take advantage of this great service. At the very least try it once.
My Flyaway experience was the same, just a few riders on a clean quiet b-word. I say hold back the rage Tyke, it’s a new service. I bet within a year you’ll be begging for a seat on that bus, esp when the LAX renovation starts.
Flyaway is owned and operated by the Airport (Los Angeles World Airports), so that’s why the bus was nicer than your usual city bus. They purchased only a few buses for the route so I suppose they were able to afford a much nicer vehicle which is really a typical “long distance coach” with soft seats. Although it’s operated by the airport, MTA is still promoting it; I’ve seen newspaper ads and placards in the subway cars hyping it.
MTA is partly funding the Union Station FlyAway. The first FlyAway is an operation between the Van Nuys Airport and LAX, and is very successful.
Los Angeles World Airports wants to expand the FlyAway network, and the Union Station is a trial demonstration to see if it can work outside the Valley run.
FlyAway is a service of the airport, not owned by it. The buses are owned and operated under contract by Coach USA.
Bottom line, it’s a great service. And i know its early in its life, but it makes me nervous when the busses are as empty as they are. hopefully the word gets out and the union station flyaway becomes as successful as the van nuys flyaway is.
The service will really take off if a secondary market emerges for commuters. Getting between downtown and LAX (a gateway to both the South Bay and the Westside) that quickly might appeal to commuters as well as the occasional traveler.
I actually favor a regional FlyAway service over a Metrolink or Metro Rail service directly to the airport. Even though it’s a bus, the buses can at least get you right to your terminal. A rail line would require a people mover or some other vehicle where you’d still need to transfer. Also, a FlyAway service can start up in a very short time (months to years), since Coach USA has several idle buses it can put to good use. Not only that, but building FlyAway terminals around Southern California would qualify the service for Homeland Security money if LAWA chooses to allow remote check-in at the outlying terminals. This would give flyers another incentive to take the buses to the airport.
Tyke, you are the man. To incorporate the “The Deadliest Catch” into a promotional blog about “Flyaway” tells me you must work for a media magnate!
Sorry, I didn’t leave my name.
dude, deadliest catch is sweet.
dude. it is.
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