Metro Rail A Line

$1.75 gets you from Long Beach to downtown LA by rail

From Terminal 1 at LGB, the Metro Rail A Line is the cheap, traffic-proof way into downtown Los Angeles and along the Long Beach–DTLA corridor, as long as you’re fine adding a short hop to the nearest station. The base fare is $1.75 with free transfers for up to 2 hours on a TAP card, and trains run every 10–15 minutes most of the day.

There is no station at the airport, so you first need a 10–15 minute ride to Wardlow, Willow, or Downtown Long Beach Station, which sit roughly 3–5 miles from LGB. Figure a $10–$20 rideshare or an LBT bus ride depending on time of day and traffic on Lakewood Boulevard or Wardlow Road.

From Downtown Long Beach Station to downtown LA’s 7th St/Metro Center, regulars quote “about an hour, give or take,” even though the distance is only around 25 miles. The line is older, mostly at street level, and stops repeatedly through Compton, Willowbrook, and South LA, so door-to-door from LGB to DTLA usually lands in the 70–90 minute range once you add the airport transfer.

Trains typically run every 10–15 minutes during daytime and early evening, but riders on r/LosAngeles flag that headways can stretch to roughly 20 minutes late at night. That means missing a train at, say, Willow Station after a 10:30 p.m. arrival can easily add half an hour of platform time to an already long ride.

The fare is fixed at $1.75 per trip with a TAP card bought at any station vending machine, which takes cards and cash and adds a $2 one-time card cost. Compared to a $60–$90 rideshare from LGB to downtown LA in traffic, the math tilts hard toward rail if you’re solo and not racing the clock.

Locals complain the A Line can feel crowded at peak hours and less comfortable later at night, especially with bags. Some regulars try to board at Downtown Long Beach, the southern terminal, heading north so they can grab a seat before the train fills toward DTLA around 7–9 a.m. and 4–6 p.m.

To use it from the airport, the simple play is: grab a rideshare or Long Beach Transit bus from LGB to Downtown Long Beach Station, tap onto the A Line toward APU/Citrus or 7th St/Metro Center, and ride it straight into central LA. If you’re landing after about 9:30 p.m., check real-time departures in a transit app before you leave the terminal so you’re not stuck waiting on a quiet platform with luggage.