LA Metro voted to enhance the existing shuttle bus service going to and from Dodger Stadium, calling for more dedicated bus lanes, a marketing campaign and possibly a per-ticket transit fee.

Metro also wants one more thing: For the Los Angeles Dodgers to help fund the shuttles, known as the Dodger Stadium Express. Though once funded by state and county grants, they’ve expired and Metro now pays 100% of the cost.

“I would like to see the Dodgers pay for this,” said LA County Supervisor and Metro chair Janice Hahn. The motion, led by Hahn, received unanimous support from the governing board on Thursday, June 26.

LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, a member of the Metro board, noted the Dodgers franchise can afford to kick in funds. She referred to Dodgers’ controlling owner Mark Walter and TWG Global recently buying the Los Angeles Lakers basketball franchise for $10 billion.

“Resources should not be an issue,” she said.

The Dodgers did not comment at the meeting and could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Any enhancements would require starting and sustaining a partnership between Metro and the Dodgers. Adding dedicated bus lanes to make for faster rides out of the stadium after games will need collaboration with the city of Los Angeles Department of Transportation. A report on these changes and whether the two sides start talking will come back to the board in 120 days.

A bigger issue than improving the performance of the Dodger Stadium Express is how the Metro board action affects a controversial aerial gondola project that would connect from Union Station into the ballpark’s stadium parking lots, first proposed by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LAART) project was submitted to LA Metro by  McCourt in April 2018. It received LA Metro approvals on Feb. 22, 2024. McCourt owns 50% of the parking lots at Dodger Stadium which court records show he may use for mixed-use development, including residential and retail uses; opponents say he will use the gondola as an asset for his real estate developments.

Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies (ARTT), a limited partnership that McCourt formed, was bankrolling the environmental review and preliminary design process. Last year, McCourt Global gifted the project to a new entity, Zero Emissions Transit. ZET is the nonprofit owner responsible for building, financing and operating the gondola project.

Nathan Click, spokesperson for ZET, did not answer an inquiry on the project by the Friday PM deadline.

Opponents of the gondola project have for years said Metro should add electric buses, dedicated lanes and provide more awareness to fans of the shuttle service. They view a better Dodger Stadium Express service as an alternative to the skyway transit project.

“It is already a very popular way to get there,” said Phyllis Ling, a resident of Chinatown, former chair of the Historic Cultural North Neighborhood Council, and founder of the group “Stop The Gondola.”

“By making it even better, that would show we don’t need the gondola,” Ling said on Friday in an interview.

The proposed 1.2-mile aerial tramway would transport baseball fans to Dodger Stadium via sky-high gondolas above Chinatown and other neighborhoods in northeast Los Angeles in a 7-minute ride. Residents said seeing gondolas over their backyards would be an eyesore and presents a danger in case of an accident. Cars would park in their neighborhoods to reach gondola stations, causing more traffic.

The gondolas would take passengers over Chinatown, Solano Canyon, El Pueblo and Chavez Ravine on overhead buckets that accommodate 30-40 passengers. The project would include three stations with 13-story towers on Alameda Street across from L.A.’s historic Union Station, at the Los Angeles State Historic Park, and atop Chavez Ravine at Dodger Stadium.

Environmental groups said a station in the state park would obscure views and take up valuable green space. In May, an appeals court ruled LA Metro and LA ART needed to revisit certain aspects of the environmental review which the court found inadequate. Some said an extra environmental review would delay the project by at least a year, putting in jeopardy completion by the 2028 LA Olympics and serving Olympic baseball at the stadium.

Still, LA ART claims the gondolas would be efficient, remove cars from local roadways, reduce tailpipe emissions and be powered by electricity, a zero-emission source, while providing an easy way for Dodger fans to reach the games and return to their cars or connect with trains or city buses at Union Station.

Metro said the Dodger Stadium Express started in 2010 and has become “a vital part of getting to and from Dodger games.” Passengers can board the shuttle buses from in front of Union Station. A second route began in 2015 from the Harbor Gateway Transit Center in Gardena. Buses drop off at the stadium parking lot.

Since service began, ridership has increased 206%, from 122,000 riders in 2010 to 373,806 in the 2024 season, Metro reported.

The Dodgers have benefitted from the Metro service by providing car-less ways to reach Chavez Ravine. While the team has allowed the use of their brand to market materials, it has not contributed financially, according to a Metro report.

Metro wants the bus shuttle service — that operates during 81 regular homes games and post-season games — to also take visitors going to the stadium for a rock concert.

Metro wants to continue and expand the service, making it easier for a bus to navigate the crowded parking lot and local streets by keeping bus-only lanes available at the end of games.

To make improvements, “it is time to initiate a formal conversation with the Los Angeles Dodgers to explore a funding partnership that supports  the service’s sustainability and growth,” Metro concluded.