Dodger Stadium: Gondola Route From Union Station to Chavez Ravine Approved
Plans to build a gondola system from Union Station to Dodger Stadium have been in the works for a while. And while not everyone has been a fan of the proposal, it sounds like the project is a go. Officials with Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit announced this week that they had selected a route to build the new system to transport fans.
The original design had suggested a route that went along Spring street from Union Station. According to LA ART, the route will take the gondola from Union Station to Chinatown/State Park Station then continue on to Broadway, turning towards Dodger Stadium.
The new route and design will undergo environmental review which could be completed by 2022. That would allow the gondola system to Dodger Stadium to be completed as early as 2025 and become operational before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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For fans in Los Angeles, the gondola system offers a new way to get to ballgames. It is estimated that it can move up to 5,500 people per hour in each direction, adding another option to get to Dodger Stadium. More than 10,000 fans could be transported to the game 2 hours before the start of the game or event.
LA ART estimates that the gondola gets fans from downtown to Dodger Stadium in about 7 minutes, give or take. Sometimes it takes that long just to get in line on Academy Road, so this could potentially be a better option for fans in a rush.
Unfortunately, the company that proposed the idea was a company owned by Frank McCourt. So if the new system isn’t great, at least we have someone that we can all blame.
The Gondola has not been approved it still needs to get approved all that happened is they finalized the route but it still needs all its approvals. The Gondola is a horrible idea and fans need to understand why. First when the Gondola is finished Metro (who has partnered with LAART) is ending the free bus program. meaning fans that have been taking a 2 dollar train ride and not having to pay for parking and were spending anywhere from 4-8 dollars to go the stadium (2-4 people) will now be paying a ton more. The first ticket prices for the gondola were mentioned to be $20 that has not been confirmed to be the final price but in order to pay for this project to even come close to being profitable it will have to be in that range. So fans can take a train and then have to pay anywhere from 40-80 to get to the stadium. That makes zero sense. Even if you drove to dodger stadium and parked near the station will you really pay 40 dollars for two people when parking at the stadium is $20. Lastly don’t be fooled….. this is McCourt’s attempt to get a gondola and then be able to sell off some of the parking to develop it. So expect to have fewer parking spots in the future, making traffic even worse while the cost will go up. Don’t be fooled by this money grab from McCourt…… There are a ton of other reasons to not like the Gondola but for pure dodgers fans not giving McCourt more of your money is the main one…
Horrible idea, Dodgers should not be doing any deals with Dumbass Frank McCourt ventures. He did enough damage to the Dodgers already.
The only deal they need to do is buy every square inch of parking that he owns. That’s it.