Last week, I was in a pickle: after spending the night at my parents’ house in San Clemente, I had to teach my “How To Be A Deal Lawyer” class at Chapman University Fowler School of Law in Old Towne Orange on Veteran’s Day (Monday November 11). And at 5:15 p.m. that day, the Los Angeles Rams were hosting the Miami Dolphins at SOFI Stadium in Inglewood, and I had tickets.
My family and I took only one car to South Orange County, so I had my wife drop me in Old Towne Orange before my class. My goal was to use transit after my class to travel to SOFI as I knew that the Old Towne Orange Metrolink Station is a few blocks from Chapman University and confirmed that Metrolink trains were running normally that holiday. (Unfortunately, Amtrak doesn’t stop at the Old Towne Orange Station, so it was not an alternative option).
When I arrived at the Old Towne Orange Station, I initially purchased a ticket to LA Union Station thinking I would have to take a bus or a series of trains to the Hawthorne Station (a stop along along the “C” (formerly the Green Line)) to connect to the SOFI Stadium Shuttle Bus. But then, while at the station, I looked at the map, and then realized that the train stopped at Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs. Having used the former Green Line for over a decade and half while living in the South Bay of Los Angeles, I knew that it terminated in Norwalk.
But what I didn’t know was how far the Metrolink Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Station from the terminus of the LA Metro C line. And it turns out, it is just over three miles. And while shuttle buses do run between the Metrolink Station and the C Line Metro Station, they only run every 30 minutes. Still, I had to give it a try with the hope of having a quicker journey than traveling to LA Union Station first and traveling to SOFI from there.
This video shows my journey, and I hope you enjoy it. What it doesn’t show is the total travel time: only one hour and 30 minutes. Anyone who has traveled in LA will tell you that going from Orange County to LA during rush hour is no easy feat (even on a holiday). Specifically, the distance from Old Towne Orange to SOFI Stadium is 35 miles. And it only took an hour and a half even with me having to change between use four modes of transport (i.e., Metrolink, ride share, Metro C Line then the Shuttle Bus) to travel to SOFI Stadium.
Of course, the journey would have taken much longer (as I explain on the video) had I not used a ride share company to connect me between the two Norwalk stations. But maybe, if I got lucky and caught the shuttle bus, it would have taken less time. The important thing is that I made it just in time to kickoff. I just wished the Rams could have won that night.
I enjoyed this experimental journey, and I hope to document more of them using the combination of options available today in Southern California. Hopefully, I’ll be just as fortunate on those journeys as I was on this one.
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