Metro advances water taxi plan for 2028 Olympic Games

The L.A. Metro Board has advanced a plan for a water taxi service between Long Beach and San Pedro during the 2028 Olympic Games.

Metro's board has for months been considering investing in a service to ferry spectators along the harbor for the Olympics, positioning it as a way to reduce traffic and increase access to the Games in the South Bay. Long Beach will host more than a dozen Olympic and Paralympic competitions.

The motion, introduced by L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, asks the Metro CEO to start identifying private and public operators that could deliver the water taxi program. It also directs the county executive to assess funding options, including sponsorship models and public-private partnerships.

At Metro's meeting Thursday, Hahn said passengers would be able to use their TAP cards on the water taxis.

" Other cities already run successful water transit systems," she told the board, naming San Francisco, Seattle and New York City. "There's no reason why we can't do the same here, especially with weather as good as ours."

A model for this type of passenger ferry already exists. Long Beach Transit operates water taxis each summer. A 40-minute trip between Downtown Long Beach and Alamitos Bay costs $5.

A feasibility study submitted to Metro this fall found that Metro launching and operating its own service on the water by 2028 wasn't feasible, instead recommending it pursue private operators or public-private partnerships to pull off the plan.

The report, put together by the Metro CEO's office, outlined four possible budgets and plans for a ferry program, including one using hybrid-electric vessels and three others using diesel ships.

The expected cost of operating the boats during the Olympic and Paralympic Games ranged from $750,000 for two 75-passenger diesel vessels and $1.34 million for two 350-passenger hybrid-electric ships.

The report also found that local funds likely would be needed to cover the bulk of the costs of a short-term water taxi service but suggested grant funding might be available for a service that would extend beyond the Olympic Games.

The water taxi is just one of many transit plans Metro is working on to deliver a "transit-first" Olympic Games. It requested more than $2 billion in federal funding for a fleet of thousands of buses to help get spectators around Southern California during the Games. Whether the federal government will deliver on that ask isn't clear.