By the end of this month, Los Angeles residents looking to stay out late on the weekend can take advantage of the extended hours for Metro Rail services, which will soon run until 2 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Scheduled to begin July 27, the change reflects popular demand for extended late-night weekend train services and gives residents an extra hour to catch a train before night services close, said Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The expanded hours will apply to the Red/Purple line subway, the Blue Line, Expo Line, Green Line and the Gold Line.
"It's going to help a lot of the people that are discouraged from using public transit to enjoy an evening in Los Angeles, especially since what we had before was essentially a curfew that prevented a lot of people who wanted to stay later from using our system," Sotero said.
"[With the change], you can get back and forth without being stranded at Union Station in the wee hours of the morning," Sotero said.
The trains will run every 20 minutes between midnight and 2 a.m., a change Sotero said would prove particularly helpful for Los Angeles residents looking to return home at a reasonable hour.
Orange Line services will run even longer, continuing until 2:40 a.m. in order to meet the last trains at the North Hollywood Red Line station, officials said.
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The extended hours were accounted for in the Metro's budget for fiscal year 2013, Sotero said, though he did not know exactly how much money was allocated.
Jose Huizar, a Los Angeles councilman and member of the Metro Board, said in a July 13 statement that he was pleased with the extended hours.
"I've heard from many people for the need to permanently extend Metro train service hours," Huizar said. "Metro's extended ... evening hours will allow more customers to enjoy the many exciting late-night venues we offer, as well as encourage more people to use public transportation."
Metro officials are also considering offering late-night service for the Silver Line and working with Metrolink -- a commuter rail system -- on a possible plan to connect the two services.
The change can be largely attributed to Art Leahy, Metro's chief executive officer, who Sotero said had been advocating for extended late-night service hours for a while.
"He's advocated for extended Metro hours, and he made it happen," Sotero said.
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