Visited the new LAX Metro station!
On our way home from New Orleans, we stopped by the LAX K Line station on the Los Angeles metro. This is the station which will connect to the "people mover" automated rubber wheeled pod system sometime next year (??). The people mover will be the line that actually connects to the airport.
We didn't stay at the station long, but did take some pictures. Here are the bus bays:
The exterior of the main structure, as seen from the bus bays:
The K and C line platforms:
The upstairs gallery which connects the buses and rail lines to the eventual people mover. Features some large Ceiling Art:
While there, we went to get a limited edition metro card from the customer service counter. Very cool!! I guess people are selling these on eBay, lmao.
We also interacted with the automated "VenHub" vending machine. This device sells regular vending machine stuff, like bottled drinks and snacks, as well as bulkier items like Metro trucker caps and branded bottles. The machine uses two large articulated robot arms which can grasp different items from the shelves using different suckers and claws. It will actively swap its grasper attachment out in front of you depending on what you buy.
This deranged machine is pretty much a tourist attraction, and I would be very surprised if it were still here 2 years from now, or still functional 6 months from now. It does not currently work with Android, so we had to volunteer to use my iPhone to help another Metro fan use it to get his own ballcap while we were there. Wild shit!! I am wondering how much money VenHub is paying Metro to be here.
I did appreciate the opportunity to spend money on Metro merch, though so I bought one trucker cap and one bottle. The process took so long that I am not sure I would ever use this again even if I did legitimately want a snack. It's substantially longer and more inconvenient to use than a regular ass vending machine.
Anyway, if you live in LA, I recommend visiting this place! It's very strange. It's also simply nicer to use than LAX-it, the rideshare hub. The shuttle doesn't take much longer than the one at LAX-it, and the Metro station is very quiet and clean and nice, and it connects you to the E and C lines, so if you live anywhere along those it might be an order of magnitude cheaper to travel home using this already.
Excited to see the people mover finally at work, whenever that happens. We are so close to hitting the minimum quality bar for airport transit service!!