Planes, Trains, and the New Story of LAX

On November 21, 2025, members of USC ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers) enjoyed a guided tour of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and gained insights on some of the transformative projects at this mega intermodal hub. With the World Cup in summer 2026 and the Olympics in summer 2028, these new facilities at LAX will be the first ones to welcome visitors from around the globe.

Most of us are transit-dependent. Therefore, we are excited to examine the connectivity between USC campus and LAX with public transportation rather than private vehicles. Our journey began with riding the E Line at Expo Park/USCto newly completed K Line, then disbarking at the LAX/Metro Transit Center Station. The one-way transit ride took about 40 minutes and cost $1.75 per person. It would have taken about 30 minutes and as much as $80 for 4 passengers by Uber! 

Opened in September 2025, the LAX/Metro Station is the centerpiece of the intermodal hub for ground transportation at LAX. When the long-anticipated PeopleMover is completed in 2026, the LAX/Metro Station area will become a vibrant transfer point for passengers and employees accessing the airport. 

Our tour began with a warm welcome and safety instructions by LAWA staff at the Consolidated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) facility. Standing on the 5th floor, we learned that ConRAC is capable of handling 20,000 rental vehicles simultaneously. It will be the largest rental car facility in the world when in full operation. The Skytrain (PeopleMover), currently under final stages of construction, will connect the airport terminals with ConRAC for rental cars and LAX/Metro Center for bus transfers. Our LAWA guides showed us how ConRAC already started operation with a modified accessway from the ground floor for customers, while awaiting the opening of the Skytrain. From both planning and engineering perspective, we witnessed the real-world examples of providing safe and efficient circulation in and around construction zones. 

We continued our walk towards the Intermodal Transportation Facility (ITF), another Skytrain station under construction. Looking out from the top of this vantage point, I was struck by the scale of each of these projects. Planners and engineers have sought solutions to address bottlenecks and congestion at LAX. The ConRAC, LAX/Metro Station, and ITF will allow users to change modes away from the airport via Skytrain. With additional improvements inside of the horseshoe, congestion at LAX could be a thing of the past in the very near future!

Our next stop was the FlightPath Museum, located near the southern end of the airport and close to the cargo terminals. This museum details the long aviation history of Southern California. I learned that the first major airshow in the US took place right here in the Rancho Dominguez area of LA in 1910, just a few miles from my childhood house! In addition to enjoying the rich display of memorabilia and artifacts from numerous airlines that serviced LAX over the years, we witnessed a massive Boeing 747 cargo plane being served less than 200 feet away from the museum!

We concluded our tour by rolling down the taxiways in a bus to the Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South. The project was delivered with an innovative construction method primarily to minimize interruption to the airport operations and to ascertain the delivery schedule. One segment of the main structure was fabricated off-site just a few miles away from the airport segment, weighing thousands of tons, and was then transported to the assembly location and connected with the existing MSC. We learned that eight new gates are now operational for narrow-body aircraft, primarily serving domestic services. While walking past these new gates, I could imagine the excitement among travelers to and from in the years ahead! 

We thank the LAWA team and Professor Eric Shen for providing this learning opportunity. We gained a deeper appreciation for the importance of teamwork and the flexibility needed to overcome unexpected challenges. We also heard loud and clear that every public infrastructure project can only be successful after endless coordination, problem-solving, compromises, and most importantly, collaboration among stakeholders. As future engineers, urban planners, and policymakers, we will definitely incorporate these lessons into our work.