Metro Says No Federal Money Means No Extra Olympic Buses

Metro wants $2 billion from Washington for 1,750 extra buses; without it, LA28 would have to find another transportation partner.

Metro won't add 1,750 buses for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics unless federal money is guaranteed by the end of this year. The agency set out that deadline in a staff report to its board, first reported Tuesday by LAist. Without what the report calls funding certainty, its agreement with LA28, the private committee organizing the Games, expires.

That hands the problem to LA28, whose $7.1 billion budget carries no line item for transit. Behind LA28 stands the city: Los Angeles and the state of California are on the hook for cost overruns if the Games run over.

And behind all of it stands whoever's trying to get from Koreatown to a venue in the summer of 2028 on the bus service that exists today.

Metro, the countywide transportation agency formally known as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has asked Washington for $2 billion for the Games. Roughly half of that would buy, run and maintain the 1,750 buses, on top of the fleet the agency already operates. Metro told LAist that whatever extra service it can run depends on how much money it actually locks down, and that buses, drivers and yards have to be committed well before the opening ceremony.

The borrowed fleet is already half-assembled on paper. As of May, 28 transit agencies had agreed to lend or donate more than 1,000 buses and more than 300 staff for the enhanced service, according to the board report.

What hasn't arrived is the money. Lawmakers put $875 million for Games transportation into a spending bill this summer that still has to clear the appropriations process, and the Metro report notes the funding would come from rescinding money set aside for passenger rail projects elsewhere in the country — which is not a painless way to pay for anything. No appropriation has passed.

"Transportation capacity cannot be procured overnight," Metro said in a statement to the outlet.

LA28 isn't treating the deadline as a crisis. Chief executive Reynold Hoover told LAist on Tuesday that he and Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins are working together on the administration and Congress, and that he expects the money to come through. "I'm pretty confident that the administration and the Congress will find funding that Metro needs," Hoover said. Asked whether the Games could run without the supplementary buses, he said a bus program would be part of them in some form regardless.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that organizers and Metro are jointly lobbying Capitol Hill and the White House as budget decisions get made, the outlet reported.

Metro's exit ramp isn't improvised. Under a memorandum of understanding with LA28 that the Metro board approved in March, the agency owes the Games nothing beyond its normal service if the extra funding doesn't materialize. The September report puts it plainly: the organizing committee would need to find another delivery partner for spectator and workforce transportation.

The board takes up the report at a special meeting on September 16, 2026.

Source: laist.com, retrieved September 16, 2026.