<p>Howdy!</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone here on CC had experience commuting to SC via train? I'm considering commuting for fall semester (take the OC Line from Irvine Station at 7:03AM and arrive 8:15AM and take the bus to University Park so arrive roughly 8:30-8:40AM).</p>
<p>It’s doable but that’s roughly 2 hours of commuting. The train and bus isn’t cheap either. I know people who take the bus but it’s only because they don’t have a car. I’ve priced it all out for myself before and with the price of monthly bus passes, it costs as much as a parking permit at a USC parking lot/garage. </p>
<p>IMO, it’d be cheaper to just drive yourself, and a helluva lot more convenient too.</p>
<p>I live in so cal and if you have night classes, it isn’t too safe.</p>
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<p>Is that true, even with the discounted student passes? In any case, you still need to factor in the cost of gas.</p>
<p>And I’d much prefer reading for an hour on the train than having to be behind the wheel for that length of time.</p>
<p>Yeah, the reason I’m considering the train is because driving back home after a long day at school would be exhausting and foolhardy. I live in SoCal too, and I don’t understand what you mean by “not too safe” after night classes? I don’t plan on walking to the train station - I could call campus cruiser or ride a bus. Do you mean that the bus and the train itself isn’t safe?</p>
<p>I don’t know what anyone is talking about in regards to it not being safe. Just walk to the exposition line stop by bridge hall which is extremely well lit. Take it to union station and transfer to the CalTrain. You don’t have to walk farther than like 20’ off campus to do this…</p>
<p>Well since i’ve lived in the so cal beach area my whole life, and the news in the past 6 months has reported at least 4 usc shootings or jumping on the campus, and like any city public transportation, even more so in downtown la, is very mixed and can be sketchy.</p>
<p>There have been no shootings <em>on</em> campus or within a block of it. That shooting that happened during the spring, which is not common for the area, happened a good distance to the NW outside of the DPS patrol range. I live in DTLA and commuted to campus every day via expo line over the summer and took a night class that got out at 10pm and never once felt unsafe.</p>
<p>If they plan to commute via rail, they will never actually walk around outside downtown anyway since they’ll be transferring within Union Station which has plenty of security.</p>
<p>I’ve commuted probably over 100 times on the Metrolink/Amtrak from Orange County over the past 4 years. It is perfectly safe to take the train to Union Station and then the USC tram from Union Station to campus and vice versa on the return trip, anyone who says otherwise obviously has never commuted. Even at night the USC campus is very safe and there are 100s of people who ride the tram to and from Union Station each day. Union Station has a very large security presence and there is almost no chance of crime happening from the point you get off the tram until you board the train.</p>
<p>That being said, I was a few stops before Irvine and even then its pretty tiring and in my opinion its pretty rough to commute every day.</p>
<p>Possible but sounds incredibly unpleasant.</p>
<p>It is doable, and might be pleasant if you don’t do it every day or for long time. </p>
<p>I had been doing it for 2 years. You can go to Irvine, Tustin or Santa Ana station depending on which has sufficient parking and is closes to your home. The parking is free. Between Union Station and USC, you can take USC Tram, Red line, Dash, and the new Expo line. All are free if you buy discounted monthly passes from USC transportation office (old information, you need to verify). The tickets allow you to ride Metrolink and Amtrak.</p>
<p>The monthly pass made enormous sense economically when I rode. It was much cheaper than driving and parking on campus 3-4 years ago. Considering the current gas price, you do the math. USC also sells 10, 20 passes tickets with lesser discounts. </p>
<p>My experience was if you have a regular schedule, and can manage to sleep enough, it might be wonderful for you. I had so many memorable encounters on the train. Some are very good stories that I tell many times. There were a couple of USC professors I know also taking the same train with me. We chatted all the time. A then department chair who commuted every day told me, “you’d be a fool to drive”:)</p>
<p>One more thing: If you buy monthly tickets from USC, you get 4(?) free parking on campus. This is great if you occasionally drive to school.</p>
<p>Please note that the Expo Line does NOT go to Union Station.</p>
<p>It is, however, connected via the Red Line. You must transfer trains at the 7th/Metro station.</p>
<p>We’ve got a few more years until the Regional Connector is open, when Union Station to USC won’t require a transfer.</p>
<p>How safe is it to transfer from Expo to Red/Purple at, say, 7-8PM?</p>
<p>You don’t have to because you can just take the USC tram directly from campus to union station.</p>
<p>Gotcha, thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, I have also spoken to several USC faculty who love the train & use it for their daily commute to & from campus. I believe they live in Pasadena.</p>