The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit Project is a proposed aerial gondola in Los Angeles, California, United States, connecting Los Angeles Union Station to the Dodger Stadium property with an intermediate station at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. The will also serve Elysian Park adjacent to the stadium.

Background
Dodger Stadium was built where the former neighborhoods around Chavez Ravine once stood. Earthmovers reshaped the hills beginning in 1959 and the stadium overlooking downtown Los Angeles opened April 10, 1962 in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The conditional use permit included a requirement that permanent transit to the stadium would be pursued.

The stadium is surrounded by  of parking lots but fans create parking headaches for Echo Park residents. Before a game, bumper to bumper traffic winds through the hilly streets to reach the stadium from several directions. On week days, rush hour increases the traffic crunch. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has two Dodger Stadium Express bus routes that transport fans to and from the stadium for games. The Chinatown station is the nearest station of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. From there, it is a little over a mile walk through the Chinatown neighborhood with a pedestrian bridge available at the north end of Yale Street over the 110 Freeway.

History
Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies, LLC announced in 2018 a plan to construct a gondola system between Union Station and Dodger Stadium. With a seven-minute end-to-end ride, each cabin would hold 30 to 40 passengers. Proposed construction funding in part would be by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and other private sources. Operations would likely be largely funded by corporate sponsorships and tourist fares. McCourt retained partial ownership in the sprawling surface parking lots that wrap the stadium. Metro accepted the unsolicited proposal and became the lead agency for the Environmental Impact Report in October 2020. The company transferred the project to the nonprofit Zero Emissions Transit in August 2022. The nonprofit is run by a group called Climate Resolve that aims to reduce pollution related to climate change. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti supported the project but Karen Bass took over that seat on the Metro board when she assumed the office of mayor on December 12, 2022.

The project has renewed fears of gentrification in the Chinatown community especially among the many elderly residents. An organization, that would have a  next to their headquarters, claimed the proposal was a private tourist attraction and not a public transportation link. They lost their challenge in court in January 2023 when the judge cited evidence that there would be drop in private automobile trips to and from the stadium on an average game day.

Route
The route runs mostly along public property and city streets and would not displace residents. The route connects to Union Station at Alameda Street which it follows before it runs along the perimeter of Los Angeles State Historic Park where a station will be built close to the Chinatown station on the L line. It continues along the Metro rail line alignment to an angle point where it heads up Bishops Road to the stadium, crossing the freeway near the Stadium Way crossing.

References

External links
  Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit
 Aerial Rapid Transit, LA Metro
 Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LA/ART Gondola) Project, Los Angeles Conservancy
 Case no. ENV-2021-5241-EIR, Los Angeles City Planning 

Gondola lifts in the United States
Los Angeles Metro Rail
Proposed public transportation in California