Coaches to and from Los Angeles

Book Los Angeles bus tickets

Intercity coach out of Los Angeles is sold as though it all happens at Union Station. Some of it does, in the sense that the buses pull into a transit plaza on the far side of the tracks from the building most people picture. The rest happens in a surface car park across the road, at a painted kerb beside a Metro station, at a Westwood bus stop signed for a municipal bus company, and in a shopping centre car park in Downey that appears on the Los Angeles stop list.

None of that is a criticism of the coach. It is a warning about the twenty minutes before departure, which is when the difference between a staffed plaza and an unsigned kerb becomes the entire experience. Work from the street address printed on the ticket rather than from the name of the stop, because on this network the two disagree more often than they agree.

Greyhound does not board inside the building you are picturing

The stop that every booking engine calls “Los Angeles Union Station” carries the address 801 N Vignes Street, Los Angeles CA 90012, and the coach itself leaves from Patsaouras Transit Plaza, bay #7 or #8. Greyhound’s own instruction is precise about the timing: “Bus will depart from the Patsaouras Transit Plaza at Union Station, bay #7 or #8. Please be at the loading platform 15 minutes prior to your scheduled departure.”

Union Station’s operator confirms it from the other side and adds the geography: “Greyhound departures are located in Union Station East off of N. Vignes Street at Patsaouras Bus Plaza, Bus Bay #8.” The tiled concourse with the courtyards is Union Station West, off Alameda Street. East and West are the two ends of one complex, not two names for one waiting room, and a coach passenger wants the eastern one.

The Greyhound destinations Union Station lists are Fresno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Ysidro and Yuma — a network drawn on the interstate corridors rather than on the rail map, which is the reason the coach is worth considering at all on several of them.

The arrival address is not the departure address

Greyhound lists its Los Angeles arrivals at 800 N Alameda Street, on the opposite side of the station complex from the Vignes Street departure bays. The instruction reads: “Bus will drop passengers off along the curb in front of Union Station south of the station main entrance and car drop-off area. Look for the Greyhound sign.” A return trip therefore uses two different addresses at the same station.

The practical consequence is the pick-up. Anyone told to meet an arriving coach at “Union Station” has a one-in-two chance of standing at Patsaouras Plaza while the bus unloads at an Alameda Street kerb several hundred metres away, on the far side of the tracks. Give the street name, not the station name.

What meets the coach there is the redeeming part. Union Station’s transportation listing names Metro Rail’s A, B, D and J Lines, Amtrak and Metrolink, a taxi pick-up and drop-off stand in front of historic Union Station West, and Metro Bike Share docks “Located in Lot B – Alameda Entrance in Union Station West and on the Southeast corner of Cesar E. Chavez Ave. and Vignes St. in Union Station East.” The rail half of that is on the Los Angeles trains page.

A car park, two kerbs and a shopping centre in Downey

The stop sold as Los Angeles Downtown (FlixBus Lot) is not in the transit plaza. It is 501 E Cesar E Chavez Ave, Los Angeles CA 90012, a surface car park: “Bus will board in the parking lot located at the intersection of E Cesar E Chavez Ave and N Vignes St, on the northwest side. This is across the street from Patsaouras Plaza at Union Station.” It does have a passenger lounge, open 7am to 5pm daily, which matters in both directions: there is somewhere to sit, and there are hours when there is not.

Los Angeles (UCLA) is a kerbside bus stop at 592 Gayley Ave, Los Angeles CA 90024, on the southeast corner of Gayley Ave and Strathmore Pl. The only landmark given for finding it belongs to somebody else’s network: “Look for the Big Blue Bus sign”, the Santa Monica municipal operator.

West LA (Expo/Sepulveda), 11295 Exposition Blvd, is a painted line rather than a facility — “the white passenger loading curb on westbound Exposition Bl, west of Sepulveda Bl”, beside the Expo/Sepulveda Metro Station and the bike path, identified by a “No Parking: Passenger Loading Only” sign. And Downey (Stonewood Center) boards “on the back side of the mall, outside the west Kohl’s entrance”, on an address line that reads 251 Stonewood St, Los Angeles, CA 90241 for a stop that is in Downey.

None of the four is a station. No counter, no staff, no departure board, and in two cases an intersection rather than a door. For a daylight departure with a phone ticket that is immaterial; before the lounge opens or after it closes, it is the whole of the difference between a coach and a train. The general version of this is on the buses page.

Luggage: the free allowance, and the fee that is a band

FlixBus in the US allows one hand-luggage item of 12 x 7 x 16 in up to 25 lb, plus one stored bag of 20 x 12 x 31 in up to 50 lb. Greyhound allows one small duffle bag or backpack as carry-on plus one stored bag, and two stored bags on services to Mexico. Both cap a bulky item at 95 inches of length plus width plus height; FlixBus adds a 75 lb ceiling and warns that bulky baggage is chargeable and of limited availability.

Anything past the allowance is priced as a range rather than a number. FlixBus publishes additional baggage in the US at USD 21.99 to 44.99 and says why: “Availability and baggage fee vary depending on the route, line, time of booking and method of booking.” Budget the top of the band and treat anything below it as luck.

Two details catch people out. Greyhound carries pushchairs and car seats free and in addition to the normal allowance — “We don’t charge for bringing a stroller or car seat onboard a Greyhound bus.” FlixBus also carries a foldable stroller free, up to 95 inches combined and 70 lb, but it must be registered by telephone after booking and “at the earliest 48 hours before departure” — that is a limit on how early you may call, not a deadline to beat, and reading it the other way is the commonest mistake made with that sentence. Neither operator carries animals other than service animals for people with disabilities, and FlixBus refuses e-bikes, tandems and tricycles outright.

Published coach times against the Pacific Surfliner

FlixBus publishes Los Angeles to Las Vegas at a minimum 4 hr 20 mins over 265 miles, with 12 connections a day, the first at 12:30 am and the last at 7:45 pm. Los Angeles to San Diego is a minimum 2 hr 55 mins over about 116 miles, 8 trips a day running 6:20 am to 8:20 pm. Those two corridors carry most of the coach traffic out of the city and they answer to completely different competition.

San Diego is where rail is a real alternative rather than a theoretical one. Amtrak runs 13 daily round-trip Pacific Surfliner services between San Diego and Los Angeles, plus five between Santa Barbara and San Diego, on a 351-mile route that takes about 9 hours end to end. Thirteen round trips against eight coaches is a frequency advantage the coach cannot answer, and the train leaves from inside the historic building rather than from the plaza behind it. Weigh the coach there on price alone; the trains page has the ticketing side of it.

Las Vegas is the reverse. Twelve departures a day on a corridor the Surfliner does not touch at either end, with a first coach at half past midnight, is a service doing a job no timetabled train out of Union Station does. Against flying, compare the whole chain rather than the flying time — a 12:30 am coach competes with an airport run that starts even earlier, which the flights page takes apart.

Common questions

Where do Greyhound buses leave from in Los Angeles?

Not from inside the historic Union Station building. The stop listed as Los Angeles Union Station is 801 N Vignes Street, and buses depart from Patsaouras Transit Plaza, bay #7 or #8 — Union Station East, which the station itself gives as Bus Bay #8. Greyhound asks passengers to be on the loading platform 15 minutes before departure.

Is the Greyhound arrival point the same as the departure point?

No, and this is the trap. Arrivals are listed at 800 N Alameda Street, where the coach drops passengers at the kerb in front of Union Station, south of the main entrance and car drop-off area, by the Greyhound sign. Departures are at 801 N Vignes Street on the opposite side of the complex. Give whoever is collecting you the street name rather than the words Union Station.

Is the FlixBus Lot at Union Station?

It is across the road from it. Los Angeles Downtown (FlixBus Lot) is 501 E Cesar E Chavez Ave, a car park on the northwest side of the Cesar E Chavez Ave and N Vignes St intersection, described in the stop notes as across the street from Patsaouras Plaza. Its passenger lounge is open 7am to 5pm daily.

How much luggage is included on a coach out of Los Angeles?

On FlixBus, one hand item of 12 x 7 x 16 in up to 25 lb and one stored bag of 20 x 12 x 31 in up to 50 lb. On Greyhound, one small duffle or backpack plus one stored bag, or two stored bags to Mexico. Bulky items are capped at 95 inches combined on both. An extra FlixBus bag is a published band of USD 21.99 to 44.99, not a flat fee.

How long does the coach take to Las Vegas or San Diego, and is the train quicker?

FlixBus publishes a minimum 4 hr 20 mins to Las Vegas over 265 miles, 12 connections a day, and a minimum 2 hr 55 mins to San Diego over about 116 miles, 8 a day between 6:20 am and 8:20 pm. On the San Diego corridor the rail alternative is denser than the coach: 13 daily round-trip Pacific Surfliner services.

What are the UCLA, West LA and Downey stops actually like?

Kerbs and car parks. Los Angeles (UCLA) is a bus stop at 592 Gayley Ave signed for the Big Blue Bus, not for the coach. West LA (Expo/Sepulveda) is a white passenger loading curb on westbound Exposition Bl marked No Parking: Passenger Loading Only. Downey (Stonewood Center) boards behind a shopping mall by the west Kohl’s entrance. None has staff or a ticket counter.

Sources

Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.

• Greyhound - Los Angeles CA bus stops list, departures, arrivals and West LA
• FlixBus - Los Angeles CA bus stops list, UCLA and Downey Stonewood Center
• Union Station Los Angeles - Transportation page, Greyhound bays and connections
• FlixBus - Luggage policy, US allowances and bulky baggage
• FlixBus - Additional baggage prices, US
• Greyhound - Baggage allowance
• FlixBus - Los Angeles to Las Vegas route page
• FlixBus - Los Angeles to San Diego route page
• Amtrak - Pacific Surfliner route page