Metro Rail to Staples center (Orange, Thousand Oaks: crime, how much, price)

[SoCalMomma]

I need some metro rail help. I have NEVER ridden it, or any like it, before.

We are going from Thousand Oaks to the Staples Center for a concert on Tuesday. A friend of mine told me to drive to Universal City and park there, get on the red line and take it to the 7th street metro center, get off, then take the blue line to Pico for the Staples center.

Is this accurate?
Is this the best route?
How long do you think it would take? If the concert starts at 8, what time should I try to get to the Universal station?
How much would the whole trip be (round trip)?
Is it safe for 2 women to take alone at night? Mainly worried about the ride back to Universal after the concert.
Anything else I should know?

Thanks!!!

[miracle]

In concert days may be safe, I thought a similar way when U2 played, who will play there???

[SoCalMomma]

We're going for a Rod Stewart concert. I am really looking forward to it

[montevista1]

ride takes 30 minutes. sometimes u can wait 10 minutes for the train in universal. unless you are afraid of brown or black people there is no crime on the train i use it every time.

[SandyCo]

Just make sure that the subway is still running at whatever time you expect to come back. Also, you could park at one of the parking lots along the Orange Line; I think there's a lot in Woodland Hills. The Orange Line is the busway that goes through the SF Valley, and it takes you right to the Red Line subway.

As for times, I'm not quite sure. The Orange Line takes 40 minutes, and buses leave every five to ten minutes. The Red Line takes 20 minutes to get to 7th Street, and the subway trains leave every twelve minutes. The Blue Line take only 2 minutes to go from 7th street to Pico, and the trains leave every ten minutes. I think they all stop running after about 12:30 a.m.

The total price for an MTA day pass is $3.00. My advice would be to make a test run this weekend, so you're familiar with where to get on and off, etc. I'm not too sure about the safety on the trip back, but I've never heard of anything happening at an MTA station.

I hope you both have a wonderful time.

[Sorcerer68]

You have to drive into Universal and pay for parking, why not just keep going to downtown? I've been to many Staples concerts, just go and pay for parking a couple blocks away. No, it's not scary to walk to Staples from there, everyone else is doing the same thing. If you just want the adventure of riding the subway, have fun!

[SoCalMomma]

We have decided to drive to North Hollywood (right off the 170) and park there (free parking) and take the red line from there. The concert starts at 8, so we are going to attempt to get to the NoHo lot by 7pm, which should give us plenty of time to get down there and into Staples center.

We have been to many concerts at Staples center and always drive all the way down & park there. Its usually such a hassle to get out of the lots & onto the freeway, that we decided to give this a try.

Thank you all for your input I'll let you know how we do...