Going to the OC Fair? You can take an express bus

The Orange County Transportation Authority is adding express bus service to the OC Fair.

The agency will provide nonstop service — from nine locations throughout the county — to the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa from noon to midnight on Fridays and 10 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays and Sundays. The fair begins Friday and runs through Aug. 16.

The buses will run every 20 minutes from Fullerton and Huntington Beach, every 30 minutes from Santa Ana and every 40 minutes from Anaheim, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Orange and San Juan Capistrano.

Tickets, which can be bought onboard or in advance, are $2 each way or 75 cents for seniors and the disabled. Children 5 and younger ride for free.

Riders can purchase fair admission tickets for $3, a $9 savings off the regular ticket price.

On Friday at 10:30 a.m., a special ceremony marking the first day of the fair and the service will take place at the Irvine Transportation Center, 15215 Barranca Parkway. Attendees can win prizes, and the first 100 people can board the 11:25 a.m. fair express bus for free.

“The OC Fair Express provides an affordable way for riders to visit the fair,” said OCTA Chairman Jeff Lalloway, who is also mayor pro tem of Irvine. “It allows riders to get to the fair without having to spend time looking for parking, and [it] helps alleviate traffic on the busy streets around the fairgrounds.”

The express service logged nearly 77,000 boardings last year, a 31% increase from the previous year.

The nine locations are:

• Anaheim: Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, 2626 E. Katella Ave.

• Anaheim Canyon: Metrolink station, 1039 N. Pacificenter Drive

• Fullerton: Park & Ride, 3000 W. Orangethorpe Ave.

• Huntington Beach: Goldenwest Transportation Center, 7301 Center Ave.

• Irvine: Metrolink station, 15215 Barranca Parkway

• Laguna Hills: Laguna Hills Transportation Center, 24282 Calle de los Caballeros

• Orange: The Village at Orange, 1500 E. Village Way

• Santa Ana: Metrolink, 1000 E. Santa Ana Blvd.

• San Juan Capistrano: Junipero Serra Park & Ride, 5 Freeway and Junipero Serra Road

For more information and ride schedules, visit octa.net/ocfairexpress.

—Bradley Zint

Twitter: @bradleyzint