Trolleys Could be Coming to Malibu Pier

The Malibu City Council signals interest in a trolley to the sea.

Holly Bieler · August 4, 2026

Malibu's chamber of commerce wants to turn a city-owned lot at the Civic Center into the town's first real transit hub, with roughly 100 parking spaces, a small visitor center, and a trolley that would shuttle people to the pier, the beaches and Trancas without putting another car on PCH.

The pitch for the 1.1-acre "triangle lot", which was purchased with Metro grant money which legally ties it to mobility uses, received a warm reception at the most recent [Parks and Recreation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G30r54rgsYE&t=21s) and [Public Works](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNfRiSRINU4) meetings.

The concept is "park once": leave the car, ride the trolley. Malibu's only public transit today is a single Metro line.

The unusual part is the funding. Mariam Zar, CEO of the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, told commissioners the chamber has money available following the fires and has lined up potential support from Congressman Brad Sherman's annual appropriations requests, County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, and Metro itself, suggesting the project might happen, in her words, without dipping into Malibu's coffers.

The skeptics have receipts. Malibu's [last shuttle experimen](https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/reports/2020/2/Th10a/Th10a-2-2020-report.pdf)t died of low ridership.

"It was empty,” Vice Chair Tiffany Murray said..

Planning Commissioner John Mazza, drawing on trolley systems in Laguna Beach, warned the city would need an assessment district to sustain service, and noted the lot's proposed entrance sits 25 feet from what he called the busiest intersection in Malibu, right where the Civic Center Way bike lane ends.

Both commissions voted to keep the concept moving, with conditions, including more native landscaping, a plan for the six existing trees on the lot, and history woven into the building rather than a standalone museum.

One suggestion included a contest for local artists, to design a sculpture for what would become a gateway to the city.