PedEast or PedWest: Choosing Your San Ysidro Walk Across

San Ysidro has two pedestrian crossings, and choosing the wrong one can leave you far from your ride or waiting at a facility that is closed in your direction. The names to know are PedEast and PedWest.

The simple rule is this: PedEast is the dependable, 24-hour option next to the trolley. PedWest is the limited-hours option beside Las Americas Premium Outlets and the Virginia Avenue Transit Center.

PedEast: the 24-hour crossing

PedEast is on the eastern side of the San Ysidro port. It is immediately next to the San Ysidro Transit Center, where you can board the UC San Diego Blue Line trolley and several bus routes.

This is the crossing to use when:

• You are traveling outside PedWest's operating hours
• You want the most direct connection to the trolley
• You are unsure whether PedWest is open
• Your trip involves something more complicated than a routine crossing, and you have confirmed that the service you need is handled at PedEast

PedEast handles most San Ysidro pedestrian traffic, so its line can become long. Check the current northbound wait rather than assuming it will be quick because it is always open.

PedWest: useful, but only during its window

PedWest is on the western side of the port. On the Tijuana side it connects near Plaza Viva Tijuana; on the U.S. side it exits beside Las Americas Premium Outlets and the Virginia Avenue Transit Center.

As of August 31, 2026, the published operating windows are:

Those windows are not interchangeable. You can cross north through PedWest in the morning, but you cannot use the same facility to walk back to Tijuana until the southbound side opens in the afternoon.

PedWest can be convenient when:

• It is open in your direction and its posted northbound wait is shorter
• Someone is picking you up near the outlet mall or Virginia Avenue
• You are already on the western side of central Tijuana
• You want an MTS bus connection rather than walking to the trolley

MTS Routes 906 and 907 serve the Virginia Avenue Transit Center and connect it with the surrounding San Ysidro transit network. They are a loop pair running in opposite directions, and the difference matters if the trolley is where you are actually headed: 907 runs to the San Ysidro Transit Center in about 6 minutes, while 906 goes the long way around toward the Iris Transit Center. Both run 7 days a week. Check the current MTS timetable rather than relying on an old reference to a border shuttle.

How to choose before you leave

First, check the clock. Outside PedWest's directional hours, use PedEast.

Next, check the U.S. Customs and Border Protection wait-time page if you are walking north. CBP reports PedEast under San Ysidro and the western facility under San Ysidro PedWest. Posted waits can change with demand and the number of booths open, so neither crossing is automatically faster.

Finally, plan for where you will emerge. Tell anyone meeting you whether you are using PedEast at the San Ysidro Transit Center or PedWest at the Virginia Avenue Transit Center. "Pick me up at the border" is not specific enough.

If you need document processing or another service beyond an ordinary inspection, confirm the correct facility with the responsible agency before traveling. PedEast and PedWest do not necessarily provide every service during every operating window.

Verify the hours

PedWest has closed or changed hours with little notice in the past. Check again on the day you travel, especially if using it near opening or closing time.

One warning about where you check. CBP's own port directory listing for San Ysidro still describes the Pedestrian-West facility as operating 24 hours, 7 days a week, which is left over from before the closures and does not match CBP's own announcements, its live wait-time page, or what you will find at the gate. 2 federal pages disagree here, and the limited windows above are the ones the port has actually been running. Treat the directory entry as stale and trust the live wait-time page.

Re-checked August 31, 2026. Read that day: CBP's own border wait times feed, which lists San Ysidro at 24 hours a day and carries the western facility separately as San Ysidro PedWest on a 6 am to 2 pm window. Established earlier and not re-opened this pass: CBP's San Ysidro port listing, read August 28, 2026, which is where the stale 24-hour PedWest entry described above appears. Be aware that cbp.gov itself now returns nothing to automated requests, so that listing could not be reloaded, and the 3 pm to 11 pm southbound window rests on outside reporting rather than on a CBP page this pass. The Route 906 and Route 907 loop pair was checked against MTS's current published route information and is unchanged. For the day you travel, CBP's traffic wait-time line for San Ysidro is (619) 690-8999.