L.A. Expo Line Has Start Date

[WhoozOn1st]

Expo Line set to roll April 28

"Officials struggled for several months to set an opening date because of various problems uncovered during testing. Those included technical issues where the Expo Line shares tracks with the Blue Line, which runs between Long Beach and downtown L.A.

"Rail operators receive signals from the track, but at the junction between the two lines at least one of those signals was not going through. Officials said Friday the problems had been fixed, the line would be safe and the California Public Utilities Commission had cleared it to open in late April.

"The entire first phase of the line was supposed to open another 0.7 miles west into Culver City, but officials said that station wouldn't be ready for service until some time this summer."

Expo Line to fill an L.A. gap

"It took 24 minutes to get from the second-to-last station at La Cienega and Jefferson boulevards (the final Phase 1 station won't open until this summer) to the 7th Street/Metro Center station downtown. It won't go that fast in the real world; it skipped some stations during the media preview, and a ride along the full 8.6-mile route will probably take closer to 30 minutes. The train goes 55 miles per hour between La Cienega and Arlington Avenue, where cross-streets are blocked off with safety gates, but after that there are no more gates so it must slow to 35. It's still faster than driving surface streets because the traffic lights are timed to stay green when the train approaches."

Expo Line light rail operator Sheila Celestain, 55, guides the lead car down the tracks during a media test ride of the soon-to-open Expo Line from the new station at La Cienega/Jefferson to downtown. (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times)

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[WhoozOn1st]

As is fairly customary, FREE RIDES on the Expo Line's opening weekend:

Metro Expo Line - Grand Opening

You're invited to ride free! April 28-29, 2012

All aboard!

Join us as we celebrate the opening of the Metro Expo Line. There'll be music, entertainment and family fun at four stations, plus free rides on the entire line between Downtown LA and the Westside.

Enjoy these special activities

Saturday, April 28, 10am-4pm

• FREE! Live music
• FREE! On-stage karaoke
• FREE! Local dance and entertainment
• Tasty treats from food trucks and local eateries for purchase

Activity Locations

• 7th St/Metro Center Station
• Expo Park/USC Station
• Expo/Crenshaw Station
• La Cienega/Jefferson Station

Free fare on Metro Expo Line only, April 28 and 29, 2012 only, from 5am-7pm (special schedule on Expo Line for opening weekend only). Regular fares apply on all other Metro Rail, Metro Rapid, and Metro Local lines.

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[WhoozOn1st]

With the Expo Line's revenue service opening imminent (as in tomorrow), news stories have clearly reached spate proportions. And that's a good thing! This L.A. Times article includes a 1:48 time lapse video of a ride aboard an eastbound Expo Line train, beginning at the current west end at La Cienega/Jefferson station and concluding as the train heads into the hole in dowtown Los Angeles.

Expo Line's opening launches rail service push to Westside

"Almost 60 years after the Pacific Electric Railway stopped running trains to Santa Monica, the resurrection of passenger rail service to the Westside will begin with the grand opening of the $930-million Expo light rail line.

"Saturday's start of service marks the first step in an effort to bring rail service back to one of the region's most traffic-clogged areas, something transportation experts have long said is crucial to developing a workable rail network for Los Angeles County.

"Expo Line trains are scheduled to roll into Culver City by midsummer and Santa Monica within several years, although the segment opening this weekend stops at La Cienega and Jefferson boulevards."

Accompanying Photo Gallery: Expo Line - "The Expo Line opens its first segment -- between downtown Los Angeles and La Cienega Boulevard -- on Saturday, allowing passengers to ride the rails west of Western Avenue for the first time in about half a century."

An Expo Line test train rests at the La Cienega/Jefferson station, with the Downtown L.A. skyline in the distance. Wikimedia photo.

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[WhoozOn1st]

Accompanying Photo Gallery: Expo Line - "The Expo Line opens its first segment -- between downtown Los Angeles and La Cienega Boulevard -- on Saturday, allowing passengers to ride the rails west of Western Avenue for the first time in about half a century."

Update: Opening ceremonies have actually already occurred today - Friday - and this photo gallery has been expanded since posting above to include several shots of confetti, first rides, and such.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

The news story spate continues unabated as accompaniment to the grand opening of revenue service on L.A.'s Expo Line...

Westside cities have big bets riding on Expo Line's success (print edition headline)

"Both Santa Monica and Culver City are making big bets that the rail line will be a boon to their bustling but traffic-clogged communities.

"The cities combined are spending more than $80 million — and developers hundreds of millions of dollars more — to design future developments around the line. They envision high-density housing, new parks and plazas, boutique hotels, retail shops, offices, shuttle services and bike facilities to make it easier for residents to get to and from the stations.

"'It's going to be a pretty game-changing thing to get that line to Santa Monica,' said Gary Kavanagh, 27, a video game developer who serves on the community's bicycle advisory panel. 'The moment there is a way to get all across Los Angeles without the 10 Freeway mess … to get down to the beach, it's going to take off in a way quite unlike the opening of any other rail line in L.A.'"

Expo Line route map. Trains will run only as far west as LaCienega/Jefferson for now, with service to Culver City expected by this summer.

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[Anderson]

Just wondering, but is there a longer-term plan to extend the line all the way down to the beach (or at least a bit closer to it)? The mention of Santa Monica makes me wonder, especially as Culver City is still 4-8 miles from the oceanfront/Santa Monica proper.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Just wondering, but is there a longer-term plan to extend the line all the way down to the beach (or at least a bit closer to it)?

Yes. Again:

Expo Line's opening launches rail service push to Westside

Expo Line backers hope the Westside is ready to come aboard

 

[Anderson]

Ah...sorry, I missed that link above when I was looking at the story below it (and the map showing the line truncating at Culver City), which alongside the "Subway to the Sea" mess made me wonder if there weren't going to be two lines that got stuck with stub ends.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

With the commencement of revenue service on the Expo Line the L.A. Times turns to transit tales of regular riders and their new options...

Expo Line opens variety of possibilities for riders

"Nearly two years behind schedule and almost $300 million over budget, the first phase of Los Angeles' newest rail line opened to White and the rest of the public Saturday with free rides between downtown and the outskirts of Culver City. The first train left the station just before 5 a.m.

"Passengers boarded in increasing numbers by the hour and took pictures of the route on digital cameras and iPads. There was music, food and other vendors at special celebrations at many of the stops, including 7th Street/Metro Center and Expo/Crenshaw."

__________

"The rail line runs 7.9 miles from downtown to the station at La Cienega and Jefferson in about 30 minutes. Officials said a 0.7-mile extension to Culver City will open sometime this summer.

"In four years, when officials plan to open the second phase of the line, passengers will be able to ride all the way to Colorado Avenue and 4th Street in Santa Monica, within walking distance of the beach."

Panorama: Expo Line's La Cienega/Jefferson station - A virtual tour of the La Cienega/Jefferson Expo Line station. Click on the link to navigate an interactive 360-degree view.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

After years of watching and waiting and posting and yammering, it woulda made little sense to miss the Expo Line's grand opening if I could possibly make it. So last Sunday Team Whooz fueled the MayhemMobile and headed to Los Angeles with

 

[AlanB]

Very nice Patrick; thanks for the opening day photos! As well as the narrative.

Even if you and Alice didn't get to ride it.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Very nice Patrick; thanks for the opening day photos! As well as the narrative.
Even if you and Alice didn't get to ride it.

Quite welcome, Alan, and we'll get to the riding part soon.

In the meantime, here are some recent L.A. Times readers' views on the Expo Line, copy/pasted as usual to save the slog through letters on off topic topics...

May 1:

Riding the rail

Re "Expo Line launches rail service push to Westside," April 29

Will Westside residents leave their cars and ride the train? Yes! Have you taken the Eastbound 10 in the morning lately? On the Expo line my morning commute time can be transformed into leisure time to read a good book. Let Metro worry about the traffic.

And consider the economics of the situation. A Metro day pass costs way less than a day's parking downtown and only a little more than a single gallon of gas. If I can save wear and tear both on my car and its driver, what's not to love about the train?

I have my Transit Access Pass card loaded with cash for fares and my Kindle loaded with good books to read. Let the train roll.

Culver City

 

 

May 3:

Letters: Who benefits from the Expo Line?

Re "Westside cities have big bets riding on Expo Line's success," April 28

The Expo Line light rail will not improve traffic congestion much, even though it was advertised as a relief for gridlock.

It will, however, lead to increased business development, which will increase traffic congestion around the train stations. And as this development occurs, current residents will likely be priced out when rents rise. Who is this benefiting for all the expense?

Los Alamitos

Metro worker at the unopened Farmdale station waves to motorman of inbound train on 4-29-12. A lengthy dispute over the nature of this station was a major factor in delaying Expo Line construction, and also contributed to cost overruns. After losing a routing battle, NIMBYs and other anti-rail factions claimed that the crossing the street at grade here would be too hazardous to students of the adjacent Dorsey high school, and that the station should be either elevated or underground. They lost that one too, but not before striking a compromise that required two stations, slow running, and operating procedures unique to the situation.

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[WhoozOn1st]

With the Expo Line open and operating I'd say this thread's about run its course. I do wanna post this item I missed when first published, an architectural appraisal of the Expo Line's stations by L.A. Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, who also covered the new concepts for the L.A. Union Station of the future that everybody here liked so much ( ) in the main Amtrak forum...

Review: Lackluster Expo Line reflects Metro's weak grasp of design

"To be fair, the new stations represent a modest improvement over those on the 2009 Gold Line extension. They're appreciably better than the underground stations on the Red Line, which started service in 1993. Metro has finally abandoned the idea that every rail station ought to be uniquely designed to reflect the demographics of the immediate neighborhood. That approach, employed on the Gold and Red lines, was a misstep architecturally and a disaster in terms of maintenance, since each station has to be cleaned differently, its materials aging and breaking down at a different pace.

"But saying that the new stations aren't quite as bad as the older ones isn't saying much at all. When it comes to architecture, Metro has set a very low bar."

Unidentified Expo Line Station, appears to be one of the elevated ones at the western part of the route. Photo by Mark Boster, L.A. Times.

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Expo/LaBrea station, viewed from Jefferson Blvd.

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[trainman74]

Rode the line on Saturday (5/5) -- not much to say about it, since it's pretty much the same as the other L.A. Metro light rail lines. Definitely convenient to the Natural History Museum and the California Science Center (and not too far from the Coliseum, either). I was with a friend who'd only ever taken the Red Line before, so she was duly impressed that you could actually see things out the window.

I think the signage at the 7th Street-Metro Center station needs to be improved -- at least when I was there, the main method of communication of the destinations of the light-rail trains seemed to be Metro staff shouting. (The train operators didn't appear to be doing a particularly good job of changing their destination signs in a timely manner, i.e., before opening the doors.) It also seems like there needs to be an indication of whether the next train is going out on Platform 1 or Platform 2 -- if there's any way to tell before a train actually pulls in, I didn't see it.

 

[GoldenSpike]

Jumping the gun?

New Light Rail Ridership Falls Short by More Than Half

 

[AlanB]

Jumping the gun?

New Light Rail Ridership Falls Short by More Than Half

Of course they are. They know darn well that no one expected the line to make its minimums in the first 2 days. The fear is that if they wait, then they can't run such a story because it probably will be making its minimums before the years end.

I also love how they base their math on total capacity on seats only. Apparently they forgot that people can also stand. People stand on the buses that they tout, so I'm not sure why they feel that people can't stand on the light rail trains either.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

They're absolutely jumping the gun. I know for a fact that I will use this line multiple times per year. My grandma got me, her, and my cousin a year-pass to the Natural History Museum, which my cousin loves, and we go there at least every other time I come up. My grandma hates driving, and we almost always already take the subway to Universal City each time she picks me up at the station. We will almost assuredly take the train to get to Exposition Park each time. I can't wait until USC has some home games this fall. Parking at those games is super super sucky to be nice, and I will then accept that the line is not used if it is not running at standing room only.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

New Light Rail Ridership Falls Short by More Than Half

The authors partially live up to the publication's title, and its motto: Their minds are certainly free of reason.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

New Light Rail Ridership Falls Short by More Than Half

The authors partially live up to the publication's title, and its motto: Their minds are certainly free of reason.

For example:

It's worth noting that the Expo Line would not be paying for itself even according to the MTA's rosiest projections.

It is worth noting? Why? Must be because I-10 paid for itself? :wacko: :wacko: :wacko:

 

[Dan O]

This appears to go very close to the Coliseum, no? Might be an option to go to a USC game..if I could afford the tix.

THanks,

Dan

 

[johnny.menhennet]

This appears to go very close to the Coliseum, no? Might be an option to go to a USC game..if I could afford the tix.

THanks,

Dan

You could afford the $1.50 or so tix price, I'm sure. But yes, it runs VERY close to the Coliseum and it should be incredible patronized on USC home games.

 

[Dan O]

This appears to go very close to the Coliseum, no? Might be an option to go to a USC game..if I could afford the tix.

THanks,

Dan

You could afford the $1.50 or so tix price, I'm sure. But yes, it runs VERY close to the Coliseum and it should be incredible patronized on USC home games.

Thanks. I think I could spring for $1.50. Last SC game I went to a few years ago I paid $50 a seat for abour row 65 or so above the tunnel. Not terrible seats but not the best. Prefer spending less and going to the Rose Bowl but will go to either venue.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

An L.A. Westside resident writes about problems riding the Expo Line in this L.A. Times Op-Ed piece...

Expo Line's halting start

"So here's my advice. Tell us when there's an operations problem, and as quickly as possible. Give plenty of notice and post signs when the schedule changes. Stick to the timetable. Of course, it takes awhile to iron out the kinks, but the longer those problems persist, the grumpier and more disappointed riders become. Simply, make it easy — easier than fighting traffic."

...and the line begins running the full length of its first phase, while an interim station also finally opens:

Expo Line's Culver City service begins Wednesday

"The $930-million light rail Expo Line will finally reach into Culver City on Wednesday, marking the first time rail service will serve the traffic-choked Westside since the last days of the Red Car trolleys in the mid-1900s." [Passenger service ended on October 26, 1953, to be exact.]

"Officials opened most of the first phase of the line in late April, allowing commuters to travel 7.9 miles between downtown Los Angeles and the eastern edge of Culver City in about half an hour.

"But they did not open two stations along the line: Culver City and Farmdale, which officials said needed extra work because they were added further along in the project. The Farmdale stop will also open Wednesday."

The Farmdale station was the subject of a long battle between the LACMTA and NIMBYs who tried to use bogus safety issues regarding the adjacent Dorsey High School in a last ditch attempt to force rerouting of the line, then when that didn't work further stalled construction by trying to force the station into the air or underground. The delays escalated costs, so naturally the NIMBYs griped about cost overruns for which they themselves were largely responsible. The brouhaha did force a change in the Farmdale station design from an island into two (more expensive) trackside stations, one in each direction.

Inbound Expo Line train pauses at the unopened and guarded Farmdale station, adjacent to Dorsey High School on Exposition Blvd., during the line's opening weekend. Note lowered pedestrian crossing gate at right.

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[WhoozOn1st]

Officials, passengers hail Expo Line's Culver City extension

"Officials said that the Expo Line now averages 11,347 boardings each weekday and that they expect that number to increase because of the Culver City station. They also predict that ridership will surge once the $1.5-billion second phase of the line is built and reaches an additional 6.6 miles west into downtown Santa Monica.

"Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said that the current line will probably be most heavily used by people working in downtown L.A. and on the Westside and that 'people who work in Culver City now have a way to get to Culver City without taking a car.'"

"Ridership also could depend on whether some commuter complaints — about delayed service or occasional rough, jerky rides — are addressed. And it remains unclear how many Angelenos will take the rail line to Culver City just for fun or how many Culver City and Westside residents will drive to the station, park there and ride into downtown."

An Expo Line train departs the Culver City station on Wednesday, the station's opening day. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon, L.A. Times.

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[Expo Line Fan]

http://www.flickr.co...xpoline-part-2/

Photos Of Expo Phase-2