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Bookmark the The independent agency, the Expo Line Construction Authority, posted the following to their Facebook page on Monday:
Expo has turned the system over to Metro for Pre-Revenue Operations. Once Metro determines that the system is safe to operate, the line will open to the public. We anticipate an opening to the Jefferson/La Cienega station early next year, but Metro will determine the actual opening date since they will be operating the line.
I want to reinforce that point loud and clear: At this time, Metro DOES NOT have an opening date for the Expo Line. Nor has Metro made a decision whether to first open the line first to La Cienega/Jefferson or all the way to Culver City, where the station is still being completed.
The bottom line is that Metro, which currently operates five rail lines, will decide when the Expo Line is ready for passenger operations and can be opened. We rode on a test train last week and wrote this: “There are still parts of the project not yet finished, namely there’s work to be done on the switch on the junction of the Expo Line and Blue Line tracks, the ventilation system in the tunnel under Figueroa near USC and the Culver City station.”
There is also no start date yet for pre-revenue testing, when trains run on a simulated schedule but without passengers.
Please stay tuned. When we have news, we’ll post it here as soon as we can. In the meantime, we urge all pedestrians, cyclists and motorists to be attentive around the Expo Line and look and listen when approaching the tracks.
NO. Pre-revenue operations (test rides) are NEVER open to the public. That is the whole point of the Pre-revenue service, to find any last bugs (design or otherwise) that could be potentially unsafe for passengers and others, as well as creating timetables based on actual operation. It is an experiment of operations that would be inappropriate to open to the public.
Either Expo Authority is being clumsy with their announcement, or something funny might be going on? I write this because, when a construction project is substantially completed, it is typically “Accepted” by the customer and a big whoop de doo is made. It’s typically in the local paper and there is much news about an opening date.
That is not happening here.
But, all interested bystanders seem to know the project has had problems, and, I don’t think anybody would be surprised if Metro thinks it is not ready.
With Expo Authority’s statement, could they really be saying, “Metro, take this thing off our hands as-is, please? We did the hard work, now, you can finish it.”