Photo by Luis Inzunza/Metro.
An Expo Line train was tested on the stretch of tracks north of Washington Boulevard today, reaching the 7th/Metro Center station that it will eventually share with the Blue Line.
Expo Line train reaches 7th/Metro station in test run
Just like the subway cars – no need to repaint the cars. Just better signage and announcements on board trains…hoping that the riding public will pay attention to them.
The station signs for the blue line have not been upgraded for the expo line at 7th street and Pico. Wonder why?
Does anyone know what buses will be connecting with the Culver City station in the Westside? Will any Santa Monica buses be stopping there I wonder?
Whoo-hoo. Hopefully the opening won’t be too far away…
Pardon my ignorance, but why exactly do they need to test all the way up to 7th/Metro? Couldn’t they just get all that information off of the Blue Line? Especially since, I hear, they’ll be running overhauled Nippon Sharyo cars anyway.
Test Trains Have Run Into 7th Street Before but Not when the Blue Line was Still Operating
Loo At The Videos
TESTING of the BLUE & EXPO Junction Oct 14th 2011
EXPO LINE at Washington/Flower Junction DAY-2 Dec 14th
@Y Fukuzawa:
Some great (and simple) ideas. One thing that I’ve thought about for a while and think would improve the LCD signage is if the BACKGROUND was the line color and the text was either white or black (depending on which reads better). This would make the color even more apparent.
@Steve White
Whichever works best; if it’s an LCD display it’ll be easy to switch it the other way around depending on which is more preferable/easier to see for the riders.
However most cities do tend to have a preference for the colored text over black background displays considering:
A. The surroundings for the train in the subway/night time use/rainy day is already dark enough for the colored text against the black background to stand out from farther away as the train approaches. Tthe other way around, the color does stand out, but texts tend to smudge out when viewed from farther away (i.e. the red background used by Bank of America is harder to make out the “Bank of America” text compared to Citibank which uses a darker blue background over a white “Citibank” text, especially when viewed from farther away)
B. You don’t want people sticking their heads out from the platform as the train approaches to figure out where train is going (disaster!); you want them to recognize it from as far away as possible before it approaches the platform for safety reasons.
C. You can’t rely on station announcements 100% as there are people with hearing problems (elderly, the hearing disabled, etc.)
xfor
Joseph Melendrez on January 9, 2012 at 8:55 PM said:
Does anyone know what buses will be connecting with the Culver City station in the Westside? Will any Santa Monica buses be stopping there I wonder?
if you mean the Venice. Robertson station
SM plans have line 5, line 6,line 12
Culver will only stop on the street on washington
if yiou mean the la cigenga station
culver 4 -which might run 1/2 hour
metro 217
I hope this line opens soon, I am very tired of hearing it’s delayed. I will ride the line (when it opens) but come on things like this make people turn away from public transportation. Also test trains have been in and out of 7th/Metro when Blue Line is running during the day. Track 1 can be used for Blue Line trains and Track 2 can be used for Expo Line trains and improved signage all around the station.