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.
Categories: Projects
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.”
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.
[…] Expo Line Phase I Handed Over from Construction Authority to Metro (The Source) […]
The Culver City 4 will only run hourly M-F from 7 am ish-7pm-ish, from West LA transit Center to Fox Hills Transit via Expo at La Cienega. Culver City had put out a proposal to reduce the headways and run the bus every 30 minutes during those same hours, but the outreach didn’t generate enough interest for Culver City to free up the money for added service. At the city council meeting they voted to wait and see how many passengers the new line generated and to adjust service based on that if there was money.
[…] the Expo Line’s Facebook page, and now The Source too, the light rail’s construction authority has handed the line over to Metro to begin […]
Jordan,
I’m not sure about the Culver City Station becoming a transit hub as they already have a main transit center, but Culver Bus Line 4 will service the La Cienega Station, and Lines 1 & 7 will service the Venice/Robertson Station.
Are the test rides open to the public?
Exciting news. You all should be proud…and also horribly embarrassed at all the extra time and money it took to complete this project. I would express hope that Metro has learned valuable lessons from this disaster partnership that it will apply to future rail projects, but I have grave doubts about that.
How can Expo have turned the system over to Metro if it’s not finished yet? Is Metro, then, in charge of finishing it? Maybe there’s something I’m missing.
If there were no legal issues or construction delays for the Expo Line, it would have opened this year. Let us pray that Phase Two of the Expo Line does not have problems as Phase One and open on schedule.
When pre-revenue testing starts.. It will take an estimated 5 weeks before revenue service is completed. All track and Catenary wires are up. I noticed however very few workers are working at the Culver City Station and everything seems to be intact. I was wondering if anybody knows if the new station will serve as a transit hub as well. I know Santa Monica will be routing a few lines to the new station once service starts. I was wondering if anyone has any information
We’re all watching… And patiently waiting. The longer it takes the more it’s costing us and the bigger the opportunity for anti-rail freaks to criticize these kinda projects… I <3 u metro but sometimes I think there are people within you whose intentions aren't in your best interest… What a shame…