Metro Board Member and Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Connor yesterday became new chair of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority Board of Directors, AKA Expo Line. As all transit watchers know, the Construction Authority is currently building Phase 2 of the light-rail line between Culver City and Santa Monica. (Phase 1 between downtown L.A. and Culver City opened last spring.) Once completed, Phase 2 will be turned over to Metro for operation and we’ll finally have light-rail to the sea! The new Construction Authority vice chair will be recently elected L.A. City Council Member Mike Bonin.

Metro Board Chair Diane DuBois also has announced the following appointments to the Metro Board of Directors: L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas will chair the Finance, Budget and Audit Committee; John Fasana will chair the Ad Hoc Congestion Pricing Committee; L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich will chair the System Safety and Operations Committee; L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe will chair the Construction Committee; DuBois will chair the Executive Management Committee and O’Connor will chair the Planning and Programming Committee and retain her position as chair of the Ad Hoc Sustainability Committee. These folks are particularly important since they help plot the course of mobility for L.A. and oversee the projects that are moving us in that direction.