Service Alert: upcoming weekend closure for part of Expo Line

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Train service will be replaced by bus shuttles on two stretches of the Expo Line this month in order for maintenance and repair work to be performed on overhead wires, track and communications equipment. The first closure was the weekend of Feb. 10 to 12.

This coming weekend from the evening of Friday, Feb. 24, through Sunday, Feb. 26, Expo trains will run between 7th/Metro and Expo/Sepulveda with express and local bus shuttles replacing train service between Expo/Sepulveda and Downtown Santa Monica.

Trips using the Expo Line and shuttle bus are expected to take about 20 minutes longer than usual trips. Please allow extra time and plan accordingly.

Why the shutdown?

The contractor that built the project — Skanska/Rados Joint Venture — has a one year warranty for items on the line that require repair or replacement. Several items need to be done before the warranty expires and that work requires that the overhead wires that deliver power to trains be shut down for the work to be done safely.

Among the items that need work: replacing and relocating closed circuit television cameras near the overhead wires, adjustment of power cable counterweights and localized track work. Metro will also use the closures as an opportunity to perform state of good repair maintenance work on train tracks and systems.

Metro did look into doing the work during the overnight hours when the Expo Line isn’t running. But that’s a very short window of time and the work would have taken longer to do and cost 30 percent more. Metro believes it’s better to do the work in two weekends to reduce the impact to riders and the community and to best use the agency’s resources.

Categories: Service Alerts

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21 replies ›

  4. Yall completely don’t get it if it has to be done let em do it better be safe then sorry

    • Hi Jeff,

      No maintenance is scheduled for that weekend, Feb. 18-20.

      Thank you,

      Anna Chen
      Writer, The Source

  6. The faregates may need to be reconfigured because someone who exits the train, boards a shuttle, and reboards the train will have to pass through faregates again. Will these people be double charged?

    • Here’s what I noticed. Yes, Metro needs an answer to that BUT I have been lucky a few times where I have exited the Expo Line, then get back on it again within 2 hours and I get “TRANSFER” when I TAP, no extra charge. Yet somehow if I exit 7th/Metro from an Expo Train, then come back (within 2 hours of course) and actually transfer to the Red Line, I get charged twice. It seems the TAP system itself is still messed up.

    • If you’re paying your Metro fare with $1.75 (senior/disabled: 75 cents between 5:00AM and 8:59AM and again from 3:00PM until 6:59PM; 35 cents at all other times) from your TAP Card’s stored value balance, transfers are unlimited for two hours commencing with your first journey on a Metro Bus Line or Metro Rail Line; If you have a TAP Card loaded with any Metro pass or EZ Transit Pass for adults, or the senior citizens’ and disabled riders’ orange-colored TAP Card, no cash fares are deducted from your TAP Card.

  7. How about the ear-piercing wheel squeal along the Phase 2 alignment, will that be part of the repairs? Surely Metro is aware that improperly gauged track will cost millions in repair and replacement to wheels over time. I’m questioning too the choice of Skanska to properly build the line. Faster and cheaper is not at all better.

  8. Will the elevator malfunctions be fixed also? I can’t believe that the newest line in Metro rail’s system has quality issues. Did Metro mismanage the project and pick the cheapest contractors?

  9. This is ridiculous this cuts off two of my major days at work and the busses will be too crowed to get anything done especially with a bike. I stopped driving because I thought I could rely on the metro I guess I can’t since you want to replace warranty parts in the middle of the day when people have places to be.

    • Since the work is being performed on the weekend, street and freeway traffic won’t be that bad. There are a lot of nearby bus routes that parallel the Expo Line, some operated by Metro and some by Big Blue Bus. There are rapid buses on Wilshire, Santa Monica, and Pico…

      • That still does not change the fact that it’s going to take me nearly two hours to get to work now. This is poor timing on metro’s part. I don’t care if you are saving only 30 % I pay money to you guys daily the train should be available when I need it to be. There needs to be some time of compensation for time lost. This is only an inconvenience because you guys want to save money which I help pay to you. And I don’t care that you have free shuttles that takes way too long for a transfer. Time is money and you’re wasting mine with this plan.

        • I don’t defend Metro because yes this is definitely an inconvenience, and I have been a victim of their outrageous delays due to their continuous lack of communication between Supervisors > Drivers > Passengers, but sounding self entitled is definitely not going to solve the problem.

          So when do you expect them to move the delays then, at night when it’ll inconvenience me personally?? Oh wait, it already happens but hey it’s still much cheaper to deal with it than driving, that I know.

          • Yes they definitely need to do it at night. Much less people use the train at night than day common sense.

  10. will you have pay on the shuutles bus and whom will be operating those shuttles?Metro? or Santa Monica Big blue bus?

    • Hi Mark,

      The shuttles will be free if you are transferring from the Expo Line. They are the orange Metro buses marked with headsigns that read “Expo Line shuttle.” Signs will be posted at stations to show boarding locations.

      Thank you,

      Anna Chen
      Writer, The Source

    • Hi Susan;

      9 p.m. on Friday and buses run until close of service Sunday night, which is about midnight.

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

  12. Will the defective flooring tiles at Downtown Santa Monica station also be eventually replaced, as part of the warranty?