Much anticipated Expo Line train to Santa Monica, beach will open in May

An extension of the Expo Line light-rail from Culver City to Santa Monica will open May 20, providing the first passenger train service to the iconic beach city in 63 years, Metro officials aounced Thursday.

“Welcome to L.A. County’s transit renaissance,” said Metro CEO Phil Washington. “It will be another link in our great transit system.”

• Photos: Downtown Santa Monica Metro Station To Open in May

At a cost of $1.5 billion, the 6.6-mile line adds seven stations from the terminus in Culver City to Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street in Santa Monica. Expo Line Phase 2 will add three park-and-ride lots with 580 parking spaces. The Expo Line extension runs along the old Pacific Electric Exposition right-of-way.

A trip between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica will take about 46 minutes. One-way trips cost $1.75 each and include two-hour transfers. Riders are required to use a TAP card they can pre-load at station kiosks.

The first phase opened in 2012 and ran from the underground 7th and Metro Station in downtown L.A. to the University of Southe Califoia/Exposition Park and Culver City, about 8.6 miles.

Expo Line Phase 2 will be the second light-rail extension opened by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) this year. The 11.5-mile Gold Line Foothill Extension will open March 5, adding six new stations from the terminus in east Pasadena to the Azusa/Glendora border at Citrus Avenue.

The two lines mark the farthest east and the farthest west for Metro’s growing rail system, which expands to 87 stations and over 93 miles of rail within Los Angeles County.

Gold Line’s Foothill extension and the Expo Line Phase 2 — when added to existing light-rail and subway trains — could remove the primary barrier separating east and west parts of the county, namely freeway gridlock.

For example, riders from bedroom communities in the east San Gabriel Valley could stroll the Santa Monica Pier or shop the Third Street Promenade and retu the same day without facing the 10 Freeway and parking costs. While Gold Line passengers would still have to change trains at 7th Avenue and at Union Station, those inconveniences will be eliminated when a third project, the $1.5 billion Regional Coector, is completed in 2020, creating a quicker, transfer-free ride

Metro will test the Expo Line Phase 2 trains up to the day passenger service begins.

Expo Line ridership reached 31,000 riders per day shortly after the first phase opened. Once the extension opens, ridership is forecasted to more than double to 64,000 by 2030.

“Santa Monica is a destination. It is certainly a place that has a lot of jobs. There are huge tech employers out there,” said Gabriela Collins, a spokesperson for the Exposition Construction Authority. These include Google and Activision Blizzard, a large video game developer.

Advertisement

- - , .