The wait is nearly over:  for those living on the Westside of Los Angeles, passenger rail transit will be available in just a few short months.  Officials announced this week that the final extension of the Expo Line will open on May 20, extending service from Culver City to just a few blocks from the Santa Monica pier.

This will be the first passenger rail transit service to the far Westside since Pacific Electric streetcars stopped running to Santa Monica in 1953.  The project completes the 15-mile Expo Line between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica.  Train trips between downtown Santa Monica and downtown L.A. will take 46 minutes, giving riders a great alternative to driving the often congested Santa Monica Freeway.

Metro Board Chair Mark Ridley-Thomas voiced his support for the various transportation projects underway in Los Angeles County:

The progress that Metro has made building transportation infrastructure and providing better transit service in the last few years has been impressive, thanks to Los Angeles County voters.  We’ve completed two rail projects, are building three others and we have a massive highway modernization project underway.”

The Expo Line is an exciting and community-transforming project.  Nossaman is honored to have served as General Counsel to the Expo Line, overseeing all aspects of the project from its initial stages through its completion.

If you’re interested in learning more about how the Expo Line has revitalized and transformed areas near its transit stations, feel free to join our 2016 Eminent Domain Seminar, where Samantha Bricker, Expo’s Chief Operating Officer, will join me in discussing transit proximity, transit oriented development, and project benefits.  We also have a number of other exciting panels on a wide-range of right-of-way-related topics, so I hope to see you there.