Darn, I’m looking forward to giving this a try. My wife’s family is in Manhattan Beach, but LAX is such a miserable experience that we fly in/out of Long Beach despite the extra distance. Once the people mover is running to the rental car center, we’ll see if LAX makes sense for us again.

At peak time, trains holding up to 200 people will be running every two minutes. The trip between the farthest stations should take approximately 10 minutes.

I can't wait for it to start operating, as it's going to substantially reduce the time that it takes me to get from the Economy Parking structure to the Central Terminal Area and back.

On my way out just before xmas I took some pictures of the station at the Economy lot from third deck of the lot. It's starting to look almost usable. Earlier this week I had a Lyft drop off on the upper level and the construction up there to get people across to the stations is looking like it's in the finishing stages, too. I didn't get pics of that.

It will be a *huge* time savings at peak times. On a good day I can drop the car at Economy and be at T6 in 15 minutes. On a busy day (like at the holidays) it still takes 40.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b80951654.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e9b38a1d9.jpeg

That deepest station all the way at TBIT still looks pretty unfinished. The roof is fully in place, but there's some structure right across the road from the front of TBIT that looks like it's just beginning. But maybe that doesn't need to be finished to use the People Mover.

There are some minor delay in the APM station construction that LAWA is responsible for. The big delay and why APM opening being pushed so far out is the $1billion Metro station and ITC East (yes, 1 frigging billion US dollars for an above ground metro station!) is seriously delayed beyond comprehension. The delay in the LAX Metro station also means the K line still cannot operate fully nearly 18 months after opening. It's really mind boggling but the local press have done a really poor job of reporting and holding Metro accountable for this disaster of construction planning and management.

LAWA cannot open the APM until there is substantial completion on the Metro station because it is on the way to the rental car center. LAWA doesn't want to do a phased opening and the rental agencies don't want to move until the APM is open (so they can get rid of the buses - what's the point of moving if they still have to operate the buses?)

For some context, the entire first phase of Expo line (Downtown LA to Culver City) cost $800 million. This one station is going to cost $1 billion before the inevitable cost overrun. Granted there has been inflation in the 15 years since Expo line construction but it is what it is... The complete dismantling of the 4th estate in the US means there is no investigative reporting in local media anymore :o

According to an August 2023 article in the Los Angeles Business Journal, the projected “passenger service availability” date of the APM Oct. 17, 2024. The the Metro K Line may be operational as early as the fall 2024. The $1 billion figure may include the cost of the consolidated car rental facility, Metro bus plaza, bicycle parking, customer service center and passenger pick-up and drop-off area.

The article pointed to the true reason for the delay but didn't quite connect the dots. Metro was late in awarding the station contract and then failed to properly supervise its contractors to make decent progress (the wet winter last year supposedly delayed the project by a year). LAWA was then presented with the decision to delay its APM project and had to renegotiate with all the stakeholders, including rent abatements for rental car operators who were ready to move. At the end, LAWA decided to slow down the construction of some stations in the CTA because APM crosses Metro and CPUC likely will not grant permission to operate either until both are complete. The slow down impacted project financing and cash flow which is why Fitch is involved in the bond rating. For what is worth, the trains for APM have already been delivered and the guideways and all the guidance system have been fully functional for almost a year. The original timeline for opening was mid 2023 and later January 2024. Now it is October 2024 if you believe Metro contractors can actually finish the job.

The $900m budget (2021 dollars) is just for the 96th street station and the ITC. With inflation, it is more like $1.1 or $1.2b now before cost overrun.

https://la.streetsblog.org/2021/04/2...-lax-connector

https://la.urbanize.city/post/work-s...-metro-station

Any idea what will happen at the bike hub? Bike share? Open-air parking for airport employees? Lockers for longer-term bike storage?

I always figured you were a PS regular customer. ;) More importantly, and maybe I have missed it, but is there going to be an easy passenger drop off / pick up area for those not using parking, rental car, etc. for easier drop off / pick up? Could make a world of difference if I tell a family member that I'm flying into LAX (which could result in a "get your own ride out of there" reply).

Take a look at the bird's eye view of the Airport Metro Connector Station, which I posted above. There is a passenger pick-up and drop-off area right next to the APM.

The bike hub/locker is part of the Metro station/ITC East so it's part of the $1b price tag. Bike share... who knows but it doesn't cost any real money to install a bike share station in front of the Metro station. I'm sure it will be there but that comes out of a different budget.

Employee surface parking lot is not part of the Metro station/ITC East. I assume it will stay where it is now, near ITC West/Long term parking garage.

Watch this video... at 5:50 mark, the presenter talked about how Metro wanted this to be the "Union Station of the Westside" which partly explains the price tag... but that seems to be only justified if the Sepulveda line eventually reach this station. Bike hub is talked about throughout the video but mentioned specifically at 22:00 when they are talking about circulation and design.

BzCat, while I'm mostly in agreement with everything you've written, it's not true that the guidance systems and trains are complete, let alone that they've been fully functional for nearly a year.Per construction monitoring reports that the APM developer (LINXS) is required to publicly post as part of its bond financing, the final train cars are still being assembled in Pittsburgh and aren't expected to arrive in LA for another two or three months. There's also equipment on the guideway that's still being installed, though they should hopefully be done by the end of the month. What's more concerning about the guidance equipment is that they've found a significant amount of workmanship issues with it post-installation.

Furthermore, the most delayed station (CTA West/Bradley) is delayed not because of LAWA slowing down construction, but seemingly because of poor design on the part of the A&E team, to the extent that LAWA has now gone so far as to ask for an independent review of the entire station's design.

And all of this isn't even touching on the electrical issue at the rental car center, which is what seemingly led LAWA and LINXS to the brink last summer and still might delay opening.

For what it's worth, the developer is blaming LAWA IT for the latest round of delays, not (just) Metro.

Most bike rental systems I've seen are essentially portable installations that can be loaded onto a flatbed and moved around to allow reasonably fast and inexpensive changes in locations. It just needs some space and probably a power hookup. The Bike Hub looks like a dropoff/locker/lockup facility and hopefully will provide actual secure bike parking.

Fitch downgraded the people mover bonds again today. Current estimated opening date is mid-April 2025