Dwight Eisenhower was president, big-finned cars ruled the roads and white sidewall tires were all the rage the last time you could take rail transit to Santa Monica.
That will all change Friday with the opening of the Metro Expo Line extension between Culver City and downtown Santa Monica.
Friday’s opening of the 6.6-mile line will mark the first time rail service has carried passengers to the beach since the 1950s, and it will allow uninterrupted train travel from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Santa Monica.
The $1.5 billion extension portion opening Friday stretches the Expo Line from its current terminus near Venice and Robertson boulevards in Culver City to a station at Colorado Boulevard and Fourth Street in downtown Santa Monica. The extension includes seven new stations, including stops in Palms, West Los Angeles and the area just north of Santa Monica College.
With the extension, the Expo Line will stretch from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles, ending at the Seventh Street/Metro Center Station at Seventh and Flower Streets. Riders at that station can connect with the Blue, Red and Purple lines to Long Beach, Union Station, North Hollywood or the mid- Wilshire area.
Metro officials said the ride from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles is expected to take 46 minutes.
Metro will offer free rides on the route on Friday and Saturday to introduce passengers to the new line.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said he expects the line to be one of the Metro system’s most popular, far exceeding the anticipated passenger count of 30,000 riders a day.
“We think it could be probably 40 to 45 thousand, and my prediction is it’ll go well over 50,000,” Garcetti said earlier this month. “The nice thing about a train is we can add capacity. We’re running every 12 minutes to begin with, but if we need to run it every 10 minutes or every eight minutes, we can build that capacity as the ridership surges so that you’re never going to be in a crowded car, but you’ll be able to get in there and get where you need to go.”
The extension will also include a new feature for Metro — paid parking.
Three stations on the Expo Line Phase 2 extension will have parking lots costing $2 a day as part of a two-year pilot program designed to respond to anticipated high demand for spaces. Monthly parking passes for the lots are being sold at www.lametroparking.net.
Transit riders with monthly parking permits will have access to select spaces on a first-come, first-served basis from 4 to 9 a.m. on weekdays. After 9 a.m., the permit spaces will be available to the general public.
The lots will be available at:
— 17th Street/Santa Monica College station: 67 spaces, of which 13 are reserved for monthly permits;
— Expo/Bundy station: 217 spaces, with 131 reserved for monthly permits; and
— Expo/Sepulveda station: 260 spaces, with 77 reserved for permits.
According to Metro, monthly parking passes for the SMC station sold out within an hour. Passes are still available for the other two stations.
People without permits will pay the $2 daily parking rate, with parking attendants on hand to collect money and ensure motorists have Transit Access Pass cards to use the rail line. When an attendant is not on duty, payments must be made by phone or with a smartphone app that will be available when the extension opens May 20, according to Metro.
Metro officials said payment kiosks will be installed at the lots later this year, and technology is also being installed that will allow riders to check parking availability online.
— City News Service