With a 2023 full of recovery for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), officials continue to tinker with various improvements to light rail lines during the year’s final month.
Metro recently announced that effective Sunday, it is heightening the frequency of light rail service during both weekday peak hours and middays, including for the Expo Line that runs through Santa Monica at 4th and Colorado, 17th and Colorado and 26th and Olympic. Furthermore, Expo Line trains will have what officials called "restored" later train service during the evening hours.
In a first-time move for Metro, the Expo Line from Santa Monica to East Los Angeles will operate every eight minutes during "weekday peak" hours, an increased frequency from the typical 10-minute operation. Peak hours are defined by Metro as from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Another new endeavor is a change in train operation during weekday midday hours from every 12 minutes to every 10 minutes, also applying for Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The Expo Line changes also apply to the A Line from Downtown Long Beach to APU Citrus (Azusa), and are a result of both rider feedback and an increase in rail operation workforce.
"Over the past 18 months, Metro has worked hard to hire more than a thousand new people to support bus and rail operations," Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said. "We can now increase rail operator staffing to support an expansion of our rail service to meet increasing demand … the new 10-minute off-peak rail frequency is a level of rail service we haven’t ever offered in the past, which we hope will drive even more people to [use] Metro."
For evening service, two additional trains will be added to the Expo Line’s service, extending operations by an extra 40 minutes each night on both weekdays and weekends. The final Expo train of the evening will now depart Downtown Santa Monica at 11:54 p.m., and in East Los Angeles at the Atlantic Station at 12:18 a.m. nightly.
Metro Senior Executive Officer responsible for Scheduling and Analysis Joe Forgiarini, who puts together the service plan for the Metro bus and rail network, says the December service change is an improvement Metro has been "looking forward to doing for a while now." The move from 10-minute to eight-minute frequency, he notes, can provide for an extra one or two trains per hour, cutting down on the average rider wait time and making more seating available on the 400-person capacity rail.
"This time is so important for our customers," added Metro Media Relations Communications Manager Jose Ubaldo. "The customer experience is better, they travel faster to [their] destinations. Especially when [riders] have to work, [this change is] going to make a lot of difference. If they go to a medical appointment, or they go to school, [this] will try to make [their] life easier."
Forgiarini concurs with the crucial timing of the move, stating Metro wanted to start "dialing back up" light rail frequencies after an uptick in 2023 ridership. He states that the organization is at 70% recovery from pre-pandemic levels, and Expo Line ridership in particular has jumped from 30,000 monthly as of October 2022 to 42,000 in October 2023, credited to the introduction of the line’s regional connector through Downtown.
"It just gives us extra capacity to accommodate more riders who are coming back to riding our system," Forgiarini said. "[The Expo Line and A Line] are the two lines that the regional connector … also was very much a focus on. So it’s the perfect timing … to really start boosting the capacity on these lines."
Evening service additions are a restoration after the restructuring of the Expo Line resulted in an earlier finish time for Santa Monica service. Metro officials heard that customers were "not very comfortable" with the lack of late-night rides, and said that re-introduction of those rides will be "very beneficial" for residents, particularly those in the service industry wrapping up late shifts.
Forgiarini added that he personally met with several stakeholders in City of Santa Monica and the city’s business community to make sure locals were heard on the matter. Typical security protocols will remain similar for late-night trains, as Forgiarini said Metro will "definitely be maintaining the security coverage" on the Expo Line due to already having around-the-clock security as well as the "eyes and ears" of maintenance ambassadors.
Metro officials said that "no major changes" will be coming to buses affecting locals, such as the 4 bus and the 720 bus going to and from Downtown Los Angeles via Santa Monica Blvd and Wilshire Blvd, respectively. However, Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus recently announced service improvements to several local bus routes, taking effect on December 17.
Big Blue Bus Route 1, Main Street & Santa Monica Blvd, as well as Rapid 10 Downtown LA Freeway Express and Route 18 UCLA — Abbot Kinney — Marina del Rey, will have a new westbound stop after the intersection of Broadway and 6th St. Other Big Blue Bus route changes include:
• Route 7, Pico Blvd, has an updated schedule on weekdays to improve service reliability
• Rapid 7, Pico Blvd Rapid, weekday peak hour service improved to every 15 minutes
• Route 9 to Pacific Palisades northbound weekday service improved to every 15 minutes during peak morning hours
• Rapid 12, UCLA/Westwood to Expo Rapid, southbound buses will now service Washington Blvd. via Motor Ave., and will no longer travel on Keystone Ave
• Route 16, Wilshire Blvd/Bundy Dr - Playa del Rey, discontinued stop northbound after the intersection of Glencoe Ave. and Mindanao Way.
