One Month into Service, Palisadians Find Little Use for Expo Line

By ERIKA MARTIN | Reporter

The recent opening of the Metro’s Santa Monica Expo Line extension provided some remedy to the long-standing tradition of inefficient or nonexistent light rail in Los Angeles.

But many wonder how much it will do to help those outside its transit corridor.

Palisadians who want to board the train will have to use Big Blue Bus Route 9—which ceases service around 10 p.m.—or pay to park in downtown Santa Monica.

But some light rail is better than no light rail, especially if you ask Palisades resident Bud Kling, who had monitored the project’s build-out with anticipation.

He remembered using the Red Line as a young child and made sure to be on board the Expo’s very first train departing from downtown Santa Monica on May 20.

“It was interesting,” Kling said. “You see the city from a different perspective. You’re going through these buildings and you see things you never saw before.”

The Los Angeles Kings season ticket holder expects he will use the line primarily for getting to sports games at Staples Center and is glad to have an option besides battling evening traffic.

“It’s a nightmare to get there. This train is a godsend,” he said. “I doubt I’ll use it until [hockey season starts in] fall, unless I go to a concert, but I’ll use it a lot.”

However, many area residents have reported that driving is still faster, and the problem remains that the transit authority has designed its system with all lines converging on downtown Los Angeles.

A Purple Line extension expanding toward the Westside is not expected to fully open until 2035—and this still only helps those coming from the east, not north or south.

This centralized, all-roads-lead-to-Rome configuration doesn’t fit the demographic landscape of LA, where most residents operate on the outskirts and may go weeks without finding a reason to visit the city center.

Domi Vargas works as a housekeeper in the Alphabet Streets and said the Expo line is no help to her.

She lives near the intersection of Sepulveda and Venice boulevards in Mar Vista and must take three buses to get in and out of the Palisades every day, a commute of at least two-and-a-half hours.

Shirley Lewis, who lives on Slauson Avenue in Culver City, has been taking the Expo weekly to visit a friend in the Palisades.

She said her trip took “maybe 25 minutes. I’m not in a hurry so I don’t pay attention to that.”

“It’s a better experience for me” than taking the bus, Lewis reported. “It’s more clean, easier and faster.”

But she’s only able to use the Expo for this trip, and otherwise continues to rely on buses.

Palisadians who wish to skip parking can get to the Expo station in about 30 minutes with Bus Route 9.

The nearest Expo station with a parking lot is 17th Street/Santa Monica College, which has just 67 spaces for which patrons will still have to pay.

Only 13 monthly permits were made available for the lot.

Kling worries about the state of downtown Santa Monica parking once more tourists arrive.

“What’s going to happen when the Metro people start jamming up those parking lots and people who want to shop in those places can’t get a spot?”