The commission that oversees Los Angeles International Airport voted Thursday to allocate $400 million more to settle legal claims over the long-awaited Automated People Mover train.
Pending final sign-off by the Los Angeles City Council, the approval from the Los Angeles World Airports board of airport commissioners clears the way for the delayed project to finish construction. Officials expect the train to be completed by Dec. 8, 2025, and in use by January 2026.
LAWA Chief Executive John Ackerman said he's confident the timeline will be met, but cautioned that those dates aren't concrete.
"We are building it on land that LAWA does not own, we are interacting with other agencies that we have no control over, and there are sometimes unforeseen problems on projects of this complexity," Ackerman said.
Construction on the 2.25-mile elevated train was expected to be finished in 2024 in preparation for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics. Although the project is about 95% complete, disputes between the airport and the contractor, LAX Integrated Express Solutions, or LINXS, over timing, production and compensation led to significant delays.
Ackerman said all those involved are now having weekly calls to address problems as they arise so that issues do not "fester and grow."
The project is part of a $30-billion overhaul of one of the world's busiest airports. The new allocations will be pulled from reserve funds, officials said, and increase the Automated People Mover budget from $2.9 billion to $3.34 billion.
The approved funds include a $50-million contingency that may not be used in its entirety or at all.
As LAX currently operates, hundreds of thousands of travelers and employees funnel into and out of the airport's gridlocked horseshoe loop each week without any public transit alternative, as most major airports offer.
Transit experts and airport officials expect the People Mover to significantly reduce traffic by offering an easy connection to the Metro and to a new consolidated rental car facility and parking lot.
A new LAX/Metro transit station at Aviation and 96th is set to open in November, and car rental company Avis is expected to begin operations at the new facility in August, Ackerman said.
"We're going to take 42 million vehicle miles a year off of Los Angeles roads. I think that's a tremendous accomplishment, and it's going to make a difference in the lives of Angelenos," he said.
"I was told when I got here that the easiest way to to lose a friend in Los Angeles is ask the friend to drive to LAX on Friday night. ... This is a problem that we need to solve."
Once running, the train will operate 24/7, running every two minutes during peak hours from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Officials expect the train will cut 117,000 vehicle miles each day and carry about 30 million passengers each year.
The hope is that if more people take advantage of the train and cut down on rides in and of the airport, traffic congestion will ease — a possibility that could have a ripple effect across the city.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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