Metro begins tests for Expo Line

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Metro began testing Monday its Expo Line tracks. A high rail truck pulled an empty light rail train to test side clearance and overhead.

"This is just a slow walking speed type test," Metro Start-Up Manager Jim Jasmin said, "When we get to an object, if it looks iffy, we'll stop. We'll move up slowly until we get to it and then check the measurements and go on.

Jasmin and other safety officials wearing bright yellow vests with orange reflectors followed alongside the train.

"It's a very long process, Jasmin said. "It's going to be a couple days before we get this all done just in this short, start up section of the line."

There are 10 new stations included in Phase one. The stops include USC, Exposition and Crenshaw, Farmdale and Culver City. The estimated travel time between Downtown and Culver City will be 30 minutes, according to Metro officials.

But the Expo Line construction came with controversy. South LA community members and activists expressed concern over unsafe railroad crossings in low-income and minority neighborhoods, especially at the Farmdale station near Dorsey High School.

Damien Goodmon, coordinator of the Fix Expo citizens’ campaign, called for every intersection of the Expo Line to have a grade-separated crossing.
"We needed to do this for a variety of reasons," Goodmon said. "There was injustice and injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere. Dr. King. And two, we had to establish that you can't just assume that since you're coming through a black and brown community that you'll be able to build any kind of way."

The California Public Utilities Commission Board voted in 2010 to support a plan that called for safety improvements. The improvements included station platforms and speed restrictions.

But the Federal Transit Administration's Office for Civil Rights is investigating whether or not Metro complied with the Civil Rights Act. Title 6 states that any program receiving federal funding cannot discriminate in any way.

"And so that is one long fought for victory you can say," Goodmon said. "From that standpoint, getting them to look at that project and maybe imposing sanctions upon Metro for violations, we would hope would lead to corrective actions that will prevent this type of disparity in future projects."

The $862 million Expo light rail is entirely funded by Metro. Metro has not yet set an official date for the start of passenger service. But they hope to be done with most of Phase 1 by November 15, 2011. Completion all the way to Culver City might not happen until early next year, according to Metro.