Los Angeles Metro Expo Line - Phase II Tour, Part 1

A speedy, time-lapse trip through the disputed rail right-of-way for Metro's Expo line - currently being built from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

Starting about 6 blocks West of Robertson & Venice through West LA to the corner of Pico & Sawtelle! Yes, no kidding - this is West LA and it was shot on July 10 & 11, 2010.

The homeowners around this part of the line (Cheviot Hills) are annoyed because a train is coming, so they decided to sue the city to stop it claiming it's not "safe." You be the judge - a massively wide right-of-way sitting unused and tunnels & bridges already in place from the last streetcar line we had here!

Let's hope these NIMBYs lose and the city wins.

I made this film with a home brew steadycam, a Panasonic Lumix TZ-10 camera, Apple's iMovie and a lot of walking. ;)

Please subscribe if you want to get notified of the next video update. For more info on the Expo line, see http://www.buildexpo.org

• Category

  News & Politics

[Eric Brightwell]

Very nicely done. I shared with my Facebook group, "SoCal Train Nerd." Are you still planning on doing a part two? I'm in the process of writing about Phase II for KCET (walked it on Tuesday and came across this doing research) and it's all a big construction site. Seems like it's happening very quickly and to those people who are mad that a train is passing through their back yard -- please contact me so that we can trade residences!

[Alexis Kasperavičius]

Hi Eric, Thanks for the props. Yes, indeed all of what's in the video is now gone. Bridges are going up and the rail bed has been graded with mounts for catenary already installed. It's going very fast. (See pics here: (flickr(dot)com/photos/expolin­e-part-2/) Part II was shot but needs some post processing I have not had time to do. Soon. BTW, I am now in Montréal, so may not be seeing you soon! AK

[SuperVillaTube]

i was in LA and i saw some rails on the middle of the road and going into builindings and stuff like that. know what that is?

[Alexis Kasperavičius]

Look up "Pacific Electric" on wikipedia. Los Angeles had a massive streetcar system at one time. Many of the tracks are still around in pieces.

[amarstan]

I can't believe the NIMBY crowd. The city should fly them all to Portland and show them how much better having public transit helps not only the city, but their property values.

[Ryan Ward]

This is just fantastic. Anxiously looking forward to Part II! Thanks!

[Atheistically Yours]

Time to add a "Part II', since construction on the "Phase 2" has already started.

[DataRune]

Great work here. I always wondered what those mysterious railways that popped up all around the city were. Waiting for part 2.

[headybrew]

I'm waiting for part 2!!!! Thanks for this.

[GSMSfromFV]

Not sure if anyone answered your question, but at this point in time (1/21/13) all legal attempts to stop Phase II have failed and the construction continues, with completion planned for 2015. There's a link in the uploader's description to the Expo website that has details and recent construction pictures.

[ChaosDemonwolf]

Vety interesting ''walk through'' as it were. If the expo line is decided, what you showed here is going to be used again? If so, what about the various spots (parking lots ect) like the one at the beginning.....will the right of way reclaim these places?

[steven joel]

i cant believe im watching this

[G0NZ0STaR]

We had a great system of public transportation rivaling, if not surpassing New York's subway system... and it was destroyed. Only after it was gone did we realize that it was a mistake to have demolished it.