Expo opens to Culver City on June 20

Expo trains are heading toward Culver City, with the station's opening set for June 20. Photo/Metro

The Expo Line hits full strength on June 20, when the light rail’s Farmdale and Culver City stations open to the public.

The opening completes the 8.6-mile first phase of the line, which debuted with stations originally extending as far west as La Cienega on April 28. A second phase to extend the line all the way to Santa Monica is now being built.

The elevated Culver City station opens up a gateway to the city’s popular eateries and other attractions, including the quirky Museum of Jurassic Technology.

The Farmdale station, near Dorsey High School, was not originally part of the line, but was added later, after the Public Utilities Commission approved a station at the site. The Culver City station, original conceived as an interim station for phase one, changed course and became an elevated, permanent station after state funding became available.

Expo CEO Rick Thorpe said a 600-space park-and-ride lot will open along with the Culver City station, and bus lines in the area will be realigned to feed into it.

“It should be a very, very heavily used station,” he predicted.

The stations will open at noon on Wednesday, June 20. That means that participants can ride Expo to Culver City’s Third Wednesday “Summer Solstice” Happy Hour, with attractions including music from a six-string electric cello, an open house at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, dancing and all kinds of liquid refreshment at local watering holes.

Posted 6/5/12