LAX Automated People Mover

The LAX Automated People Mover is an under construction automated people mover (APM) system that will eventually serve the area around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

The system will be owned by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and operated by LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS). The line will run for and have six stations that connect the LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility (ConRAC), the Los Angeles Metro Rail system, and the LAX West Intermodal Transportation Facility (West ITF) with the airport's central terminal area (CTA).

The line was initially planned to open in 2023, but , it is scheduled to open in early 2026. An arbitrator found that LAWA was responsible for nearly two years of delays by failing to take steps to integrate the APM with its communications network and the delayed construction of the Metro Rail's LAX/Metro Transit Center. As a result, the airport and city agreed to pay an additional $600 million in change orders to the contractors.

Service description

Route description

The LAX Automated People Mover (APM) will run along a line of six stations, with parallel tracks forming a pinched loop.

The APM will serve three stations in the central terminal area (CTA) each with footbridges with moving walkways to nearby terminals. The west station will serve terminals 3, 4, and B (the Tom Bradley International Terminal), the center station will serve terminals 1, 2, 5 and 6, and the east station will serve terminals 7 and 8 with a future connection to terminal 1. Continuing to the east, the line will travel over Sepulveda Boulevard and skirt along the airfield where Terminal 9 is planned.

At that point, the line turns to the north, crossing Century Boulevard to reach the LAX West Intermodal Transportation Facility (ITF), a large parking structure with a park and ride area and access to nearby hotels.

From there, the route continues east along 96th Street, passing the line's maintenance yard and crossing over the Metro Rail tracks as it arrives at the East ITF station atop the LAX/Metro Transit Center. This station will offer connections to the Los Angeles Metro Rail system and the many local buses.

Trains then travel a short distance to the east and enter the LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility (ConRAC), a massive parking structure that will house all of the major rental car companies that operate at LAX.

Hours and frequency

The APM is expected to operate 24 hours a day. During peak hours (9 a.m. to 11 p.m.) trains will arrive every two minutes. The line will have a ten-minute end-to-end travel time.

Rolling stock

The LAX Automated People Mover's fleet will consist of 44 Innovia APM 300 vehicles manufactured by Alstom (initially Bombardier Transportation). Each vehicle can accommodate up to 50 passengers and their luggage, with 12 seated and the rest standing. During peak periods, nine four-car trains will operate simultaneously. Trains will operate with a top speed of and an average speed, including stops, of .

Each four-car train can accommodate up to 200 passengers. During peak hours, with a headway of every 2 minutes, up to 30 trains per hour are expected to enter LAX, carrying up to 6,000 passengers per hour ( p/h/d) and up to 84,000 daily peak hour passengers, or up to 30.7 million annual peak hour passengers. The opposite direction capacity will be the same, enabling the system to theoretically transport up to 85 million passengers annually in both directions, including up to 23.7 million non-peak passengers.

Station listing

The following is the complete list of stations, from west to east.

Traffic reduction

The ConRAC facility is projected to eliminate over 3,200 daily car-rental shuttle trips. The East and West ITFs are projected to reduce parking and hotel shuttle trips and car trips into the CTA. The LAX/Metro Transit Center is projected to displace car trips by increasing transit ridership. Riders will include many of the over 57,000 airport and airline badge holders, in addition to airline passengers.

Upcoming Airfield & Terminal Modernization Project (ATMP)

The upcoming Airfield & Terminal Modernization Project (ATMP), scheduled for 2028, includes roadway improvements in the vicinity of the West ITF, with an elevated roadway system to separate airport traffic from local traffic. Upon completion of these planned improvements, access from the north on Sepulveda Boulevard will be convenient to West ITF; access from Interstate 405 will be convenient to East ITF; and access from the south on Interstate 105 and the Sepulveda tunnel will be convenient to the planned APM station at Terminal 9.

Architecture

The six APM stations each feature a line of 20-foot diameter circular skylights, with an additional one in the mezzanine of the LAX/Metro Transit Center. The West ITF parking garage also features similar circular lighting fixtures. The new pedestrian walkways employ a Vierendeel truss, featuring rectangular rather than triangular bracing. The old-style pedestrian walkways with triangular bracing still service parking lots P1, P4, P5, and P7. The APM concrete guideway features
"gentle sweeping curves and clean uniform look". Each station features a single island platform, with level boarding, which serves trains in both directions. The proposed Terminal 9 infill station is the exception, with a pair of separate side platforms serving both directions.

The East CTA station features a viewing platform for the Theme Building (see Gallery).

History

Background

The Los Angeles International Airport has long struggled with gridlocked traffic on World Way, the main road that circles through the airport's central terminal area, that can often back up onto Century Boulevard or the Airport Tunnel, which connect the airport to Interstate 405 and Interstate 105 respectively.

Ahead of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, a second level was added to World Way, sending vehicles dropping off departing passengers to the upper level and those picking up arriving passengers to the lower. The relief was short-lived, and by the 2000s, the airport had ranked as one of the nation's most congested and hardest to navigate. That led airport managers to spend over US$15 billion to modernize the airport, with an automated people mover (APM) being one of the major improvements. The project was given added urgency in 2017 when Los Angeles was awarded its bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Planning

After receiving three bids, Los Angeles World Airports announced it had chosen LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS) to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the APM for a period of 25 years. LINXS is a joint venture, public–private partnership of ACS, Alstom, Balfour Beatty, Fluor and Hochtief, with assistance from HDR and Flatiron West. The Los Angeles City Council approved the US$4.9 billion project on April 11, 2018.

Beyond the construction of the APM guideway and stations, LAX has also planned several projects that will enable or connect to the APM. New vertical cores will be built near each terminal, enabling vertical movement of passengers with elevators and escalators, as well as pedestrian bridges over World Way with moving walkways to connect terminals to the APM stations and to existing airport parking structures. LAX is building cores between terminals 5 and 6, at terminals 7 and at terminal B (the Tom Bradley International Terminal) at the cost of $490 million. New cores were also included in larger renovation projects at terminals 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The APM will also connect to the LAX West Intermodal Transportation Facility (West ITF), a US$294.1 million, 4,300 space parking structure with a lot to pick up and drop off passengers and areas for shuttle buses, the new LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility (ConRAC), a massive parking structure that will house all of the major rental car companies that operate at LAX in one location located adjacent to Interstate 405, and to the LAX/Metro Transit Center (East ITF), connecting passengers to the Los Angeles Metro Rail C and K Lines and other transit services.

Altogether, these projects are called the Landside Access Modernization Program and are expected to cost a total of US$5.5 billion.

Construction

In 2018, 2,100 parking spaces in lot C were removed to reconfigure the area for the West ITF. Utility relocation started in the second quarter of 2018. Construction on the West ITF officially began in the summer of 2019 and ConRAC broke ground in September 2019. The first large concrete pour for the APM occurred in September 2020 at the West ITF station.

Construction on the of two-track elevated guideway began in the spring of 2019 with the first underground support columns being placed. The first concrete for the columns was poured in January 2020. The pouring of the concrete for the guideway began in September 2020 and it was completed in May 2022. A total of 69,700 cubic yards (53,300 m3) of concrete was poured and one million work hours were completed to complete this project.

Connecting Los Angeles's Metro Rail system to the airport, which was studied by transit planners since the 1980s, started when Metro commenced construction on the LAX/Metro Transit Center on June 21, 2021. The new station will connect Metro and other transit services to the East ITF station. The new station will link the LAX Automated People Mover to the C and K rail lines, Metro Bus, and other municipal bus operator lines. Additionally, a customer service center and Metro Bike Hub will be constructed.

After two years of construction, West ITF's economy parking structure opened on October 19, 2021. Until the APM opens, temporary shuttle buses transport passengers between the airport and the facility.

Construction delays

The line was initially planned to open in 2023, bus is slated to open in early 2026, with a 2024 internal report forecasting the opening to be in January 2026. Schedule delays have coincided with top management changes. John Ackerman became the new LAWA CEO in February 2024. In March 2024 Terri Mestas, Chief Development Officer, accepted a new position, and three new appointments were made to the executive leadership team: Marla Bleavins as Chief Airport Administrative Officer, Robert Lowe as Chief People and Culture Officer, and Becca Doten as Chief of Staff.

An additional $200 million was authorized by the Board of Airport Commissioners on May 2, 2024 to fund change orders in an attempt to firm up the schedule. An additional $400 million was approved on August 16, 2024 by the City Council, following a June 7, 2024 decision by an arbitrator (the "Project Neutral") that LAWA was responsible for delays of 526 calendar days, having failed to act in good faith and comply with the contract documents.

, overall construction progress was 97.3% complete. On April 29, 2024, the project test drove the one-car Maintenance Service Vehicle on the guideway between the Maintenance and Storage Facility (MSF), West ITF, and ConRAC.

Gallery

File:West CTA station.jpg, Rendering of West CTA station as seen from the Tom Bradley International Terminal
File:Center CTA station 01.jpg, Rendering of the Center CTA station
File:East CTA station.jpg, Rendering of the East CTA station and its viewing platform for the Theme Building

References

External links

Transforming LAX – LAWA

LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS)

{{North American airport people movers

Airport people mover systems in the United States
Automated People Mover
Transportation in Los Angeles
2026 in rail transport
Proposed railway lines in California