The LAX Automated People Mover is an

automated people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

(APM) system around the

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

area, currently under construction for

Los Angeles World Airports Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is the airport authority that owns and operates Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Van Nuys Airport (VNY) for the city of Los Angeles, California. LAWA also owns and manages aviation-related property n ...

. To be operated by LAX Integrated Express Solutions, the LAX APM will run and will have six stations that connect the

Los Angeles Metro Rail The Los Angeles Metro Rail is an urban rail transit system serving Los Angeles County, California, United States. It consists of seven lines, including five light rail lines (the A Line (Los Angeles Metro), A, C Line (Los Angeles Metro), C, E Li ...

, a consolidated rental car center (CONRAC) and two intermodal transportation facilities (ITF) with the airport's central terminal area (CTA).

Service description

Route description

The LAX APM will run and will have six stations. 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 connect to terminals 3, 4, and B (the Tom Bradley International Terminal), the center station will connect to terminals 2, 5 and 6, and the east station will connect to terminals 1, 7 and 8. Continuing to the east, the line will travel over

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...

and skirt along the airfield where provisions have been made for a station to be added if a terminal 9 is built in the future. At that point, the line turns to the north, crossing

Century Boulevard Century Boulevard is a major east–west thoroughfare in the southern portion of Los Angeles, California. Century Boulevard acts as a continuation of Tweedy Boulevard at Alameda Street in South Gate in its east end (Tweedy Boulevard in its ea ...

to reach the

LAX West Intermodal Transportation Facility The LAX West Intermodal Transportation Facility (also known as the West ITF or the LAX Economy Parking facility) is a large parking structure with a kiss and ride area and access to the LAX City Bus Center The LAX City Bus Center is the main ...

(ITF), a large

parking structure A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified ...

with a

kiss and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rapi ...

area and access to the

LAX City Bus Center The LAX City Bus Center is the main bus station serving the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California. The LAX City Bus Center, is located about a from the Central Terminal Area on 96th Street, east of Sepulveda Bouleva ...

and nearby hotels. From there, the route continues east along 96th Street, passing the line's maintenance yard and crossing over the Metro Rail tracks before arriving at the East ITF station which will offer access to the

LAX/Metro Transit Center station LAX/Metro Transit Center station (called the East ITF by LAX and known as Aviation/96th Street during planning) is an under-construction light rail transport hub in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system, located near the intersection of Avi ...

when it opens in 2024 along with parking. From there, trains travel a short distance to the east and enter the

LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility The LAX Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility (or ConRAC) is an under-construction consolidated rental car facility for the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). History The Los Angeles International Airport Consolidated Rent-A-Car (LAX ConRAC) ...

(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 system's fleet will consist of 44

Innovia APM Innovia APM is a rubber-tired automated people mover system (APM) currently manufactured and marketed by Alstom as part of its Alstom Innovia, Innovia series of fully automated transportation systems. The technology was introduced in 1963 by West ...

300 vehicles built by

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

(initially

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...

). Each vehicle can accommodate up to 50 passengers and their luggage, with 12 seated and the rest standing. During peak periods, vehicles will operate in four-car trains, with nine trains on the line. Trains will operate with a top speed of and an average speed (including stops) of .

Station listing

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

History

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

or the Airport Tunnel, which connects the airport to Interstate 405 and Interstate 105 respectively. Ahead of the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

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 The 2028 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, also known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28) is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to July 30, 2028, in and around Los Angeles, Cali ...

After receiving three bids,

announced it had chosen LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS) to

design, build, finance, operate and maintain A project delivery method is a system used by an agency or owner for organizing and financing design, construction, operations, and maintenance services for a structure or facility by entering into legal agreements with one or more entities or parti ...

the APM for a period of 25 years. LINXS is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

public–private partnership A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Review, Public Administ ...

of ACS,

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works ac ...

, Fluor and

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.HDR and Flatiron West. The US$4.9 billion project was approved by the Los Angeles City Council 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 walkway A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...

s to connect terminals to stations. LAX is building cores between terminals 5 and 6, at terminals 7 and at terminal B (the Tom Bradley International Terminal) at a 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

, a US$294.1 million, 4,300 space

with a lot to pickup and drop off passengers and areas for shuttle buses, and the

(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. All together, these projects are called the Landside Access Modernization Program and are expected to cost a total of US$5.5 billion. 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. The guideway started construction in spring 2019. Construction on the West ITF began in summer of 2019. The CONRAC broke ground in September 2019. The first large concrete pour for the APM occurred in September 2020 at the West ITF station. The West ITF opened to the public on October 19, 2021, and will temporarily use buses to transport customers between the airport and the facility. Construction on the of two-track elevated guideway began in November 2019 with the first underground support columns being placed, the first concrete for the columns was poured in January 2020, the first concrete for the guideway was poured in September 2020. The entire guideway was completed in May 2022 with after a total of of concrete poured and one million work hours were completed.

Gallery

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

References

External links

Automated People Mover – LAWA

LAX Integrated Express Solutions (LINXS)
{{North American airport people movers Airport people mover systems in the United States

Automated People Mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

Transportation in Los Angeles 2023 in rail transport Proposed railway lines in California