By Hector Gonzalez
Special to The Lookout

December 1, 2015 -- Saying public safety is the number one concern, Santa Monica's city manager is mobilizing key departments to make sure the City is “absolutely ready” for the expected spring arrival of the Expo Light Rail Line.

Completing a historic passenger train link to Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Transit Authority's $1.5 billion Expo Line will end just four blocks from Santa Monica's iconic pier, with service to start as early as the beginning of April or at least by mid-May, City Manager Rick Cole predicted.

With it will come all manner of “known and unknown” potential problems that can happen “when trains meet an urban environment for the first time in 50 years,” he said in a recent presentation to the City Council.

Calling it a historic change for the City's transit system, Cole said staff is focusing on seven main areas, with safety at the top of the list.

Committees also are meeting with Metro officials on the rail line's new maintenance yard, and staff is working on the completion of Buffer Park, which will provide a barrier between the maintenance yard and a nearby neighborhood.

Officials also are studying potential impacts on traffic circulation around the stations and rail lines.

“We'll be working on the first and last-mile connections, because riding the train will be great, if you can get to and from the train,” Cole said. “There are a lot of options, including taxis, to get people to and from the Expo Line.”

Officials are making big plans for Opening Day of the new service, which Cole said will be more like a public education campaign than a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“We're doing a lot of planning, because there are all kinds of unanticipated contingencies,”he said. “We know there will be accidents.”

But officials must also prepare for the “unknown unknowns,” Cole said, borrowing a line from former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

With that in mind, local police, fire and emergency coordinators are now working closely with the county transit agency and the county Sheriff's Department, which provides law-enforcement on Metro's trains, he said.

Police also are meeting with Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, Homeland Security and “a lot of agencies concerned about every aspect of safety,” he said, “of making the train safe to ride on, making the train safe to be around, and making it safe for the people who are on the train.”

Traffic safety could be a major issue, Cole said. Local police already are reporting “literally hundreds” of violations of people walking on the tracks, of motorists driving on the tracks instead of the road and of drivers making illegal left turns on Colorado Boulevard, he said.

“We have a lot of education and enforcement to do,” Cole said. “Obviously, our emphasis will be on education, but in order to protect people's lives when the trains begin running, seriously, we're going to have to be very vigilant to enforce the law and to protect people's safety, both on the train and on the streets.”

Staff is meeting with teen drivers at the local high schools, seniors groups, business organizations and others to educate the community about the potential dangers.“We want everyone to be prepared for the coming of the train,” he said.

Santa Monica and local private homeless services providers also should brace for a possible influx of homeless people migrating out of an over-crowded Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles fanning out to other areas via the train.

Local officials need to be prepared to refer those homeless people to services and agencies that can help, Cole said.

Officials plan to use the Opening Day event as an educational opportunity to “get people to think about how they walk and drive in and around the stations and the lines” through gift giveaways and other events.

Cole said he'll update the Council soon about staff's plans for making sure traffic flows smoothly once the train arrives, as well as other aspects of the new transit system.

“The future is coming, and we're getting prepared,” said Cole.