Save the LAX People Mover

LAX has always been a mess. But the Automated People Mover delays have added a new level of embarrassment.

The People Mover is designed to connect the terminals at LAX, so that travelers don’t have to face long walks or interminable waits for shuttle buses.

The system also promises to link LAX directly to public transportation and a rental car facility.

The Los Angeles World Airports site promises that the People Mover will “provide time-certain access” at LAX. 

A vehicle sits on a track approaching a Central Terminal Area station during testing for the Automated People Mover (APM) train system at LAX. AFP via Getty Images

Yet the “time-certain” project is about three years behind schedule, and may not be finished in time for the 2026 World Cup in June.

Visitors to LAX have put up with construction delays for years, as the $3.34 billion project was built. Officials pleaded with the public for patience.

But contract disputes have caused delays, and have led to a billion dollars in cost overruns.

The fiasco is emblematic of LA’s dysfunction.

Projects that everyone agrees the city needs have trouble staying on time and within budget.

No one seems able to manage anything properly, and there is no accountability.

Officials show up for groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but there are few leaders able to see an idea through to its completion.

In this instance, the contractors, a consortium called LINXS, seem to have had undue leverage over the city.

That’s because the city could hardly fire them after they had already made a mess at the airport. 

They could have forced the city to scramble to find other contractors, and to waste even more money and time on legal action. 

So the city just paid the contractors for disputes, hoping that taxpayers would swallow the eventual cost without complaint.

But now, with the World Cup looming, the People Mover delays have become impossible to ignore.

The whole thing risks becoming an international embarrassment. 

One can already anticipate headlines in the overseas press: “Will LA be ready for the Olympics in 2028? Was it a mistake to give California a chance? Has the city declined that much since the triumph of the 1984 Games?

But it may not be too late to finish the People Mover in time for the World Cup. There is still a chance of salvaging some kind of success.

If so, LA needs to recruit an experienced leader to complete the People Mover before June.

Let’s show the world — and ourselves — that we can still get things done.