Inglewood is a step closer to getting a proposed $1 billion automated people mover, well, moving.
The California State Transportation Agency has announced it will award the city a $95 million grant to put toward the goal of ferrying visitors from Metro’s downtown Inglewood station to venues such as the new SoFi Stadium, The Forum and a potential Clippers arena.
So far, city officials have secured roughly $330 million of the nearly $1 billion necessary to build the elevated train system. Mayor James T. Butts Jr. is confident the city and its regional partners will find the rest.
“This is a multi-year and multi-phased project,” Butts said in an email. “We are continuing to secure funding and explore various funding and operational models. Project design is already underway.”
Inglewood expects to have the trains running sometime from 2024 to 2026, Butts said. The Olympics is expected to host its opening and closing ceremonies at SoFi Stadium in 2028.
1.8-mile elevated route
According to the proposal unveiled in 2018, the 1.8-mile elevated railway would start in downtown Inglewood, run along Market Street to Manchester Boulevard, then south on Prairie Avenue. The route would end at the site of the proposed Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center — the potential future home of the Los Angeles Clippers — at the intersection of Prairie Avenue and Century Boulevard.
A round trip aboard the automated trains could take just 13 minutes.
In March, the South Bay Cities Council of Governments allocated $233 million in Measure R sales tax revenue to the project.
City finances hurting
The city, meanwhile, expects to lose up to $30 million by the end of the fiscal year in September due to the coronavirus’ impact on the local economy. Earlier this month, Taylor Swift canceled her July 25 opening-day performance at SoFi Stadium, sparking uncertainty about when exactly the long awaited venue would open.
Butts said the coronavirus pandemic should not impact the proposed people mover project because the start of construction is still years away. The city’s “economic momentum” is still moving forward, Butts said in a news release.
California Sen. Holly Mitchell and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas have thrown their support behind the project, according to a news release.
“I know once we bounce back from our current crisis, the need for social connectedness will be more essential than ever before,” Ridley-Thomas said in a statement. “This investment from the state is a true game changer — as it will catalyze a true public-private partnership connecting people from across the Southland to the tremendous new infrastructure being built in Inglewood, including the SoFi Stadium.”