Los Angeles International Airport’s long-awaited People Mover has been delayed again, with passenger service now expected to begin in January 2027 — nearly four years after the train was originally scheduled to open.
The 2.25-mile automated electric train, now called SkyLink, was supposed to begin carrying passengers in 2023. Los Angeles World Airports broke ground on the project in March 2019, and construction began later that year. Six years later, the project is about 99% complete, with trains already running on the elevated tracks without passengers.
The latest delay comes as the project reaches what was expected to be its final stretch. According to a Sept. 16 filing, LAX Integrated Express Solutions, or LINXS, now expects to complete the project by Dec. 8. Before passenger service can begin, however, the system must complete 30 consecutive days of successful testing, undergo an independent review and receive an assessment from Los Angeles World Airports, or LAWA. A utility agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also still needs to be finalized. LINXS has said there is no guarantee the January opening date will hold.
The delay is the latest in a series of setbacks that have pushed the project years beyond its original schedule and contributed to growing tension between LAWA, which oversees the project, and LINXS, the contractor hired to build it. LINXS sued the city in July over the project’s delays, while the contractor and LAWA have disputed responsibility for the problems that have kept the People Mover from opening. A Los Angeles County civil grand jury also examined the project and found LINXS largely responsible for issues that contributed to the delays.
For the public, however, the dispute over who is responsible does little to change what they see: a train that was promised for 2023 is still not carrying passengers in 2026.
The frustration has grown alongside the project itself. The People Mover was envisioned as a major piece of LAX’s transformation, connecting the airport’s terminals with parking facilities, rental cars and the Metro Transit Center. For travelers, it is supposed to offer a way to move through the airport without relying as heavily on cars and airport traffic. For Los Angeles, it represents a small but tangible piece of a larger effort to make one of the country’s most congested cities easier to navigate.
LAWA, meanwhile, says it will not rush the final stages simply to meet another deadline. In a statement, the agency said the “safety and absolute reliability” of the SkyLink train are its highest priorities and that rigorous testing of the tracks, signaling systems and vehicles is standard practice for major automated airport transit systems. It said it will not compromise those safety protocols.
That position is difficult to dismiss. A driverless train carrying airport passengers should be thoroughly tested before it opens. But the need for careful testing does not erase the frustration surrounding a project that has already missed its original opening date by years.
Los Angeles does not need assurances of a better transportation system nearly as much as it needs to see those plans become usable infrastructure. The People Mover will not solve L.A.’s transportation problems on its own, but it is one small piece of a larger need for reliable, connected public transportation across the city.
The People Mover may be nearly finished, but it has yet to fulfill the purpose for which it was built. Until passengers can finally board, Los Angeles is left waiting on a project that was supposed to have been moving the city years ago.
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