ARE YOU READY TO EXPO?!?!

The (M) Expo Line, taken here during last weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, was a major tease. But this weekend, it's ready to go all the way, baby.

Can you feel it, Los Angeles?

THE MILITANT SAID, CAN YOU FEEL IT?!?!

Yes folks, It's that time again, time for another Metro Rail line to be added to our 22-year old system as the (M) Expo Line opens up this weekend at long last! The Militant has been attending every single Metro Rail Grand Opening since The (M) Blue Line opened in 1990, and he was there to bring you the (M) Gold Line Eastside Extension's opening back in aught-nine.

The Militant may or may not be gearing up to bring you another Vlogstyle video. But he has been noticing that Metro has been gearing up itself lately in terms of maps and wayfinding displays.

The local vicinity way finding displays on the subway level have been updated, to show Los Angeles attractions that tourists from around the world come to this fabled land just to visit, like the 777 Tower Building.

The Tree Has More Branches: Notice anything new about this Metro system map?

Even the line maps on the Red/Purple Line trains have been updated.

This big way finding display was placed at 7th Street/Metro Center, where now four rail lines converge. The middle panel wants you to make sure you don't get your trains mixed up. It's unfortunate though that the Nippon Sharyo light rail cars had to stay with the old-school rolling signs and not the more practical LCD displays.

The (M) Gold Line was once considered to be dubbed "The (M) Rose Line" but that was shot down because, quoth one of the County Supes: "Rose is too close to Red." Of course...EXPO IS TOO CLOSE TO BLUE.

The good news is that we'll see a lot more of these line openings in the years to come. This summer, the Farmdale and Culver City (M) Expo Line stations will complete the first phase of this route, and in just four years we'll be Ready To Expo all the way to Santa Monica. Around that time, the Foothill Extension of the (M) Gold Line will also take us to Aczusag-na. But wait, there's more! The (M) Purple Line Westside Extension will take us from K-Town to the edge of Beverly Hills at long last (as for the rest of the line, those rich muh'fus in BH better grow up and stop BitcHing). Then there's the fifth light rail line going through the Crenshaw Corridor and to LAX. We'll also have the Regional Connector - DTLA's second subway - which will turn three of the light rail lines into two (Doing away with "Expo Light Blue" and having a north-south Blue Line and east-west Gold Line - so get ready for the paradigm shift, folks!), and even a possible rail line which May Or May Not go through the Sepulveda Pass.  

Think it takes forever to build them all? Consider we've had Metro Rail operating longer than you'll have to wait for nearly all of the aforementioned lines to get built. Time flies when you're going Metro!