If elected as the next mayor of Los Angeles, Nithya Raman says she will get to the bottom of the over-budget and long-overdue automated people mover project at Los Angeles International Airport, and ensure the contractor hired to build it is never awarded more work from the city.
Raman posted a video to her campaign page on Wednesday, in which she sarcastically called the project glorious, beautiful, fast and “so not ready for prime time.”
“Traffic and LAX are pretty synonymous,” Raman says in the video shared to social media. “Everyone who’s flown from LAX understands the frustration, but traffic at this airport was actually supposed to be taken care of three years ago with the installation of a new people mover that connected the LAX economy parking lot with every single one of its terminals.”
Raman is talking about the LAX Automated People Mover project, otherwise known as Skylink.
“Sounds futuristic,” Raman continues. “Well, we’re seven years into the future and it’s still not linked.”
Originally meant to open in March 2023, long before the 2026 FIFA World Cup and with ample time to spare before the 2028 Summer Olympics, the project is now slated to begin service in October—at the very earliest.
Nithyan Raman explains LAX People Mover delays
The project has been plagued by more-than a half-dozen delays, countless change orders that have driven up the cost to nearly $1 billion over the original budget, and resulted in a contentious relationship between the City of Los Angeles (and the airport authority) and LINXS, the construction and design consortium that was awarded the lucrative contract.
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The terms of that contract have been identified as the main driver of the delays and budget overruns by both transit advocates and a 2024-25 Los Angeles County Grand Jury Report.
Essentially, LINXS has been accused of using its immense leverage to squeeze more and more funding from Los Angeles World Airports in order to complete the less-than 3% of the project remaining before the 2028 Olympics—I wrote about this at greater length in June
Transit advocates, as well as Raman herself, have likened the legal battle to extortion.
“LINXS, took advantage of ambiguous provisions in the contract to essentially extort the city for years,” Raman said. “As mayor, I’ll ask our city attorney and our state attorney general to investigate this contractor for its actions.”
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Raman currently represents Los Angeles Council District 4, including the neighborhoods of Silver Lake, Los Feliz and Hollywood Hills. She’s currently is in a heated race for the mayor’s office against incumbent Karen Bass.
In the video, Raman accuses the Los Angeles World Airports Commissioners—whom are appointed by Bass—of attempting to cover the costs of the budget overrun by raising fees on passengers forced to use ride-share services to get in and out of the airport.
Earlier this year, the LAWA commissioners approved increasing the airport fee on Uber and Lyft rides to the terminal, from $4 to $12.
Raman said these increased fees are “adding insult to injury.”
“Instead of fighting the $1 billion overage, she’s making people who are using the airport pay for it,” Raman said. “As if it wasn’t already expensive enough to get here. The people mover is massively delayed, massively over budget, but even by L.A. infrastructure project standards, this one is especially forked up.”
Raman concludes her video by saying she wants to lead Los Angeles into a new future, where infrastructure is built with “intention and with speed,” and, apparently, without LINXS getting any taxpayer dollars.
Rabble News reached out to Mayor Karen Bass for comment and are awaiting a response.
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