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This weekend, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) will offer free rides on the new Expo Line as part of the festivities to mark the line’s launch.

For the first time, passengers will travel by rail from downtown L.A. to the westside since 1953, when Pacific Electric’s Santa Monica Air Line was closed in favor of automobile travel on freeways, LACMTA officials said in a prepared statement.

When completed to Culver City, Calif., this summer, the new line will add 8.6 miles to L.A. County’s 79 miles of rail, all of which were built since 1990, when the Metro Blue Line opened between downtown L.A. and Long Beach.

In addition to free rides this weekend, several other community events are planned to mark the Expo Line’s opening, agency officials said.

Expo is the latest link in the Metro Rail system. Now featuring three light-rail routes (the Gold, Green and Blue lines) and two subway routes (the Red and Purple lines), Metro extends from downtown L.A. north to North Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, northeast to Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, east to East Los Angeles and south to Long Beach.