I think by "prefurb" was the JC closure a year or two ago where they closed it to do some infrastructure work on things that HAD to get done, and they were rumored to have done some prep work for the JC's eventual longer, full refurb.
As for the LED lighting on the TTA, wouldn't it be cool if the lights at night were normally one color, and then as a train passed they changed to a different color to highlight the passing train? The effect would be such that from a rider's viewpoint, all the lights they passed under were a single color, but to viewers on the ground the track glows with one color, and then with brighter-lit trains gliding along. Maybe even a different color for each train? Might add to the visual kinetics of TL.
-Rob