There are two main factors that made the history-making new subway beneath Wilshire Boulevard that opens its first section at 12:30 p.m. Friday a reality: use of new tunneling technology and the collective “yes” from Los Angeles County voters to pay for it.
Without them, LA Metro officials may still be scratching their heads as to how to build and pay for the 9-mile, $9.5 billion subway extension of the D (Purple) Line that will travel between downtown L.A. in Koreatown at Wilshire/Western and Westwood hundreds of feet beneath the most densely populated, iconic, traffic-choked, car-centric thoroughfare in the entire region.
While folks will debate if the project is a good use of taxpayer dollars, there’s no question that this subway extension — under construction for 12 years — will connect famous L.A. locations, including Koreatown, Miracle Mile, Hancock Park, the Fairfax District and Beverly Hills. The train stops near museums, restaurants, medical centers and famous shopping districts.
“Not only is this an historic moment for Los Angeles. But I think it is transformative for the way to beat the traffic,” said Eli Lipmen, executive director of Move LA, a nonprofit that played a significant role in getting this project built.
LA Metro, which is building this complex project, divided it into three sections. All the stations are underground. Section 1 is 3.92 miles with three stations: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega. Section 2 has Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City/Constellation stations opening in Spring 2027; and Section 3, the farthest west, will have: Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Hospital stations, opening in fall 2027.
LA Metro estimates what is normally more than an hour’s drive will be much less on the train. From Union Station to Wilshire/La Brea, 14 minutes; 17 minutes to Wilshire/Fairfax and 21 minutes to Wilshire/La Cienega, Metro estimated. From Union Station to the western-most station in Westwood, it will take about 25 minutes. Riders also can catch the D Line at the 7th and Metro station in DTLA, which includes stops for the E (Expo) Line and A (Gold) Line trains.
The transit agency projects that more than 49,000 people will board the trains at the new stations each weekday.
In short, the agency’s philosophy is simple: To get people out of their cars and onto the new subway extension by setting up the first non-automobile connection between the Westside of L.A. and downtown LA. If successful, traffic on Wilshire Boulevard will ease, with less air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
That may be a simply-stated goal, but getting there has not been simple, nor easy.
The history
In the late 1880s, businesses and residents along Wilshire turned down a street car, saying it would “sully the neighborhood,” Metro reported.
In 1963, a monorail was suggested by a German company to rise over the famous street. But that idea was killed. Then in 1968, a rudimentary plan for subways in five different corridors including under Wilshire also was rejected. The first Metro subway, the B (Red) Line was built serving DTLA. That was supposed to go beneath Wilshire but that extended route was scrapped.
One of the biggest setbacks was a methane explosion in 1985 at the Ross Dress For Less store that caused fears of tunneling. Rep. Henry Waxman passed a bill in Congress that banned any federal dollars for the D Line’s westerly extension. That hold lasted 22 years.
Stephanie Gagliarducci, co-owner of Andre’s Italian Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard, remembers that day. Her father had a restaurant on Fairfax, close to the Ross store.
“My dad said it was like a plane landed on the roof,” she said on Wednesday, May 6.
What changed?
Advanced tunnel boring machines became available. These make tunneling more efficient and safer, by maintaining constant pressure in the area surrounding the subway tunnel, making collapses virtually impossible, Metro reported.
“It was the advanced (tunneling) construction technology and the ability to use those tools that improved,” said Denny Zane, founder and strategy director of Move LA.
Even with the new tunnel machines, obstacles arose. The project plowed through tar and oil wells that needed to be capped. One of the tunneling machines was halted when it came upon two giant steel beams. A machine hitting the beams may have been catastrophic. But the find stopped the machines until the beams were removed, delaying construction.
Making construction possible was Move LA and a coalition of supporters from labor, city, state, county leaders and environmental groups. They convinced Waxman to repeal the ban on federal funds for any underground subway, opening up the door not just to federal funds but also to local transportation funds.
The funding
Measure R, a half-cent sales tax for L.A. County transit projects, including building and extending rail lines, passed in November 2008 with just over the required two-thirds majority. The 30-year tax funded $40 billion in projects, and the D Line Section 1 was a first priority. Later, the Measure M half-cent sales tax, which passed in 2016, plus federal dollars, funded the remaining sections.
The rallying cry came from L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who would say he wanted to build “a subway to the sea” while he campaigned for reelection in 2007 and 2008. While the D Line doesn’t reach the sea, future tax measures helped fund the extension of the E Line to Santa Monica, just a half block from the beach.
“It was a metaphor for closing your eyes and thinking about going out to Westwood,” he said during an interview on Thursday. He is currently a candidate for governor of California in the June 2 primary.
When he first began talking about subways to the western coast of Southern California, he said people laughed. “People said it is never going to happen. It is pie in the sky,” he said. Later he brought tunneling experts to speak with Waxman, who convinced him that tunneling beneath Wilshire would be safe and the law against it was repealed.
The ballot measure received pushback from several members of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, who threatened not to approve its placement on the November ballot. Then Supervisor Michael Antonovich said LA County taxpayers should not have to bear the cost of a system that would benefit only one of its 88 cities. Later, Supervisor Don Knabe changed his mind and Measure R had enough votes to be put on the ballot for a voter decision, Zane said.
Right before the election, the U.S. economy crashed due to bad mortgage loans and widespread foreclosures. Known as the Great Recession, Zane said he felt this latest hurdle would doom Measure R, leaving him wondering if L.A. County voters would swallow a tax measure with the economy in shambles.
But LA county voters still voted to tax themselves with the hope it would bring about more trains and alternatives to driving in traffic.
“It is totally amazing. It was a miracle this thing (Measure R) passed. And it was led by Antonio’s ‘Subway to the Sea,’ ” Zane said. “People voted for it because the traffic in LA had gotten so bad. L.A. County did its own thing on transportation and that is unique in the country.”
The riders
Gagliarducci, co-owner of Andre’s Italian Restaurant who lives in Studio City, moved her family’s restaurant to 5400 Wilshire Boulevard in 2024, in anticipation of the D Line extension. The eatery, featuring favorites such as spaghetti with meat sauce and gelato for dessert, is two blocks west of the La Brea Station.
She was cautiously optimistic the train would bring more customers.
“We will see how it goes,” she said. “We are hoping so.” If business jumps, she’s thinking about extending her hours. She also said the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)’s new addition opening up, plus two new farmer’s markets coming to Wilshire will help.
Lipmen said riders will at first come from essential workers who can’t or don’t want to drive from far away in traffic. “It is important for Beverly Hills and food and restaurant workers, hotel workers, nurses, janitors who need a good way to get to their jobs,” he said.
“The Wilshire Boulevard Corridor is one of the most traveled, densest corridors in the L.A. region,” he added.
The line, once fully opened to Westwood, will see a dramatic ridership, said Zane. He said students and essential workers will be riding the D extension.
But even with the name recognition of Beverly Hills and LACMA along Wilshire Boulevard, subway ridership will be tempered by the work-from-home trend that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and has mostly continued, with some employees working hybrid schedules.
“While the Wilshire Corridor is the most dense, you are still competing with Zoom and online workers. That’s still happening,” Zane said.
He said while some will work from home and not ride the train to office buildings, other who do have to report to work — nurses, teachers, restaurant workers — will ride. “It will be a strong performance, but this is still early,” he said, hoping that ridership will increase when all seven stations open by the end of next year.
Train enthusiasts, such as Fred Hill, one of the owners of the Original Whistle Stop model train store in Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard since 1951, is a regular LA Metro rail rider. The Altadena resident takes the A Line to restaurants in downtown L.A. and Chinatown, he said.
He said what some call the L.A. Rail Revolution is really not a revolution, but an evolution.
“Yes, L.A. used to be a car culture. But it is time for L.A. people to evolve,” Hill said. “It is a slow process, but an evolution takes time.”
With gas prices hitting $6 a gallon at some Pasadena filling stations, Hill said he thinks more drivers will leave their cars in the garage and take a train and connect to the D Line and its new stations in the Miracle Mile, near what’s known as “Restaurant Row.”
Fares will remain $1.75 each way. But reduced rates are available for disabled, seniors, low-income residents and students. He called the Metro rail “a bargain” that should be utilized, instead of complaining about high gasoline prices at the pump. “It is time for you, the citizen, to do something about it yourself. This is one way you can economize,” he said.
LA Metro will offer free rides across the Metro bus, rail, bike share and Metro Micro system from 4 a.m. Friday, May 8, through 3 a.m. Monday, May 11.
On Friday, LA Metro will host food samples from nearby restaurants, music from DJs, and other activities for the family at the three new stations and at the Wilshire/Western existing station.