D Line Extension


The D Line Subway Extension is a construction project in Los Angeles County, California, extending the rapid transit D Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system from its current terminus at in Koreatown, Los Angeles, to the Westside region. The project is being supervised by Los Angeles Metro. The subway has been given high priority by Metro in its long-range plans, and funding for the project was included in two county sales tax measures, Measure R and Measure M.
The project's draft environmental impact statement was completed in September 2010, and a locally preferred alternative was selected in October 2010. Metro released the D Line Extension's final environmental impact report in 2012. The entire project was approved at the Metro Board of Directors meeting on April 26, 2012, and construction has been separated into three sections.
This project's first, second, and third sections are under construction. Combined, these three sections will add nearly of heavy rail service to the cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Construction on Section 1, between the existing Wilshire/Western station and the planned Wilshire/La Cienega station, started on November 11, 2014. Section 2 pre-construction work between Wilshire/La Cienega station and Century City station began in April 2017, and the official Section 2 groundbreaking ceremony took place on February 23, 2018. Section 3 advanced utility relocation pre-groundbreaking work began in February 2018 for the future and stations. The Section 3 groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 24, 2021. Tunneling for the project was completed on April 2, 2024.
A fourth section has long been discussed, which would extend the D Line from the Westwood/VA Hospital station 3.5 miles under Wilshire Boulevard to Santa Monica beach, terminating at or near the E Line or future Lincoln Boulevard Transit Corridor terminus.

Overview

Currently, the line is planned to run between and, with tail tracks that could allow for future expansion farther west. The following new subway stations will be built:

Early concepts

Early transit planners recognized the importance of Wilshire Boulevard as a spine and key boulevard in Los Angeles. Early plans for regional Metro Rail envisioned a rapid-transit route between Downtown and the Westside, with a branch going north on Fairfax to Hollywood and into the San Fernando Valley. In 1961, the "New Proposed Backbone Route Plan" described a subway along Wilshire Boulevard from Westwood to Downtown. This project was never funded. Ballot initiatives in 1968 and 1974 to build a subway to West Los Angeles were rejected by voters, but in 1980 voters passed Proposition A, which created a half-cent county sales tax to fund rail construction. Ultimately, the Southern California Rapid Transit District, one of Metro's predecessors, planned a subway that would extend from Downtown Los Angeles to Fairfax Avenue, then north on Fairfax to Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. Due to the "methane zone" that plan was modified, and Vermont Avenue was chosen for the north–south route instead of Fairfax.

Prior opposition and halt of Wilshire branch

Several factors led to the eventual halt of plans to extend the subway west along Wilshire Boulevard. For decades, the route was mired in political and socioeconomic debate, with politicians giving vent to anti-subway sentiments and NIMBY isolationism. The City of Beverly Hills also opposed the subway, as did two critical legislators from the area: Congressman Henry Waxman and Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.
Following a methane explosion in 1985 at a Ross Dress for Less clothing store near Fairfax and Third Street, Congressman Waxman worked to legally designate a large part of Mid-Wilshire as a "methane zone." This zone stretched on either side of Wilshire Boulevard from Hancock Park to the west of Fairfax. Waxman was able to pass federal legislation banning all tunneling through this zone. Subsequently, any plans for a subway west of Western Avenue diverted the line south around the methane zone, using Crenshaw, Pico, and San Vicente Boulevards. These plans never came to fruition, and to qualify for federal funding, the SCRTD started anew and rerouted the subway north on Vermont Avenue, then traveled west under Hollywood Boulevard and then north toward the Valley. The Red Line was completed in 2000.
The Red Line project began in 1986. Soon after construction began, the project began to draw considerable bad press. Access to many local businesses was blocked for weeks, causing some small businesses to shut down. Disagreements arose between Metro and Tutor-Saliba over tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns. A sinkhole in Hollywood seemed to symbolize the disastrous nature of the subway project. in 1998, voters approved a measure sponsored by County Supervisor Yaroslavsky that banned use of Proposition A and Prop C sales tax funds for any subway tunneling in the county. This effectively ended any chance of a Westside Subway in the foreseeable future.
The segment of the Red Line project to was completed and began service in 1996. Wilshire/Western is presently the western terminus of the D Line.

New support and approval

In 2000, an urban art group called Heavy Trash placed signs advertising a fictional "Aqua Line." The signs, with the text "Coming Soon," showed a subway route extending along Wilshire to the ocean, with 10 station stops. Although the campaign was a hoax, it demonstrated newfound support and revealed the frustrations surrounding the lack of a subway connecting Santa Monica and the Westside with Downtown Los Angeles. The name "Aqua Line" was later repurposed as the proposed name for the Expo Line.
During the 2000s, support for the subway began to materialize, largely due to the massive impact of traffic on Wilshire Boulevard and throughout the region. The Metro Rapid bus line that currently operates along Wilshire Blvd. runs at capacity. In 2005, Los Angeles voters elected Antonio Villaraigosa mayor of Los Angeles. In his campaign and after the election, Villaraigosa declared an extension of a subway line to Santa Monica a major priority, offering visionary slogans such as "subway to the sea," "the most utilized subway in the nation, maybe the world," and "the most cost-effective public-transportation project in America." As mayor, Villaraigosa served several one-year-long terms as Metro Board chairman.
In December 2005, Congressman Henry Waxman, who had sponsored the "methane zone" tunneling ban 20 years earlier, championed the reversal of his legislation upon a committee's assertion that tunneling through the methane zone was now safe. To make this happen, Waxman introduced new congressional legislation to overturn the ban.
In July 2006, the Metro board approved staff and funding to initiate a Major Investment Study to study the corridor west of Western Avenue for a possible subway extension. In the following month, the Metro Board voted to designate the Wilshire branch of the Red Line, between Union Station and Wilshire/Western station, as the Purple Line.
With a new name and a new study initiated, the Purple Line Extension began to receive public support from several organizations. In 2006, the Westside Cities Council of Governments endorsed the extension. In September 2006, both Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA joined the council's Mass Transit Committee to advocate for the subway extension. In 2007, the Beverly Hills City Council endorsed a Wilshire alignment that includes one station at the corner of Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards and another on Wilshire Boulevard between Beverly Drive and Rodeo Drive.
On June 28, 2007, the Metro board approved a $3.6 million contract with Parsons Brinckerhoff to provide an Alternatives Analysis, an assessment of tunnel feasibility, and conceptual engineering with options for future preliminary engineering and environmental clearance for this extension.
Congressmember Henry Waxman's legislation to lift the ban on tunneling through the "methane zone" finally became law in December 2007 as part of the 2008 omnibus spending bill. The passage of this long-awaited legislation allowed, for the first time in two decades, the planning and building of a westward extension of the subway.
In 2009, the Wilshire Subway Extension was included in Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan, and environmental studies were begun.

Environmental review process

Initial alternatives analysis

During the alternatives analysis, many alternatives were considered. These included different alignments and several modes of transit. Most alignments were variations/combinations of two primary alignments: the "Wilshire alignment" and the "West Hollywood alignment."
  • The Wilshire alignment has been suggested as a corridor to the Westside for decades. Wilshire Boulevard has many destinations along its path, including Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills and Century City. The route heads west from primarily along Wilshire Boulevard until it reaches Santa Monica Boulevard. At that point, the route diverts through Century City before returning to Wilshire in Westwood.
  • The West Hollywood alignment was proposed during the public scoping process. The route travels along Santa Monica Boulevard and San Vicente Boulevard, connecting in the north to the Wilshire route in the south. The West Hollywood route generated considerable support from the public, transit advocates, and the City of West Hollywood.
Other alignments studied involved various deviations from Wilshire Boulevard to allow service to destinations such as Beverly Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Farmers Market.
The alternatives analysis recommended further study on four alternatives: "No Build," TSM, the Wilshire Alternative, and a combination Wilshire/West Hollywood Alternative. Both build alternatives use heavy rail as their transit mode, primarily because this would allow interconnection to the existing Metro Rail subway system. All proposed alignments involving other transit modes were eliminated.