Los Angeles Opens Three New Subway Stations Along Wilshire Boulevard, Connecting Beverly Hills to Downtown
Why It Matters
California’s largest city marked a significant infrastructure milestone Friday with the opening of three new subway stations along Wilshire Boulevard, expanding the Metro D Line and giving Los Angeles residents a rail alternative to one of the region’s most congested corridors. The expansion carries added urgency as the city prepares to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with transit officials under pressure to demonstrate that a viable public transit grid can serve a notoriously car-dependent metropolis.
What Happened
Three new stations — Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega — opened Friday as the first phase of the D Line’s westward extension beneath Wilshire Boulevard. City and transit officials gathered atop the Petersen Automotive Museum for a celebration that included a “purple carpet” ceremony, with each speaker closing their remarks with a chant of “Go Metro!”
L.A. Metro Board Chair Fernando Dutra called the opening “a milestone for the future of L.A.” and acknowledged the technical and political hurdles that delayed the project for decades. Mayor Karen Bass said the expansion makes the city’s sprawling geography feel more manageable. “It makes our very huge city a lot smaller and more connected,” she said.
The new stations provide rail access to several high-traffic cultural destinations, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Academy Museum, and stops within walking distance of the Grove shopping complex and the Beverly Center.
By the Numbers
- $9.7 billion — total cost of the full D Line extension project
- ~4 miles — distance covered by the three stations opening Friday
- 9 miles — total planned westward extension, ending near UCLA in Westwood
- 21 minutes — estimated rail travel time from Union Station to Wilshire/La Cienega, compared to roughly 45 minutes by car
- 2027 — projected completion date for the next two phases, adding four more stations
Zoom Out
The project has roots stretching back more than 60 years. California officials began pursuing a Wilshire subway corridor in the early 1960s, but the effort repeatedly stalled due to funding gaps, engineering challenges, political disputes, and neighborhood opposition. Friday’s opening effectively closes a chapter that several generations of Angelenos were told might never arrive.
The D Line expansion is part of a broader Southern California transit buildout designed to create a connected rail grid across the region’s far-flung communities. Transit agencies across the country have faced similar challenges convincing drivers to shift to rail, even in dense urban corridors where service times are competitive with driving. Metro officials acknowledged that building ridership habits will take time, despite the corridor’s high density and popular destinations.
Public safety remains a concern among some potential riders. Metro has responded in recent years by standing up a dedicated transit police force and expanding an ambassador program at stations — efforts officials say have produced measurable improvements, though some commuters remain cautious about off-peak travel.
As California’s candidates for governor weigh major urban policy questions, the D Line opening underscores the scale of infrastructure investment the state has been willing to commit to in Los Angeles ahead of the Olympics.
What’s Next
Two additional construction phases covering four more stops are expected to be completed in 2027, with the full line eventually terminating in Westwood near the UCLA campus. Metro officials are watching ridership numbers closely in the coming months as a gauge of whether Angelenos will embrace rail for routine commutes.
The broader question of whether Los Angeles can shift its transportation culture ahead of 2028 will depend not only on infrastructure completion but on sustained investment in safety and service reliability — factors that California’s next generation of political leaders will likely face as a defining issue in the years ahead.