Metro will open four new miles of D Line subway on Friday May 8!
The new Metro D Line Extension (Section 1) will travel from Wilshire/Western in Koreatown all the way to La Cienega/Wilshire in Beverly Hills. The project includes three new stations: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega. Subway riders will be able to travel from Beverly Hills to Downtown L.A. in about 20 minutes.
Metro is extending the D Line nine miles from its current Wilshire/Western terminus (in Koreatown) to the VA Hospital in Westwood. The project is broken into three sections, all under construction today and expected to be open in time for the 2028 Olympics/Paralympics.
For newcomers, or for folks who lived through it, below is timeline of Metro D Line Extension Section 1 highlights:
November 2014 – Metro broke ground on section 1 of the “Westside Purple Line” at a ceremony at the L.A. County Art Museum. At that time, section 1 was expected to cost $2.8 billion and to be completed in 2023.
August 2018 – Metro launched two giant tunnel boring machines (TBMs), “Elsie” and “Soyeon,” which dug section 1.
March 2021 – Metro successfully managed challenging tunneling conditions, including painstakingly manually using shovels to remove metal beams in the way of a tunneling machine. Metro completes Section 1 tunneling in March 2021.
Cost overruns – Challenging tunneling (and a few other factors) resulted in delays and cost overruns. The Metro board approved overruns of $200 million (August 2020), $150 million (May 2021), $225 million (May 2024), and $154 million (October 2025). Revamping the downtown L.A. heavy rail yard, called Division 20, also experienced serious cost overruns.
Recently – On the surface, stations – La Brea, Fairfax, and La Cienega – are looking complete. Street restoration is wrapping up. New railcars debuted on the existing D Line last December. Metro testing hit a snag in late 2025, pushing the opening back about two months.
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