Effective Friday, May 8 at 12:30 PM, the subway system operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) became 3.92 miles longer, with the opening of three new stations under Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.
The new stations are located at LaBrea Avenue, Fairfax Avenue and LaCienega Boulevard, and constitute Section 1 of the line’s expansion. Sections 2 and 3, which will add slightly more than five miles to the line in Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood, will each include two new stations, and plans call for them to open next year. The extension heads wastward from Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, in the city’s Koreatown.
The new mileage is part of Metro’s D (Purple) Line, which previously duplicated B (Red) Line service between Union Station and Wilshire and Vermont Avenues, and then proceeded under Wilshire for only two more stops. When completed, the line under Wilshire will be nine miles long and consist of nine stops after splitting off from the Red (B) Line.
“Mid-Wilshire made a giant public transit leap forward when Metro celebrated the official opening of Section 1 of the D Line Subway Extension with a grand opening event today,” the agency said. “Riders can now go west beyond the Wilshire and Western station In Koreatown, with service to neighborhoods and communities Including Hancock Park, Windsor Square, the Fairfax District and Cathay Circle into Beverly Hills in around 21 minutes.”
Metro’s press release bore the headline “Less Time Driving, More Time Living: Where Diversity, Discovery, Delight Meet on Metro’s D Line.” The allure of alliteration aside from the second phrase of the headline, the first phrase is accurate, at least to some extent. Before the new stations opened, it was necessary to take the #720 bus from Western to Fairfax Avenue for the opening ceremony. The trip took 16 minutes. On the first revenue run, the train took 5:10, including 35 seconds of dwell time at LaBrea Avenue. That meant almost eleven extra minutes of “living time,” and the longer ride to LaCienega Boulevard would have saved even more time.
There were 19 speakers on the program, slightly more than half of whom were elected officials. A special train that arrived at 8:36 carried the dignitaries to the event. It was greeted with applause and cheers, including Metro’s slogan “GO METRO!” More than providing a photo op on arrival, the “special” served the additional purpose of ensuring that the invited presenters actually rode the line before extolling its praises.
The program itself began with a Korean dance and drumming troupe and ended with jazz-tinged music from Ethio Cali, a band from Little Ethiopia, a local neighborhood. The theme of the event was “Wilshire Runs Deep,” an expression that can connote the boulevard’s prior history and current diversity, as well as the physical depth of the line, which continues to be built using a tunnel boring machine (TBM) for deep-bore tunneling. There were the usual expressions of praise for Metro and its employees from all speakers, and a few even acknowledged having ridden on the city’s transit. Jerry O’Connell (billed as “actor” for the program) served as M.C. He mentioned riding transit in Los Angeles and in New York City. Sen. Adam Schiff, the best-known speaker on the program (and known nationally as one of POTUS 47’s strongest political foes) mentioned an incident that took place while he was riding the Gold Line, a light rail line.
Kenny Uong, a young advocate, represented the advocacy community. He recounted some of his experiences as a transit fan. Paul P. Skoutelis, President and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) ,represented the transit industry. He said that every dollar invested in transit brings five dollars in returns. Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins concluded the program. She said the new subway is “more than a line, it’s a leap,” and praised transit advocates as “part of the alliance” that helped get it built.
The ceremony ended more than one hour before service on the new segment began. The first train was greeted with cheers from the crowd, which managed to pack into the four-car trains that Metro ran. As part of the celebration, Metro offered free rides on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There were also local events at Western Avenue and the three new stations. The agency also announced that there will be pop-up events in the area for the next 90 days.
Incongruous Venue
For more than 100 years, Los Angeles has been the epicenter of automobile culture in the United States, perhaps even globally, Friday’s event was billed as a celebration of a new rail transit line (part of one, anyway), but it kept strictly to what appears to be a cardinal rule of the city’s culture: homage to the automobile. The event was held at an incongruous, and perhaps even bizarre, location: the Petersen Automotive Museum, a shrine to the “car culture” of Southern California, where adults pay $51 to spend the day worshipping a major collection of vehicles (including those in “the Vault”).
Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Hills played their own parts in disfavoring rail transit through the years, including relatively recently. according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, Henry Gaylord Wilshire demanded naming rights and a ban on railroad use of the street when he developed it in 1895. Metro Board Chair Fernando Dutra mentioned in his statement that a subway under Wilshire Boulevard was first proposed in 1927, but a rail line running underground apparently would not violate Wilshire’s restrictive covenant. Beverly Hills also opposed the line in the past. At the ceremony, though, Mayor Craig Corman called the opening “a historic day for Beverly Hills.” The town last saw rail transit in 1954, when streetcar service ended.
Still, the symbol of holding a transit event at an obvious and intrusive reminder of automotive cultural dominance does not appear on its face to comport with the stated purpose of that event. Other attendees noticed the apparent contradiction, too, and mentioned it in their own conversations. In her statement, Metro CEO Wiggins expressed the expectation that the new line will remove 78,000 vehicles from Wilshire Boulevard when completed. Given even Metro’s acknowledgement of the dominance of automobiles in her city, that sounds like a tall order.
For now, though, there are three more stations under Wilshire Boulevard, and four more are under construction and slated to open for service next year. Anytime a rail transit line is extended is a good reason to celebrate. Rail transit built earlier this century helped bring Downtown L.A. back to life. Beginning next year, we will know what effect the new subway extension will have on the neighborhoods along Wilshire Boulevard.
