Westside Subway Extension (Los Angeles Metro)

Westside Subway Extension
Overview
Type	heavy-rail (HRT)
System	Los Angeles County Metro Rail
Status	in environmental review
Locale	Los Angeles
Termini	Wilshire/Western (end terminus TBD)
Operation
Opened	TBD
Operator(s)	Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)

The Westside Subway Extension is a proposed mass-transit rail project to create a new heavy rail subway corridor in Los Angeles County, extending the Metro Purple Line from its current terminus at Wilshire/Western to the Westside. If built, the corridor would become part of the Los Angeles County Metro Rail System.

The project is being planned by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). The Westside Subway has been given high priority by Metro in its long range plan , and funding for the project is included in Measure R.

The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was completed in September 2010: a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) was selected in October 2010. Metro staff is now working to complete preliminary engineering and a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), which is the final study required before construction can begin.

Background

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 up Fairfax to Hollywood into the San Fernando Valley. In 1961, the "New Proposed Backbone Route Plan" described a subway along Wilshire Boulevard from Westwood to Downtown (and then elevated to El Monte) . 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 SCRTD (one of Metro's predecessors) planned a subway that would extend from Downtown Los Angeles to Fairfax Avenue, then up Fairfax to Hollywood and the Valley. Due to the "methane zone" (see below), that plan was modified, and Vermont Avenue was chosen for the north-south route instead of Fairfax.

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. Some residents in the Fairfax District and affluent Hancock Park objected to a subway that would make their community more accessible from the working-class residents of Los Angeles' Eastside and South Los Angeles. The City of Beverly Hills also opposed the subway, as did two key legislators from the area: Congressman Henry Waxman and then-L.A. City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Following a methane explosion in 1985 at a Ross Dress for Less clothing store near Fairfax and Third Street, Congressman Henry 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 west of Fairfax (through areas of his district where subway opposition was strongest). 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.

The Red Line project (which include both of the present-day Red Line and Purple Line corridors) began in 1983. Soon after construction began, the project began to draw a considerable amount of bad press. Access to many local businesses was blocked for weeks, causing some small businesses to shut down. Disagreements arose between the MTA and Tutor-Saliba (general contractor on the project) over tens millions of dollars in cost overruns. A sinkhole in Hollywood seemed to symbolize the disastrous nature of the subway project. As a result, in 1998 voters approved a measure (sponsored by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky) which implemented a complete ban on use of Prop 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 Wilshire/Western was completed and began service in 1996. To date, Wilshire/Western is the western terminus of the Purple Line.

New support and new project

In 2000, an urban art group known as 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 ten station stops. It was a hoax, but showed 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. This was largely due to the massive impact of traffic on Wilshire Boulevard and throughout the region. (The 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 holds the title of Chairman of the Metro Board.)

In December 2005, Congressman Henry Waxman, who had sponsored the "methane zone" tunneling ban twenty years earlier, championed the reversal of his own legislation, upon a committee's assertion that tunneling through the methane zone was now safe. To make this happen, Waxman introduced new congressional legislation (H.R. 4653) to overturn the ban.

In July 2006, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) Board approved staff and funding to initiate the Major Investment Study (MIS), 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 as the Purple Line.

With a new name and a new study initiated, the Purple Line began to receive public support from several organizations. In 2006, the Westside Cities Council of Governments endorsed the Purple Line extension. In September 2006, both the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles joined the Council's Mass Transit Committee to help advocate for the subway extension. In 2007, the Beverly Hills City Council endorsed a Wilshire alignment which includes one station at the corner of Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards, and another on Wilshire Boulevard between Beverly and Rodeo drives.

On June 28, 2007, the LACMTA board approved a $3.6 million contract with PB Americas to provide an Alternatives Analysis (AA), an assessment of tunnel feasibility, and conceptual engineering with options for future preliminary engineering and environmental clearance for this extension.

Henry Waxman's legislation, to lift the ban on tunneling through the "methane zones", 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

A map of current Metro Rail lines and future lines. Possible alignments of the Westside Subway are shown as purple and pink dashed lines.

Initial alternatives analysis

During the alternatives analysis (AA), many alternatives were considered. These included different alignments, as well as several modes of transit (HRT, LRT, BRT and monorail). Most alignments were variations/combinations of two basic 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. This route heads west from Wilshire/Western primarily along Wilshire Boulevard until Santa Monica Boulevard. At that point, the route diverts through Century City before returning to Wilshire in Westwood.

• The West Hollywood alignment (sometimes known as the "Pink Line") was proposed during the public scoping process. This route travels along Santa Monica Boulevard and San Vicente Boulevard, connecting Hollywood/Highland 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 (Transportation Systems Management), the Wilshire Alternative, and a combination Wilshire/West Hollywood Alternative. Both build alternatives use heavy rail (HRT) as its transit mode, primarily because this would allow interconnection to the existing Metro Rail subway system. All alignments involving other transit modes (monorail, LRT, and BRT) were eliminated.

DEIR alternatives

The five alternatives considered in the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) are:

DEIR Alternative	Description	New trips (daily)	Estimated cost (billions)
Alternative 1	Wilshire route to UCLA.	24,142	$4.036
Alternative 2	Wilshire route to VA.	27,615	$4.358
Alternative 3	Wilshire route to Santa Monica.	35,235	$6.116
Alternative 4	Wilshire route to VA, plus West Hollywood route.	31,224	$6.985
Alternative 5	Wilshire route to Santa Monica, plus West Hollywood route.	40,123	$8.747

Alternatives 3 and 5 are the build alternatives carried over from the alternatives analysis (AA). In addition, three new alternatives (Alternatives 1, 2, and 4) were added. These new alternatives are variations of the two AA-recommended alternatives which all stop short of Santa Monica. They were added to reflect the realities of limited available funds, as well as the priorities in Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).

The following table shows all potential stations, and the alternatives for which they apply:

Station	Alt 1	Alt 2	Alt 3	Alt 4	Alt 5
Wilshire/Crenshaw	x	x	x	x	x
Wilshire/La Brea	x	x	x	x	x
Wilshire/Fairfax	x	x	x	x	x
Wilshire/La Cienega	x	x	x	x	x
Wilshire/Rodeo	x	x	x	x	x
Century City	x	x	x	x	x
Westwood/UCLA	x	x	x	x	x
Westwood/VA		x	x	x	x
Wilshire/Bundy			x		x
Wilshire/26th St			x		x
Wilshire/16th St			x		x
Wilshire/4th St			x		x
Santa Monica/La Brea				x	x
Santa Monica/Fairfax				x	x
Santa Monica/San Vicente				x	x
Beverly Center				x	x

In addition to the five build alternatives, the DEIR identified six sets of options:

Name	Issue	Options
Option 1	Should a station be built at Wilshire/Crenshaw?	Yes No
Option 2	Where should the Wilshire/Fairfax station be located?	Slightly west of intersection Under intersection
Option 3	Where should the Wilshire/La Cienega station be located?	East of intersection West of intersection
Option 4	Which route should be used between Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City stations?	"Santa Monica Blvd" alignment "Constellation North" alignment "Constellation South" alignment
	Where should the Century City station be located?	Santa Monica Blvd. Constellation Blvd.
	Which route should be used between Century City and Westwood/UCLA stations?	"East" alignment "Central" alignment "West" alignment
Option 5	Where should the Westwood/UCLA station be located?	Wilshire/Gayley Wilshire/Westwood
Option 6	Where should the Westwood/VA Hospital station be located?	South of Wilshire North of Wilshire

Selected alternative

In September 2010, Metro published the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the project. The report makes no specific recommendation among the five alternatives. However, Metro staff did signal that only Alternatives 1 and 2 would be serious candidates for the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), since only those two alternatives match the project scope defined in Measure R and Metro's Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).

In October 2010, Metro staff recommended continuing study on Alternative 2. Staff also recommended the following:

• Crenshaw Station: delete.
• Wilshire/Fairfax Station: build east station option.
• La Cienega Station: build east station option.
• West Hollywood Connection Structure: delete.
• Century City Station:

• continue to study both Santa Monica and Constellation station options.
• continue to study Constellation North and Santa Monica alignment options between Beverly Hills and Century City.
• continue to study only the East alignment option between Century City and Westwood.

• Westwood/UCLA Station: continue to study both Wilshire/Westwood and Wilshire/Gayley station options.
• Westwood/VA Hospital Station: continue to study both VA Hospital North and VA Hospital South station options.
• Storage and Maintenance Facility: expand existing Division 20 facility.

In eliminating the West Hollywood Connection Structure, Metro Staff eliminated the future possibility of a West Hollywood line as a heavy-rail branch of the Wilshire Subway, as described in Alternatives 4 and 5. Staff cited the $135 million cost, as well as lower than expected performance and cost-effectiveness. However, staff did leave open the possibility of other alternatives in the future which would not require a connection structure (for example, light rail), with a possible future extension south of Wilshire on San Vicente Boulevard, connecting to a future Crenshaw Line that would run north of Exposition Boulevard.

At the Metro Board meeting in late October 2010, the Metro Board certified the DEIR and accepted the staff recommendation as the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA). Due to protests from Beverly Hills residents and local officials, the Metro Board approved an amendment requesting detailed study and comparison of the two Century City station options in the FEIR.

Project budget and funding

Voter-approved Measure R assumes a project to Westwood, having a cost of $4.2 billion (2008 dollars). Measure R sales tax revenues will provide up to $4.074 billion toward the cost: however, it is expected that the project will receive close to half of its funding from Federal New Starts funds.

The selected alternative to Westwood/VA was estimated to cost $4.358 billion , which is over the Measure R budget. However, the LPA could cost less than this, since it excludes the Crenshaw station and West Hollywood connector structure.

Measure R funds would first become available in 2013, with expected project completion in 2036. According to this schedule, the subway's construction would be opened in three segments:

• 2019: open to Fairfax;
• 2026: open to Century City;
• 2036: open to Westwood/VA.

However, efforts are underway to secure federal loans (through the 30/10 project) to accelerate the subway project, allowing it to be completed as a single project by 2022 or 2024.

See also

• Purple Line (Los Angeles Metro)
• Red Line (Los Angeles Metro)
• Los Angeles County Metro Rail
• Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Further reading

• Christopher Hawthorne, "Finally, on the right track," Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2006
• Jean Guccione, "Beverly Hills doesn't want to miss the subway," Los Angeles Times, November 27, 2006
• Richard Simon, "House votes to repeal law blocking subway construction on L.A.'s Westside," Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2007
• Ari Bloomenkatz, "'Subway to the Sea' plan still adrift", Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2007
• Rong-Gong Lin II, "L.A. subway plans take a radical shift", Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2007
• Alan MittelStaedt, "L.A. Sniper: Subway Fibs and Felonies," Los Angeles City Beat, December 27, 2007