This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Metro began with a slew of options, shown above, and are now down to two
Although Metro has admitted a subway below Wilshire Blvd. could be completed in five to ten years, their most recent staff report suggests that the subway to just La Cienega (that's about 4 miles from the current end of the line) would realistically be built by 2019, to Century City by 2026 and to Westwood by 2032, according to the report that lays out possible timelines to be presented to the agency's board.
The timing of the project, officially dubbed the Westside Extension (join their facebook page), really comes down to funding in the end. If the subway had all the funding upfront there would be a possibility of running crews in shifts throughout the day and night, ultimately speeding up the project to a quick handful of years, said one Metro representative at a meeting last Winter.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would obviously like the quicker route (so would everyone else), but that sort of funding would have to come from Obama or a very generous business community effort and at the price tag of $5 billion and probably rising, that also seems unrealistic.
