LA's New Subway Section Opens, Connecting Koreatown to Beverly Hills

LOS ANGELES, CA – May 19, 2026 – After more than a decade of tunneling, construction, and anticipation, Los Angeles has officially welcomed a new era in public transit. The Los Angeles County Transportation Authority (Metro) recently celebrated the opening of Section 1 of the D Line Subway Extension, a 3.9-mile underground route that promises to reshape daily commutes and cultural access in one of the nation's most congested urban cores.

Opening to the public on May 8, 2026, this first segment extends the D Line from its previous terminus at Wilshire/Western in Koreatown, pushing westward with three new state-of-the-art stations at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega. For the first time, heavy rail transit now serves the Miracle Mile and enters the city of Beverly Hills, offering a traffic-free alternative for tens of thousands of Angelenos.

This milestone marks the completion of the first of three phases in an ambitious project to extend the subway a total of nine miles under the bustling Wilshire Boulevard corridor, ultimately connecting downtown LA with Westwood. The project is a cornerstone of the region's strategy to build a more connected, sustainable, and accessible metropolis ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.

A New Artery Beneath the Miracle Mile

The immediate impact of Section 1 is the unprecedented access it provides to a dense corridor of jobs, residences, and world-class cultural institutions. The new Wilshire/Fairfax station, for instance, deposits riders at the doorstep of Museum Row, home to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Petersen Automotive Museum, and the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum.

“This subway extension will improve commuter access for nearby neighborhoods and open access to cultural and art locations that had been previously limited,” said Mark Fialkowski, president of Infrastructure North America for Parsons, the firm that served as lead designer for the project. “It is always rewarding to see such critical infrastructure come to life and serve communities for decades to come.”

During the lengthy construction period, Metro implemented support programs to mitigate the impact on local businesses. The Business Interruption Fund (BIF) awarded over $14 million in grants to small businesses affected by the work, while promotional campaigns like the "Eat Shop Play Program" encouraged residents to continue patronizing local establishments. Now, with the stations open, these same businesses hope to see a new wave of customers arriving by train.

The Engineering Feat Under LA's Streets

Building a subway beneath one of Los Angeles's most active and geologically complex areas was a monumental engineering challenge. Parsons Corporation, as the prime designer for the design-build team, was tasked with charting a course through a subterranean world fraught with obstacles. The construction joint venture of Skanska, Traylor Brothers, and J.F. Shea Construction brought the intricate designs to life.

Two massive, custom-built tunnel boring machines (TBMs), nicknamed "Soyeon" and "Elsie," began their slow, grinding journey in 2018. They navigated a dense web of existing utilities, building foundations, and, most notably, the prehistoric tar sands and methane gas pockets characteristic of the Miracle Mile. The successful excavation through these treacherous conditions, completed in early 2026, stands as a testament to the project's meticulous planning and engineering precision.

Collaboration was key. Parsons and the construction team worked closely with Metro, the City of Los Angeles, and the City of Beverly Hills to ensure station designs complemented the surrounding neighborhoods. The project also involved carefully tunneling beneath Beverly Hills High School, a process that required extensive environmental review and community engagement before proceeding without incident in 2022.

A Costly Vision for a Greener Future

While the opening of Section 1 is a moment of celebration, it represents just one piece of a much larger, and far more expensive, puzzle. The total cost for the full nine-mile, seven-station D Line Extension is estimated to be between $9 billion and $10 billion. Section 1 alone saw its budget inflate from an initial forecast of $2.8 billion to a final life-of-project cost of $3.51 billion, a common trend in large-scale American infrastructure projects.

Funding for this massive undertaking has been pieced together from local sales tax measures, primarily Measure R (2008) and Measure M (2016), and significant federal support in the form of grants and low-interest loans from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This financial partnership underscores the project's regional and national significance.

Work is already well underway on the remaining two sections. Section 2 will extend the line 2.6 miles to stations in Beverly Hills and Century City, with an estimated completion in 2027. Section 3 will complete the line with a final 2.6-mile stretch to Westwood, including stations serving UCLA and the VA Hospital, also projected to open in 2027. When fully complete, the D Line is expected to handle approximately 150,000 daily boardings by 2040, with the seven new stations accounting for about 62,000 of those trips.

LA's Transit Renaissance and the Road Ahead

The D Line Extension is a flagship project in a broader Southern California rail boom. It joins a growing network of expansions, including the K Line extension and the ambitious Sepulveda Transit Corridor plan, all aimed at creating a robust public transit grid capable of serving the sprawling region. The overarching goals are clear: reduce the infamous traffic congestion, improve air quality by cutting vehicle emissions, and build a more equitable and sustainable city.

By providing a reliable, high-speed connection between major job centers in Downtown, Koreatown, the Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City, and Westwood, the subway extension fundamentally changes the calculus for commuters. A trip that could take an hour or more in rush hour traffic is projected to take just 25 minutes by rail from end to end.

As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympic Games, the progress on its transit network is under a global spotlight. The completion of the D Line is critical to the city's ability to move millions of visitors and residents efficiently. The opening of Section 1 is a significant down payment on that promise, but for Angelenos, the true transformation will arrive when the full nine-mile journey from downtown to the Westside can be completed in minutes, not hours.