Unlike other LA Metro rail projects, the proposed northern extension of the K (Crenshaw) light-rail line from South Los Angeles to Hollywood isn’t met by naysayers. The most common criticism is from supporters who say the project, set to operate in 2047, is too long to wait.
This major, north-south K Line extension will be an underground subway, seven to nearly 10 miles long depending on the chosen route. It will extend from LA Metro’s E (Expo) Crenshaw/Expo Station to connect with the east-west D (Purple) Line subway at Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile and the B (Red) Line subway at the Hollywood/Highland Station. An optional 0.8-mile spur could add a Hollywood Bowl station.
While the benefits of the northern K Line extensions may be hard to visualize, when including the K Line’s south extensions to Torrance and LAX — both underway — the potential of an airport-to-Hollywood line emerges as an alternative.
Some say this would be Metro’s latest “regional connector,” linking with the east-west C (Green), E, D, and B lines that reach Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley — and with six of Metro’s busiest bus lines in central L.A. and on the Westside.
The Northern K extension would be a first-ever subway line serving dense L.A. neighborhoods filled with employment centers and international destinations including the Grove, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and LACMA.
A new regional connector
“This project does create a new way of traveling across the county,” said Georgia Sheridan, project director. “It may be the most connected line of any of our rail lines.”
The extension alone would carry 60,000 daily trips, Metro estimated. The entire north-south K Line is projected to carry 100,000 trips a day. “Even before I joined the Metro board, this project has been a leading priority because it will be the busiest light rail line in the nation, with nearly 100,000 daily riders,” said Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath in an emailed response.
Metro and Connect Los Angeles Partners 2024, the developer of the project, predict that motorists would take the subway to and from work, reducing freeway gridlock. And automobile travel would drop by up to 135,000 miles each day, cutting air pollution and greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
About 65% of those riders are estimated to be low-income, which often means they don’t have a car and would prefer a quicker way to commute than taking the bus.
Train watchers see the K Line as unusual because it is a north-south rail extension that connects multiple regions. And it would go through dense Los Angeles area communities with poor freeway access including South L.A., Crenshaw, West Adams, Mid City, Mid City West, Greater Wilshire, Central L.A., Hollywood and West Hollywood.
“It is essentially adding the equivalent of two freeways in that area,” said Bart Reed, CEO of The Transit Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for increased mobility via better transit in L.A. County. “It is an absolute, transit game-changer.”
EIR completion, choosing a route
In previous discussions, both online and in-person, many supporters said the groundbreaking date in the year 2041, and its completion between the years 2047 and 2049, are too far away. They’ve asked Metro to build the line sooner, and some are willing to pony up cash to expedite the project.
Three meetings at which the public can weigh in on the project’s draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) are set for Saturday, Aug. 10 at Dorsey High School; Tuesday, Aug. 13 at Pan Pacific Park; and an online public hearing on Thursday, Aug. 15.
Once public comments are incorporated, the EIR can be approved and Metro staff will choose a preferred route. A final decision will go before the Metro board in October, said Sheridan. The EIR approval, and narrowing it down to one route, allows Metro to ask the federal government for grant funding, supporters explained.
“The environmental review process going on now is a critical next step,” said David Fenn, senior planner for the city of West Hollywood.
The EIR examined three possible alignments. All would be underground. Stations would be at street level, with escalators and elevators going to and from subway platforms. The three alignments, their cost, and other details on stations and stops, are as follows:
• San Vicente-Fairfax: Cost equals $14.8 billion; 9.7 miles; nine stations; stops at or very near Midtown Crossing Shopping Center; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Original Farmer’s Market; the Grove; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; commercial districts along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood and Hollywood.
• Fairfax: Cost equals $12.4 billion; 7.8 miles; seven stations; stops at or very near Midtown Crossing Shopping Center; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Original Farmer’s Market; the Grove; commercial districts along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood between Fairfax Avenue and La Brea Boulevard, and Hollywood.
• La Brea: Cost equals $11 billion; 6.2 miles; six stations; stops at or very near Midtown Crossing Shopping Center, Miracle Mile, Hancock Park; Hollywood.
West Hollywood supports the San Vicente-Fairfax alignment, which includes a loop into West Hollywood with three stations. Horvath, a former West Hollywood mayor, also strongly supports this alignment. Fenn said this route has three times more jobs and six times more residents in walking distance of train stations than the other two alignments.
A stop at Cedars-Sinai — included only in the San Vicente-Fairfax alignment — would help get workers to the hospital/research center from points south, said Reed. “In South L.A., you have tons of people who work at Cedars-Sinai Hospital,” he noted.
Can Metro build it sooner?
The $14.8 billion estimated cost of building the San Vicente-Fairfax line is holding back its construction.
Currently, LA Metro has about $2.3 billion set aside from tax measures on the books in L.A. County for rail capital. But construction must wait until enough tax dollars trickle in, which Metro estimates will be in 2041.
West Hollywood is working on a plan to borrow money based on rising property tax revenues from properties surrounding the future subway line. For almost every Metro rail line, property values soared as new housing and commercial sites sprung up, a process known as transit-oriented development.
“Our hope is to come up with significant local funds to make a dent in that total,” Fenn said.
The city would create an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) to acquire a low-interest federal transportation loan that would be paid off by setting aside about 50% of the extra property tax revenues from higher valuations, Fenn said.
He said the city of West Hollywood alone could raise $2.2 billion. But if the city of L.A. and L.A. County also established EIFDs, the combined total could reach $22 billion, Fenn said. The city and county are supportive of the idea but no commitments have been made.
“A financing district like this is to capture that value that’s created and redirect that to help pay for the line. It is new for L.A. County,” Fenn said.
Getting funds to Metro faster can speed up the construction and completion dates, Fenn said. He believes that EIFD money can move up its completion to the early 2030s. “We are optimistic in the next two years or so, we could break ground,” he said.
The cost includes 40% contingency funds, a new federal requirement. Fenn hopes that can be waived or reduced once the route is established.
The Metro board raised caution about letting projects “leap frog” over projects that have been through the EIR and final design process and/or are fully funded. Also, there’s a list from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2016 that went into effect in 2017, that puts the project’s two sections at No. 30 and 31.
Sheridan hinted that one way to avoid pushing aside an already approved project would be to use funding to build the project at the same time as others, not ahead of others. But inking contracts for simultaneous construction work can be difficult when so many contractors who specialize in railroad building are already being tapped.
LA Metro’s so-called rail revolution is spending $34 billion in projects underway or moving ahead. They include the East San Fernando Valley Light-Rail Line, the Southeast Gateway Line, the D Line extension, the C Line extension to Torrance, the A (formerly Gold) Line extension to Claremont and Montclair and the E Line extension to Montebello/Whittier.
Sheridan acknowledged that “local efforts are underway to explore financing strategies to help accelerate the project.”
What kind of comments will be received these next few days could be critical.
Conrad Starr, president of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, said the council has not taken a position on what route it favors. Its next meeting is Aug. 14.
A draft motion calls for assurance that if the La Brea alignment is chosen, the station design at Wilshire Boulevard will be fully integrated with the new D Line station.
In 2018 and 2019, when Metro was considering elevated rail lines for the project in the city of L.A., the neighborhood council opposed that design. “We urged Metro to make everything underground, not elevated, and they built that into their plan,” Starr said.
Starr rides a bicycle to the Wilshire/Western D Line station to take the line downtown. He has experienced riding the Metro 217 bus as it “inches along Fairfax.” He said many of the nearby bus lines are crowded and move through traffic at slow speeds.
In his neighborhood, Starr said, “I don’t hear a lot of opposition to the idea of trains. Ultimately we will be happy when the K Line extension is completed. It will be meaningful to the residents.”
Public Hearings/Comment
• Saturday, Aug. 10, 10 a.m. to noon. Susan Miller Dorsey High School, 3537 Farmdale Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
• Tuesday, Aug. 13, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Pan Pacific Park Community Center, 7600 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
• Thursday, Aug. 15, noon to 1:30 p.m. Virtual (online) meeting. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87336933668. Call in: 213-338-8477.
• Comment: By mail, c/o Roger Martin, Project Manager, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, One Gateway Plaza, Mail Stop: 99-22-5, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Leave a recorded message by calling: 213-418-3093. Comments can be emailed to [email protected]
All comments must be submitted by Sept. 5.
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