Boxer, Feinstein: Westside Subway Extension in Los Angeles Nears $641 Million Loan

Department of Transportation loan would extend subway system into West Los Angeles; construction would create at least 40,000 jobs in Southern California

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (both D-CA) today announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has taken a major step in approving a key federal loan for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA MTA) to extend its subway system into West Los Angeles. The project is one of only eight nationwide invited to move into the final approval phase.

The $641 million federal loan commitment would help fund the construction of a high-capacity, nine-mile extension of the Metro Purple Line subway from the existing Wilshire/Western station to a proposed Westwood/Veterans Affairs Hospital station once negotiations are complete.

Senator Boxer said: “I am so pleased that the Westside Subway Extension project is advancing and attracting national attention as a model of how we finance and build transit projects nationwide. As Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I am working on a new transportation bill that will help communities like Los Angeles to leverage local, state and federal investments in transportation projects that will create jobs and ease traffic congestion.”

Senator Feinstein said: “Los Angeles is the largest city in our country without a comprehensive subway system. That needs to change. I urged the Department of Transportation to make this loan to LA MTA in order to begin construction on the Westside extension and to establish a world-class transit system in a city that desperately needs one.”

Because of the high number of job centers including Century City, Beverly Hills and Westwood/UCLA, the Westside currently attracts more than 300,000 daily commuters from across the greater Los Angeles region.

The Westside Subway extension is part of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LA MTA’s “30/10 Initiative,” a $14.8 billion plan to build 30 years of transit projects in the next decade. LA MTA estimates the extension project will create more than 40,000 new jobs during construction.

The loan will be repaid with funds collected under Measure R, a half-cent sales tax approved overwhelmingly by Los Angeles voters in 2008.