{"id":544449,"date":"2026-01-26T16:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544449\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:35:15","slug":"a-transit-project-connecting-l-a-s-westside-to-the-san-fernando-valley-finally-gets-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544449\/","title":{"rendered":"A transit project connecting L.A.’s Westside to the San Fernando Valley finally gets approval"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most heavily traveled and congested corridors in Los Angeles County could finally get some relief.<\/p>\n

L.A. Metro\u2019s board of directors unanimously approved an underground heavy-rail option of the multibillion-dollar Sepulveda Transit Corridor project<\/a>, which offers an alternative to the increasingly crowded 405 Freeway.<\/p>\n

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The option, which was pushed forward by Metro\u2019s planning and programming committee last week, would go from Van Nuys to Sherman Oaks, pass under the mountains and Bel-Air, stop at UCLA and ultimately end at the E Line\u2019s Expo\/Sepulveda Station.<\/p>\n

Although it is considered one of the most significant transit projects in the country, billions of dollars have yet to be secured, and questions remain about its timeline.<\/p>\n

Support for the project<\/p>\n

Despite the project being the subject of multiple Metro community meetings and eliciting thousands of remarks for and against various proposals, public comment was overwhelmingly supportive when Metro\u2019s board approved the plan last week.<\/p>\n

The busy corridor and solutions to improve it have been under discussion for decades, The Times\u2019 Colleen Shalby wrote<\/a>. Ethan Elkind, a rail expert and director of the climate program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at UC Berkeley, told her that a variety of political and logistical factors have slowed the project\u2019s progress: a focus on downtown transit, opposition to high-capacity transit in the San Fernando Valley and geological challenges in the Sepulveda Pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of land,\u201d Elkind said. \u201cAnd the more land you have to go through, the more expensive it is, the more logistically challenging it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But L.A. County leaders have been supportive of the project.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Horvath, L.A. County supervisor and Metro board member, said the project would be a historic development for the Los Angeles region, affecting drivers who commute through the Sepulveda Pass along the 405.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman said that construction for the project would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and that revenue from ridership would help local businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to accept sitting in traffic as our only choice,\u201d she said, \u201cand this is our pathway forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns over funding<\/p>\n

The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., which has been a vocal critic of some of the project\u2019s routes, ultimately supported the current recommendation.<\/p>\n

The association\u2019s vice president has expressed concerns over funding of the project, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have not heard from Metro how they\u2019re going to pay for this thing,\u201d Bob Anderson told The Times. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to know every financial detail, but we do need to know where they\u2019re going to get the funding stream that feeds it and how much the financing is going to cost us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The estimated cost of the project has ballooned<\/a> since 2016, when Los Angeles County voters approved transit improvements between the Valley and the Westside under Measure M.<\/p>\n

The project was slated as $6 billion<\/a>, then grew to an estimated $9.4 billion to $13.8 billion with a completion goal of 2033. Metro does not have an estimate for the current modified proposal.<\/p>\n

The transit agency cited the need for reliance on state, local and federal funding to fill the shortfall and has raised the idea of private-public partnerships \u2014 similar to proposals for the state\u2019s underfunded high-speed rail project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it did not have a specific plan for how that money would be obtained or how it would affect the project\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

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