Westside subway costs put at $6.5 billion

Plans to send a subway rumbling below Westside streets to link the traffic-choked region to Eastside rail lines have been narrowed to four possible routes estimated to cost up to $6.5 billion.Sue Doyle in the Daily News.

And even with no available funding source, Metro is forging ahead and preparing what it hopes will eventually be an attractive package to federal officials who have not offered any financial support for a subway beyond repealing a 1985 ban last year on federal money for construction under Wilshire Boulevard.

"There is a long way to go before the subway extension can become a reality," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a Metro board member. "But building support for, and selecting, a preferred route is the prerequisite to the next difficult step - finding a way to pay its $450 million-per-mile cost."