Subway to the Sea: Two new hypotheticals

"California Dreamin'" could make a good theme song for the fabled Subway to the Sea -- the MTA has come up with two plans for a rail line to the city's Westside, neither of which have funding or approval. Our own Steve Hymon has details:

In a surprising and ambitious move, local transportation officials said Tuesday that they would recommend further study of two subway lines to the Westside, with one train going down Wilshire Boulevard and the other shorter leg partially following Santa Monica before diving south to meet the Wilshire line.

(Skip)

It was just a decade ago, amid several spending and construction boondoggles on the existing subway, that voters in Los Angeles County banned the MTA from using sales tax money for subway tunneling. That ban remains in effect, but complaints over Westside traffic have continued to pile up, fueling efforts to continue the subway.

The proposed routes, which could cost between $6 billion and $9 billion to build, are merely draft recommendations, and officials say proponents shouldn't get their hopes up. As if.

Check out the rest of the info in Steve's excellent Bottleneck Blog, where he also has a map. Oh -- and this photo?  It's workers in the Metro Red Line tunnel in 1997.

--Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Richard Derk / Los Angeles Times