Why do so many people who live within walking distance of Rodeo Drive still have to get in a car to catch the new subway?
That's the part the ribbon-cutting coverage skipped back in May. Metro's D Line finally reached Beverly Hills on May 8, 2026, and for a weekend the whole rail, bus, and bike-share system ran free while crowds lined up to ride it. The headlines all said some version of the same thing: Beverly Hills has a subway now. That's true, technically. It's also not quite the story most residents pictured.
The station that opened is Wilshire/La Cienega, sitting at the southeast edge of the city, and the walkable, shop-lined core that most people mean when they say "Beverly Hills" is still a car ride, a rideshare, or a long walk away. The stop built to serve that part of town, the one at Wilshire and Beverly Drive, isn't opening until spring 2027. So the honest version of the story is this: Beverly Hills got a subway to its doorstep before it got a subway to its living room.
What Actually Opened in May
Metro's D Line Extension Section 1 added three new underground stations along Wilshire Boulevard: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega, extending service west from Koreatown for the first time. Metro described the new trip from the gateway of Beverly Hills to Union Station as a seamless, single-seat ride of about 20 minutes with no transfers. Streetsblog LA, previewing the opening a day before it happened, put the full nine-mile run from La Cienega to Union Station at 23 minutes on Metro's own schedule, a small gap between two credible sources but still a fraction of what the same trip takes by car. At less congested hours, that drive runs 30 to 40 minutes. At rush hour, Streetsblog suggested budgeting a full hour to be safe.
Trains run daily from about 5 a.m. to midnight, arriving every 10 minutes during peak hours and roughly every 20 minutes early in the morning and late at night, according to Wikipedia's entry on the Wilshire/La Cienega station, which draws on Metro's published timetable. The station itself sits right at the intersection of Wilshire and La Cienega, with its entrance on the northeast corner, and it marks the entry point to Restaurant Row, the stretch of upscale dining that includes the original Lawry's The Prime Rib, as well as the Beverly Center shopping complex.
That's a genuinely useful new front door. It just isn't the city's front door.
The Map in People's Heads Versus the One Metro Built
Ask most Beverly Hills residents to picture "the subway station in my neighborhood" and they picture something near Rodeo Drive. That station exists, at least on paper. It's officially named Beverly Drive station, known during planning as Wilshire/Rodeo, and it's being built at the site of the former Ace Gallery on the south side of Wilshire between Beverly Drive and Reeves Drive. Metro's own marketing language for the site calls it what La Cienega currently isn't: a stop "located in the heart of Beverly Hills," built to serve both the people who live and work there and the visitors who come to shop and dine.
That station isn't open. According to the City of Beverly Hills' official project page, Beverly Drive and the Century City/Constellation station are both expected to open in spring 2027, as part of Section 2 of the extension. As of March 2026, that section was reported to be about 83 percent complete, so it has likely moved further along since, but the target opening window hasn't changed. Until it opens, La Cienega is doing double duty as the westernmost stop on the entire D Line, a temporary end-of-line station carrying more foot traffic and more operational weight than it was originally designed to hold alone.
The city has been visibly preparing for that. At a recent council study session, Beverly Hills Human Services Administrator Enisha Clark laid out the tradeoffs, describing new "operational considerations during late-night and early morning hours" that come with hosting an end-of-line stop, and city departments have coordinated across police, fire, mental health outreach, park rangers, and public works to manage it, according to reporting from Beverly Press & Park Labrea News. Metro has also announced plans for a daily rail cleaning service tied to the line's temporary end-of-line status. None of this is a knock on the station. It's just the kind of detail that only shows up once a place has actually lived with a new piece of infrastructure for a few months, rather than covered its opening weekend.
Here's what that gap looks like in practice:
| Getting to... | By car (typical) | By D Line today |
|---|---|---|
| Union Station / Downtown L.A. | 30 to 60+ minutes, traffic dependent | About 20 to 23 minutes, one seat, no transfer |
| LACMA or the Academy Museum (Wilshire/Fairfax) | A drive across Miracle Mile, plus parking | One stop from La Cienega, a few minutes, no parking |
| Rodeo Drive / the Golden Triangle from La Cienega station | A short drive or rideshare | Not yet by rail; Beverly Drive station opens spring 2027 |
What's Actually Worth Riding For Right Now
None of this means the line isn't useful today. It means the useful trip isn't the one most people assumed. Right now, the D Line's real value from Beverly Hills is as a fast, parking-free connector to Museum Row and Koreatown, not as a subway that starts at your front door and ends at Rodeo Drive.
One stop east, Wilshire/Fairfax sits at what Metro calls the heart of Museum Row, putting LACMA, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Petersen Automotive Museum, the La Brea Tar Pits, and Craft Contemporary within a short walk of the platform, along with The Original Farmers Market and The Grove. The station also borders Little Ethiopia and the Fairfax District.
Keep going one more stop past Fairfax and you're at Wilshire/La Brea, on the western edge of Koreatown and Hancock Park, with rail access to the Korean Cultural Center, the Marciano Art Foundation, and the Ebell Theater. From there, the same train carries you through the rest of Koreatown and into downtown, sharing track with the B Line through the Financial District, Pershing Square, and the Civic Center before terminating at Union Station.
That's a legitimate Saturday: walk or grab a short rideshare to La Cienega station, ride one stop to spend the afternoon at LACMA or the Academy Museum, then come back to Restaurant Row for dinner, all without moving a car. It's a genuinely different way to spend a weekend than driving Wilshire Boulevard at 4 p.m., and it's available today, not in 2027.
What Changes When Beverly Drive Opens
Spring 2027 is when the map most residents already have in their heads becomes accurate. Beverly Drive station will sit within walking distance of the Golden Triangle, the city's walkable central business district built around Rodeo Drive and its cluster of hotels, including the Beverly Wilshire. Metro's Art program has already commissioned work for the site from Devon Tsuno, an artist and Cal State Dominguez Hills faculty member known for spray paint and acrylic work centered on Japanese American history in Southern California, according to the city's official Beverly Dr Station page.
Until that stop opens, the honest way to think about the D Line in Beverly Hills is that it arrived at the edge of the city before it arrived at the center of it. That's not a complaint. A 20-minute ride to Koreatown and downtown from a station near Restaurant Row is a real, usable thing worth building into a weekend now. It's just a different subway than the one the opening-week headlines promised, and knowing the difference is the kind of thing you only pick up by actually living here and paying attention to what changes.
That's the same instinct I bring to how I talk with clients about any Beverly Hills block: the value of knowing a neighborhood well enough to tell you not just what changed, but exactly what it changed and what it didn't. If you're curious what else has shifted around Beverly Hills lately, or you're thinking ahead to when the Golden Triangle gets its own stop, I'm always happy to talk shop. Reach out through Danny Hizami and let's start the conversation.
