The D Line extension opening date mismatch
Explaining what's going on behind the scenes, and why internal documents conflict with official sources.
Update (08/19) from LA Metro’s customer relations team:
Hello -- thanks for interest in the project. We just corrected the Source post -- the current forecast dates are 2026 for Sect 2 and 2027 for Sect 3. We apologize for any confusion -- Metro Social
It looks like we all may have read a little too far into it- the forecast dates are still 2026 and 2027. The rest of article is still below, for historical context.
Chances are, if you follow Metro’s official blog (The Source), you’ve seen this article about the D Line Extension. Lately, people have been outraged over the estimates given for revenue service, where Metro said Phases 2 and 3 are “anticipated to open in 2027 and 2028, respectively.”
The outrage is justified; the original plan was to open both phases in time for the Olympics, with the previous estimates set for 2026 and 2027, respectively.
In reality, though, internal Metro documents still estimate revenue service in 2026 and 2027.
The latest project update presentation (July 2025) has the following slide for the D Line Extension Phase 2. The forecast revenue service date is still Fall 2026, though it’s worth noting that this is the result of delay creep pushing the date even further from Summer 2026 (which I’ll discuss later).
The same is true for Section 3 — the internal estimates are still Fall 2027. It’s concerning, though, that Section 3 is also falling victim to the same delay creep as Section 2. The revenue service date has been pushed back from Summer 2027 to Fall 2027.
So why the mismatch? Creeping delays
Unfortunately, like many Metro projects, the D Line Extension is falling victim to a bad case of delay creep. Small delays keep adding up, and each delay makes it less likely that the project will meet its original targets for 2026 and 2027, respectively.
The following slide sums it up quite well. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are already more than 10% off of the original schedule, while Phase 3 is slowly approaching that statistic. Each little delay adds onto this, making it less and less likely that those targets for 2026 and 2027 will be hit.
So why did The Source publish those estimates for 2027 and 2028? I think Metro is concerned about the growing delays. Erring on the side of caution, they are publicly releasing the worst-case scenario dates.
Internally, they’re still trying their hardest to hit the original estimates, but we’ve got to be prepared for the worst. If these delays get any worse, then those estimates for 2027 and 2028 won’t be just the worst-case scenario. They’ll be reality.
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