Ask anyone in Beverly Hills this summer whether the subway finally reached the city and they will say yes, they saw the ribbon cutting, they read the headline. That answer is true and also incomplete. The train that arrived on May 8 stops at the eastern edge of the city, not at the corner most people picture when they hear the words Beverly Hills. If you are still picturing a station near Rodeo Drive, you are describing next year's news, not this year's.
The last time trains ran here at all was September 26, 1954, when the Pacific Electric Railway shut down its Hollywood Line streetcar. For seven decades the closest thing to rail service on this side of town was a bus seat on Wilshire Boulevard. That changed this spring, but only for a slice of the city, and understanding exactly which slice is the difference between using the new stop well and driving past it out of habit.
What Opened, and Where
Metro's D Line Extension broke into three sections years ago, and only the first one is running. Section 1 added three underground stations along Wilshire Boulevard: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega. Of those, exactly one sits inside Beverly Hills city limits, at the intersection of Wilshire and La Cienega on the eastern edge of town, closer to Beverly Grove and Mid-Wilshire than to the Golden Triangle. Metro's own materials describe it as the entry to Beverly Hills and Restaurant Row, which is the accurate way to think about it. It is a doorway, not the living room.
That distinction matters because the station most people are actually waiting for, the one built to serve Rodeo Drive and the shopping core, is a different project phase entirely. More on that below.
What's Actually Walkable From the New Stop
Step off the platform at Wilshire/La Cienega and the neighborhood on offer is the stretch of North La Cienega Boulevard that has carried the Restaurant Row name since before most current residents moved in. A short list of what's within a genuine walk:
- Lawry's The Prime Rib at 100 N La Cienega, serving the same tableside carving service it has run since 1938
- Matsuhisa at 129 N La Cienega, the original Nobu Matsuhisa restaurant, open since 1987
- Fogo de Chão at 133 N La Cienega and Gyu-Kaku at 163 N La Cienega, both a few doors down
- Kazan at 111 N La Cienega, a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand pick for handmade soba
- The Saban Theatre for a show, and the Margaret Herrick Library if film history is your afternoon
- Lumiere Cinema and the Fine Arts Theatre for a weeknight movie without circling the block for parking
- La Cienega Park and its tennis center for a Saturday match
Beverly Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center both sit less than a mile away, which turns the new stop into a legitimate errand-and-appointment option, not just a novelty for weekend dinners.
Twenty Minutes, Not Forty
The number worth remembering is the ride itself. A trip from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Wilshire/La Cienega now takes about 20 minutes with no transfer required. The same trip on the existing Wilshire bus lines, Metro 20 or 720, runs closer to double that, depending on the hour. That gap is the entire argument for using the station rather than treating it as a curiosity.
It also landed at a useful moment. This summer's World Cup matches already tested how much heavier Wilshire Boulevard traffic gets during a major event, and Metro built the extension's timing around exactly that kind of congestion. One stop east at Wilshire/Fairfax puts a rider within walking distance of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Petersen Automotive Museum, Craft Contemporary, and the La Brea Tar Pits. For a resident who used to put off a weeknight at LACMA because Miracle Mile parking during a big event is its own kind of ordeal, this has been the first summer that trip hasn't required a car at all.
Trains run daily between roughly 5 a.m. and midnight, every 10 minutes at peak hours and every 20 minutes otherwise. Every station has elevators, bike parking, and commissioned public art at street and platform level, which is a small detail but a real one if you are deciding whether the walk down feels worth it after dark.
The Two Stations, Side by Side
| Wilshire/La Cienega | Beverly Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Open since May 8, 2026 | Scheduled for Spring 2027 |
| Location | Wilshire and La Cienega, eastern Beverly Hills | Southwest corner of Wilshire and Reeves |
| What's nearby | Restaurant Row, Saban Theatre, Beverly Center, Cedars-Sinai | Golden Triangle, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Wilshire, SIXTY Beverly Hills |
| Distance to Rodeo Drive | Roughly a mile | Steps away |
The Golden Triangle Is Still a Walk Away
The Beverly Drive station, the one built to actually serve the Golden Triangle, is part of Section 2, along with the Century City stop, and both are currently forecast for spring 2027. Its entrance is confirmed for the southwest corner of Wilshire and Reeves, which puts a rider close to the Beverly Wilshire, SIXTY Beverly Hills, AKA Beverly Hills, and Rodeo Drive itself. Until that opens, getting from the new La Cienega stop to the shopping core means a mile of walking, a short rideshare, or a transfer to a local bus line.
It is worth remembering how long this took to get built at all. The tunnel beneath Beverly Hills High School was the subject of years of local opposition, led at the time by the school board, over concerns about what boring a subway under a functioning campus might mean for student safety. That tunneling work finished without incident in 2022, four years before the first trains started running through it. The wait between finishing the tunnel and opening the doors is its own quiet story about how slowly infrastructure moves even after the hard part is done.
So the honest version of "the subway reached Beverly Hills" splits into two dates. This year gets you Restaurant Row, Cedars-Sinai, and a fast ride toward the Miracle Mile museums. Next spring gets you the block most people actually picture when they say the name of this city. Both are true. Only one of them is useful to you right now.
If you're weighing what faster transit access down Wilshire might mean for a property you own or one you're watching in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, or elsewhere on the Westside, that kind of quiet infrastructure shift is exactly the sort of detail LA Luxuries tracks closely for clients across these neighborhoods. Reach out to Jordan Pollack's team to talk through what's actually changing on your block.
