Koreatown : Metro Rail Station Plans

Preliminary work has begun for construction of a Metro Rail station under the corner of Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.

Plans call for the demolition in a few weeks of a drugstore at the intersection to make way for the station entrance, said Bob Mooney, a public affairs officer for the Rail Construction Corp., a subsidiary of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

The start of construction has not yet been scheduled, he said.

Mooney has a recently opened information office in the Wiltern Theater building, where he and other officials are available most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There is also a 24-hour information line, (213) 620-RAIL.

“The purpose is to make life as normal as possible for businesses and residents and people who are in that area,” Mooney said.

Plans call for the subway’s Red Line to go west from downtown along Wilshire Boulevard to Vermont Avenue, then north to Hollywood Boulevard and west to Vine Street.

The station at Wilshire and Western, and another at the corner of Wilshire and Normandie Avenue, will be the first two stops on a western spur line whose eventual path has not been decided, said Nancy Michali, manager of rail development for the corporation’s central area team.

With the federal government now drawing up its planned spending on mass transit for the next five years, the pressure is on to decide where to extend the system, she said.

One possibility would be to continue westward along Wilshire Boulevard, although opposition from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) is expected to bar funding for construction underneath the Fairfax District. Waxman has raised questions about the danger posed by pockets of methane in the area. Pico Boulevard has been suggested as a possible route.

The Transit Commission is expected to discuss Metro Rail extensions at its meeting April 10, Michali said.