Purple Line will help commuters to Shalhevet — in 2023

Los Angeles County has seven subways, and though they run from Long Beach through Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, they still do not help the students commuting from Venice or Westwood or the Valley to Shalhevet. There are hundreds of street buses, but they are known to be unreliable, crowded and slow due to traffic.

Seniors Aviva Katz and Rami Gruman have commuted by public transportation to the Valley. They take Metro’s 217 local bus from Shalhevet at 8th and Fairfax to the Red Line subway on Hollywood and Highland, which goes to North Hollywood.

From there they can get a ride home or take another bus. There are no direct bus routes from Shalhevet to any of the areas long distance commuters live in.

However, a new extension of the Purple Line subway will likely help students commuting from the Valley, Westwood, Century City and some parts of Beverly Hills. The Purple Line — the construction project that has been snarling traffic on Wilshire Boulevard near Shalhevet for the last several years —  currently only has eight stops, running from Wilshire/ Western in Koreatown to Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles.

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But new stations near Shalhevet — Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, Wilshire/La Cienega — are to be completed by 2023. The stops at Wilshire/Rodeo and Century City/Constellation are expected to be completed in 2025. The completion dates of stops at Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Hospital are still unknown.

The extended line will help students from the Valley, who will be able to board the Purple Line at Wilshire and Fairfax, take it to the Wilshire/Vermont stop which crosses with the Red Line, and then take the Red Line to the station in North Hollywood. The Purple Line will replace the 217 Metro bus, which moves at the will of street traffic and has unpredictable arrival times.

Students who live near UCLA and surrounding areas will one day be able to take the Purple Line straight to Shalhevet, along with students who live near the stops in Century City and Beverly Hills.