TIFIA loan for LACMTA Westside Subway Extension achieves welcome milestone

The U.S. Department of Transportation has taken a major step toward approval of a $640.8 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Westside Subway Extension. The $640.8 million federal loan commitment would help fund the construction of a high-capacity, nine-mile extension of the LACMTA Purple Line subway from the existing Wilshire/Western station to a proposed Westwood/Veterans Affairs Hospital station once negotiations are complete. "[This] is a critical step towards creating an ambitious, multi-faceted transit network and putting Angelenos back to work," Mayor and Chair of the LACMTA Antonio Villaraigosa said. On March 1, 2011, LAMCTA had written a letter of interest to the USDOT outlining its interest in a TIFIA loan for the Westside Subway Extension and the Regional Connector. The USDOT selected the Westside Subway Extension [and seven other projects] from a pool of 34 project sponsors that were seeking a total of over $14 billion in TIFIA loans to help finance some $48 billion of new capital investments. LACMTA must now submit a final TIFIA application with USDOT and await formal approval of our Westside Subway Extension loan over the next several months. The Westside Subway extension is part of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LACMTA's 30/10 Initiative, a $14.8 billion plan to build 30 years of transit projects in the next decade. The loan will be repaid with funds collected under Measure R, a half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles voters in 2008.