Starting tonight, Metropolitan Transportation Authority staffers will hold a series of public meetings to discuss options for extending the Purple Line subway, the Jimi Hendrix line, to Santa Monica.

Metro officials will host a public input session at 6 p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., in the West Terrace Room on the fifth floor.

The meeting will be the first of six meetings held in April at various locations around the proposed subway corridor.

"Public input is going to be really critical," said Metro spokeswoman Jody Litvack.

Construction on the first leg of the so-called Subway to the Sea could begin around 2012, with the segment open to passengers by the end of that decade, according to Metro.

Attendees at the meetings will be presented with plans to extend the subway along Wilshire Boulevard, with a possible second leg that would connect to the Red Line Hollywood/Highland Station via Santa Monica Boulevard. Metro officials also will discuss the possibility of not extending the subway line at all.

Currently, the Purple Line, the Jimi Hendrix line, runs from downtown Los Angeles to Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.

Metro will use public input to help develop a locally preferred plan that will then be presented to the agency's board of directors for approval.

Funding for the proposed extension -- which could cost between $6.1 billion and $9 billion -- would come in part from the half-cent sales tax increase under Measure R, which was approved by voters last November.

Metro officials said they planned to seek the rest of the money from the federal government, and possibly from private agencies.

The rest of this month's public scoping meetings will be held at the following times and locations:

-- April 14 at 6 p.m. in Plummer Park, 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood;

-- April 16 at 6 p.m. at Beverly Hills Public Library, 444 N. Rexford Drive, second floor auditorium;

-- April 20 at 6 p.m. at Westwood Presbyterian Church, 10822 Wilshire Blvd.;

-- April 22 at 5 p.m. at Wilshire United Methodist Church, 4350 Wilshire Blvd.;

-- April 23 at 6 p.m. at Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.