Boston Mayor Michelle Wu tempered expectations Wednesday that the city could change course on a plan to install a bus lane down the middle of a key commuting corridor in favor of an ambitious plan to bring subway service to the area.

Her comments came after a pair of Boston city councilors whose districts include Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan made the case Tuesday that public transit planners have long neglected their predominantly Black, working-class neighborhoods.

They urged the city and the MBTA to abandon a plan to create a dedicated bus lane down the middle of bustling Blue Hill Avenue, describing it as unpopular among constituents, and instead devote resources to extending the Orange Line subway through the area.

With the bus lane project, which is backed by state and federal dollars, the city has an opportunity “to make real improvements now,” Wu said Wednesday, speaking with political reporter Jon Keller at a live interview in Downtown Crossing hosted by the political newsletter MASSterList.

A subterranean expansion of the Orange Line could still happen, she said, but “the reality of digging a new subway line is many, many billions of dollars, likely decades away.”

Wu also said that an existing plan to explore extending the Orange Line from Forest Hills into Roslindale “actually would be pretty, relatively speaking, cost-effective,” since the subway could follow existing commuter rail tracks.

The Blue Hill Avenue bus lane project could transform a bustling, traffic-choked corridor that serves some 37,000 public bus riders each day, as well as numerous cars, delivery trucks and other vehicles.

It would also include street safety improvements, basic repairs to the decaying roadway, as well as upgrades to lighting, tree cover and other amenities.

Yet the project has faced some local opposition, including from those who worry about increased car congestion to accommodate a dedicated bus lane and loss of parking spaces for businesses.

Two city councilors opposed to the bus lane, Miniard Culpepper and Brian Worrell, pressed interim state Transportation Secretary Phillip Eng at a meeting on Tuesday to consider extending the Orange Line under Blue Hill Avenue as an alternative.

“This is a train desert,” Culpepper told reporters after the meeting. “There’s no train that goes through the Black community from Mattapan to Grove Hall to Nubian to Ruggles.”

Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan would benefit immensely from train service, rather than reliance on slower public buses, the councilors said. The neighborhoods have been promised a subway line for decades, they argued.

Culpepper also took issue with concerns that a new Orange Line branch through the area would be beyond the city’s financial means.

“Whenever it comes to the Black community, folks start talking about ‘a whole bunch of money,’” he said. “And so in this case, we want to be treated like everyone else when they propose a major project. They find the money when they need it.”

Eng, who also serves as MBTA general manager, has previously said his focus is on improving the existing subway system, rather than expanding it further.

On Wednesday, Wu said proponents of the bus lane project need to understand the roots of its opposition, including concerns about any risks to small businesses, difficulty crossing the street to reach a new bus stop and worsening traffic.

The federal and state funding is tied to rebuilding the road with a central bus lane, Wu said.

Officials are now working on the design, going block-by-block to consider different possibilities for the road, Wu said. But she insisted the city was committed to hearing input from residents and would not push the project forward unless it thought the neighborhoods would benefit.

“If we get all of that figured out with the right balance, this will be a wonderful idea, a way to beautify and deliver immediate improvements,” Wu said. “If somehow we can’t get to that right design, then it’s certainly not worth it to move forward with something that would worsen a situation for community members.”

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