down the line

down the line

1. (idiomatic) Further along, in terms of time or progress.

   They decided to save money by using the cheapest components available, but down the line they ran into problems with reliability.

   • 2018 July 3, Phil McNulty, “Colombia 1 - 1 England”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Southgate's side cast off the clouds of dread that have come over England in penalty shootouts in the past, a psychological lift that may yet help them further down the line.

   • 2023 November 4, Madhumita Murgia, Anna Gross, Cristina Criddle, “Summit exposes tensions over AI development despite emollient Chinese tone”, in FT Weekend, page 12:

     The person said one of the reasons the Chinese had been so pliant in development of a joint position on AI governance was that “playing nice” and acting as a “responsible partner” could help foster conversations about relaxation of US trade barriers later down the line.

• down the road
• down the track

• come online
• in the pipeline