Brake Glitch Causes Hitch on Subway : Transit: Problem forces an 80-minute delay at 7:25 a.m. for 25 passengers on a train out of MacArthur station. On the second day of 25-cent fare, 24,140 take the Red Line.

Twenty-five passengers were trapped for 80 minutes aboard a Red Line train Tuesday in one of several glitches that struck the city’s new subway on its fourth day of service.

The train’s emergency brake activated on cars No. 501 and 502 for no apparent reason as it departed the MacArthur station at 7:25 a.m.--a problem that transit workers had encountered during test runs of several cars. Before the subway opened, officials said this problem had been fixed.

“Any time you start up a new system as complicated as this you are going to have operational glitches,” said Art Leahy, assistant general manager at the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

Leahy and other officials were unfazed by the glitches that cropped up Tuesday, marring what has otherwise been viewed as a successful opening. About 140,000 rode the Red Line during the weekend when it was operating free of charge.

The subway’s $1.4-billion initial segment runs between MacArthur Park and Union Station.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the second day that a 25-cent fare was charged, 24,140 rode the subway--about the same number that rode Monday and almost three times as many riders as officials had estimated. Most of the passengers were commuters, with a sprinkling of joy riders and a large crowd at lunchtime, said RTD spokesman Bill Heard.

The brake problem was one of several glitches reported early in the day. Aboard one 8 a.m. train the doors did not open at the Civic Center station until the operator ran through the train to flip a switch.

“This is more trouble than it’s worth,” one commuter muttered.

Four of the system’s 30 ticket dispensers also broke Tuesday, causing some delays. At noon, for instance, all the ticket dispensers had gone on the blink at the Civic Center station. But transit officials dispatched 50-year-old fare collection boxes as a makeshift solution.

The most serious incident was the problem with the brakes on cars No. 501 and 502, which had been repaired after they malfunctioned during test runs that began Dec. 14. The 25 passengers remained inside the two-car train after it lurched to a halt. Transit workers used another train to push the crippled cars back to the station, where the passengers debarked. The cars, which have already logged 17,200 miles, were returned Tuesday to the rail yards for more repair work.

Opening of the Red Line was delayed three weeks because transit workers had encountered problems such as faulty brakes and doors during the test runs.

“Unfortunately, we are going to run into glitches,” said Jesse Diaz, rail operations superintendent. “It’s frustrating because I want people to experience a pleasant ride. I don’t want people feeling this is unsafe or unreliable, because it’s not.”