SAVE ON WHEELS: There’s a new alternative...

SAVE ON WHEELS: There’s a new alternative for getting to Riverside, without fighting traffic, starting Monday: the new, 49-mile Irvine-Riverside Metrolink line. . . . It’s being billed as the nation’s first suburb-to-suburb commuter rail line. And if it goes as planned, it should ease traffic on the congested Riverside Freeway. The trip should be about the equivalent of driving the route in the car-pool lane. . . . Says Metrolink spokesman Peter Hildago: “We are meeting commuter needs and looking into future needs.”

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Ride on Time

Commute time from downtown Riverside to the Irvine Spectrum employment center:

Bus: 2 hours, 24 minutes

Car-pool lane: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Driving alone: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Metrolink: 1 hour, 16 minutes

Source: Commuter Transportation Services Inc.

COMPOSING EARLY: It’s not just that 7-year-old Sebastion Chang of Trabuco Canyon was chosen to play the piano in a national concert that stirs awe among family friends. But those selected nationwide for the Pan-American Junior Concert in Boston Sunday were required to submit their own compositions. . . . Koichi Sanchez, 13, of Irvine was also chosen, and will play the electric organ. Both are students at the Yamaha Music School in Irvine.

HOGGING THE MARKET? Bikers Dream Inc. of Santa Ana, a motorcycles and accessories retailer trading over the counter, uses the ticker symbol “HOGS.” That has Harley-Davidson Inc. demanding a stop to it, since the world knows “Hogs” are Harley motorcycles and it has trademark rights to the term. . . . So far, Bikers Dream has no plans to change. Why isn’t Harley-Davidson complaining, asks Bikers chief executive Dennis Campbell, “to thousands of hog farmers, or to those who actively trade hog futures?”

NEW SATURDAY: Comedian Will Ferrell, who joins the new cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” making its debut tonight, comes from the Rancho Santiago College telecommunications program (F1). It’s met with success sending its graduates into the media. Department head Terry Bales says his former students are working around the world, including two at TV stations in Hong Kong and Taiwan. . . . His most unusual success story might be that of Thuan Chung, a Vietnamese student who landed a TV job in Brussels, Belgium.

TONIGHT: Samba Ngo plays African soukous music at 7, San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, 31495 El Camino Real. (714) 248-7469.

WEATHER: Sunny and warmer after patchy morning coastal fog. Highs in the mid-80s and lows in the lower 60s.