Riding the Rails

Arthur Reynolds took a Red Eye trip on the Red Line Saturday morning, joining the handful of early risers who boarded the first trains at 4:43 a.m. to inaugurate three new subway stations along Wilshire Boulevard.

An estimated 50,000 followed him at more reasonable hours Saturday, drawn by free passage this weekend on the now 5.3-mile Red Line as well as by bands, dancers and free gifts at several of the stations.

But Reynolds, 64, didn’t wait for the party to start. The running of the trains was all it took to lure him out of bed before the birds. He likened the new subway stops to steps forward in Los Angeles’ evolution as a great city.

“Go to Paris, go to Tokyo--you’ll see that subways bring people together. And cities are made to bring people together,” said the silver-tongued and gray-haired transit fan.

Surely it takes more than an eight-stop subway line to get Angelenos together, but the opening day activities brought plenty of excitement to the neighborhoods around the stations.

The official festivities began at 10 a.m. and continued until 3 p.m., with performances including a Korean youth choir, Aztec dancers and an oldies rock ‘n’ roll band.

By noon, the new Wilshire stations--at Vermont, Normandie and Western avenues--were bustling with enthusiastic visitors carrying shopping bags filled with souvenirs. Children played with free paper trains, while grown-ups marveled at the murals and mobiles adorning the spotless decorative tile and stainless-steel station interiors.

Each station has pay telephones, but no bathrooms, and eating and drinking are prohibited. Signs in trains warn riders that sneaking a cup of coffee or sandwich on a train can lead to a $250 fine.

But the MTA wants some of the festive air of opening day to continue. A spacious plaza precedes the entrance to the Wilshire/Vermont station, and lunchtime concerts there are set for later this month.

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The 75-foot shiny stainless-steel trains were themselves enchanting to many of the riders. “It was like being in a race car being pushed by a speeding boulder,” Aidan Brewster, 4, of Pacific Palisades said of his train ride. Brewster was in town with his father, who drove him to Union Station to ride to the new stations.

Aidan’s thrill might become a lifelong memory. Reynolds said his fascination with trains began when he rode a new subway line on a 1947 visit to Chicago. “I can still remember the high-pitched squeal. It moved so fast, it sounded like a whistle when it passed,” he said.

Others weren’t caught up in the excitement. “I could never get in one of those things, I’m too scared of an earthquake,” said Gladys Kaufman, 67, of Los Angeles, who was waiting for a bus near the Wilshire/Normandie station.

To assuage such fears, a brochure called Facts About Tunnel Safety was passed out at information booths, assuring riders that the Red Line is “one of the safer places to be” in an earthquake, and pointing out that no damage was caused by the 1994 Northridge quake.

There were brief morning protests at the Wilshire/Western station by a group that wants the MTA to spend more on buses rather than rail and by a group that opposes the MTA’s plans to route the Red Line through the Mid-City area rather than continuing it farther west on Wilshire.

The subway construction is the West’s largest public works project. The building of the 2.1-mile Wilshire Boulevard segment angered many nearby business owners, who contended that the disruptions from construction cost them millions.

Union Station, where the Red Line starts, was built in the 1930s over the razed businesses and homes of the original Chinatown.

Some people who attended the openings said they hope the long-term benefits of the subway will eventually outweigh its great costs. “This area could really use a lift. My building has a lot of vacancies. The subway might help to make it more attractive for businesses,” said Gene Choe, 33, who works as an insurance agent in an office building near the Wilshire/Normandie station.

The neighborhoods along the new line certainly have much going for them. The new end points of the Red Line are next to two architectural gems, the Art Deco Wiltern Theater at Wilshire and Western and the Streamline Moderne/Spanish Union Station.

Train buff Reynolds said he saw another advantage to rail travel as he left the Normandie station on his way home. “Right after I got off, I saw a car wreck. Right there.”