Hollywood Subway Line Opens Today

The Hollywood subway opens to the public this morning after a gala VIP dedication ceremony and inaugural train ride Friday that celebrated in theatrical style the completion of the most troubled part of the Metro Rail system.

For the politicians gathered on the mezzanine of the glitzy Hollywood and Vine station, the subway’s debut was a long-awaited moment, particularly in a region so notorious for its love affair with the automobile. They marked the moment with a mixture of politics and kitsch.

After numerous congratulatory speeches from assembled dignitaries, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, escorted by “Wizard of Oz” characters Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man, followed the simulated yellow brick road through the movie palace station for a ceremonial ride on the Red Line.

After zipping beneath the streets of Hollywood on a special train at 55 mph, Riordan gushed that he “thought the ride was sensational.”

To which, Dorothy enthusiastically added: “It was a wonderful, smooth ride, and it’s nicer than the New York subway!”

A beaming Riordan, surrounded by a mass of news media, said Los Angeles can be proud of the subway, which he predicted will serve commuters, the transit-dependent and tourists.

For years, the 4.6-mile Hollywood line was plague by construction problems and cost overruns, the worst of the entire troubled subway project. On Friday, Federal Transit Administrator Gordon Linton alluded to those problems but hailed the line’s dedication as a celebration of hard work and perseverance.

“Clearly there have been some bumps and hurdles along the way,” Linton said. “But . . . without pressure there are no diamonds. We today have a diamond.”

Linton noted that “there will be those who will criticize” the cost of the Los Angeles subway project, expected to approach $5 billion, but he defended the spending by federal, state and local taxpayers. “Time will be the real test of the investments that have been made here,” he said.

It was Los Angeles Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, whose district endured a subway-spawned sinkhole and damage to buildings and businesses during construction, who expressed the most relief that the subway had finally arrived in Hollywood.

Arms waving, she let out a primal scream of joy and pain. “It has been a challenge,” Goldberg said. “The fact of the matter is Metro Rail is good for Hollywood and good for the city of Los Angeles.”

But no day for the MTA is without controversy. While the politicos and guests celebrated inside, a handful of Bus Riders Union members and anti-subway activists demonstrated outside a barbed wire fence around the station, which was heavily guarded by police. “Downtown to Tinseltown in 12 Trouble-Plagued Years,” one picket sign read.

The public will get its first chance to ride the trains to Hollywood beginning today, when five new stations open. They are located at Vermont Avenue and Beverly, Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards and on Hollywood Boulevard at Vine and at Western Avenue.

To introduce the service, there will be free rides all weekend on the 11.1 miles of subway from Union Station through downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood.

For the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the opening of the final five stations on the $1.7-billion Hollywood line is a milestone.

“We have proven that we can start things and we can finish things,” said Riordan, who also is chairman of the transit agency. Although the mayor has said he wishes the subway project was never started, he also has said he believes it will prove to be a major asset for the city, particularly when the last 6 miles from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley open next year.

County Supervisor and MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky said the Red Line to Hollywood represents the legacy of the late Mayor Tom Bradley, who led the fight for the subway. But Yaroslavsky, whose successful ballot campaign last fall outlawed use of county transit sales tax to build more subway lines, challenged the crowd to find cheaper, common-sense solutions to Los Angeles transportation problems. “What is the legacy we are going to leave 20 years from now?” he asked.

Still, Yaroslavsky was able to share in the opening of the subway to his district. “As jinxed as this project seemed to be, we’ve learned the lessons,” he said.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who is soon to take over as chairwoman of the MTA, joined in the celebratory mood, calling the Hollywood subway a “great promise fulfilled.”

But she warned against complacency. “Metro Rail is not a panacea for our traffic problems,” she said. “But it will help.”

Although ridership estimates have dropped over the years, MTA officials say that the Hollywood line will double the subway’s ridership from fewer than 40,000 passenger boardings on weekdays to 80,000.

The opening of the line comes amid a flurry of Hollywood development, a burst of activity that some officials attribute to the subway. They point in particular to the $435-million Trizec Hahn retail, hotel and entertainment project being developed above the unfinished Hollywood and Highland station. A new theater at the site will become the new home for the Academy Awards.

With the Hollywood line in operation, passengers can travel on the subway and connect at Union Station with the Metrolink commuter rail lines and Amtrak trains. At the downtown Metro Center station, the Red Line connects with the Los Angeles-Long Beach Blue Line, which in turn connects with the Norwalk-El Segundo Green Line.

The start of regular subway service to Hollywood will also see changes in MTA bus service, including the elimination of some direct routes from the entertainment area to downtown.