MTA Unveils N. Hollywood Branch of Subway

As subway rides go, the nine-minute trip Tuesday was a marvel: no panhandlers, plenty of empty seats and a bevy of MTA officials aboard to make sure the train ran like clockwork.

But the real milestone was that the North Hollywood leg of the Metro Red Line, a $1.3-billion project that took nearly eight years to build, had finally reached the San Fernando Valley. As the four-car train pulled out of the North Hollywood station--its first semipublic run with a media tour full of reporters wearing hard hats--a cluster of MTA workers let out a cheer.

“I’m tremendously satisfied,” said Charles Stark, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s project manager, as the train dove beneath the Cahuenga Pass, reaching speeds of 69 mph.

“I’m looking forward to the thousands and thousands of people we’ll be carrying from the Los Angeles Basin to the San Fernando Valley, especially on rainy days like today.”

About 900 feet above, rain soaked the Santa Monica Mountains. Cars crawled along the Hollywood Freeway. Windshield wipers revealed only misty gray sky.

The view wasn’t much better down below. Dark walls flashed by, with glimpses of blue fluorescent light punctuating the journey. The route will remain off-limits to passengers for the next few months as engineers test the system’s ventilation, signals and other equipment.

When the newest segment opens to the public sometime in June, the $4.5-billion Red Line will have 16 stations spanning 17.4 miles. The commute from North Hollywood to Union Station will take 27 minutes.

“We consider it the jewel of the system,” Stark said, noting that the North Hollywood extension is about $10 million under budget. The MTA expects to beat the federal December deadline for opening the segment with months to spare, he added.

The new 6.3-mile segment is the last one Los Angeles will see in the near future. In 1998, voters fed up with MTA construction problems and cost overruns approved a ballot measure that effectively ended new subway projects.

At one time, subway planners had envisioned trains rocketing under the Valley floor all the way to Warner Center. Then, as the money-gobbling subway fell out of political favor, plans were scaled back to Sepulveda Boulevard. In the end, the trains will stop at North Hollywood.

MTA officials expect 18,000 riders to climb aboard the North Hollywood segment each day.

About $1 million in artwork went into the subway stations along the final Red Line segment, said Maya Emsden, the agency’s art director.