Commuters Put Gold Line to Test

Henry Randolph hates driving.

For six years, he’s plied the freeways of Los Angeles, driving his Toyota Camry on an 86-mile round-trip journey from his home on the Palos Verdes Peninsula to his job in downtown Pasadena.

Henry Randolph loves trains.

That’s why, sitting aboard a Gold Line light-rail car whisking from Union Station to Pasadena on Monday morning, his smile was ear-to-ear.

“There’s the freeway,” said Randolph, a technical writer, as the 49-ton train rumbled over a bridge perched above the Pasadena Freeway. “I don’t have to take it anymore. This is like freedom. Freedom from my car.”

Though the Gold Line opened over the weekend to throngs of riders lured by free rides and festivities, Monday was a more important test for the 14-mile route connecting downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena.

Passengers had to pay. And the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, eager to take cars off the freeways during rush hour, began carrying its target audience: workday commuters.

The MTA said that roughly 150,000 rides were taken on its packed trains Saturday and Sunday, but would not give ridership figures for Monday. A spokesman said the agency wanted to wait a few weeks, an attempt to be more accurate.

An eyeball accounting of the Gold Line, however, showed the trains to be about one-third to half full. MTA Chief Executive Roger Snoble was enthusiastic.

It’s “really, really impressive,” said Snoble, watching people pour off a train at Union Station. “We’re running without a hitch.”

Aboard the Gold Line, most riders gave similarly positive reviews.

During the morning rush hour, the types of trips were as varied as the riders themselves: Businessmen sat next to domestic workers, black shoulder-to-shoulder with white, Asian with Latino.

Some riders were taking the Gold Line as part of a quick trip from home to work in downtown Los Angeles.

Fern Taylor, dressed in a business suit, boarded the train at the Sierra Madre Villa stop shortly before 8:30 a.m. with her daughter, Jillian, 3. The two usually spend their early mornings stuck in traffic on the Pasadena Freeway, making their way to downtown Los Angeles.

But Taylor decided to try the train. Her plan was to ride to Union Station, take her daughter across the street to a day-care center at the MTA building and then catch the Red Line to the Civic Center, where she works.

“I thought this would be a nice change for us,” said Taylor, the head of Los Angeles County’s Telecommunications Franchising Department.

Others were using the Gold Line as one leg in a longer journey. Enzo Cesario, an advertising agency creative director who works in Santa Ana, has for the last three years driven from Altadena to Union Station, where he hopped on an Amtrak train to work.

“I’m going by transit the whole way now,” Cesario said, as he got off a Gold Line train at Union Station. “I’m not saving time, but I’m not putting any pollution in the air. It’s just great for me.”

Not everyone was as pleased. Standing on the platform at Union Station about 7:30 a.m., Wells Fargo Bank supervisor Mattie Pinkney of South Los Angeles furrowed her brow and watched a train arrive.

On Monday she got to work by taking two MTA buses, the Gold Line and a shuttle -- a journey that took 2 hours and 10 minutes, about 40 minutes longer than her old commute.

She said her usual bus service had been cut recently, forcing her to wend through the city on several buses just to get to Union Station. “I’m nothing but frustrated,” Pinkney said.

Pinkney’s woes reflect one of the problems the MTA faces as it launches the Gold Line. The agency is opening the railway as it rejiggers its bus system, having trimmed about 3% of its service in a move it says will improve efficiency.

Observers say a key to the success of the Gold Line will be how well buses feed into the railway. The idea is to make getting to the train easy, with fast and frequent service. Right now, as Pinkney’s story illustrates, problems exist. “They’re going to lose me as a customer,” she said. “Looks like I’m going to have to buy a car.”

One man who didn’t mind taking the bus to the Gold Line was Randolph, the technical writer. He took an express bus that rolled down the freeway to Union Station. He said the trip was fast and efficient, as was his entire journey. What’s more, it made him feel more connected to the metropolis.

“The whole trip was an eye-opener,” he said, looking out the window near the Highland Park neighborhood. “I’ve never seen some of these places before. It’s opening things up for me. The transit system is kind of rudimentary at this stage, but we are getting there.”

Video of the first business day on the Gold Line is available at www.latimes.com/ goldline.