2000: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority opens Metro Red Line Segment 3 — Hollywood/Vine to North Hollywood — to the public.
The event follows a VIP ceremony the day before.
The project is delivered on budget and six months ahead of the December 31, 2000 deadline mandated in the agency’s construction funding agreement with the federal government.
The North Hollywood segment records 500,000 boardings during the two-day weekend opening celebration.
Simultaneously, LACMTA debuts Metro Rapid buses on Ventura Boulevard and along Wilshire Boulevard.
Modeled after a rapid bus system in Curitiba, Brazil, the new service expedites bus connections to the subway stations.
Actress Vicki Lawrence serves as Mistress of Ceremonies, and welcomes a lengthy list of speakers, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, California State Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, LACMTA Chief Executive Officer Julian Burke and LACMTA Board Chair Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke.
Scheduled events at Universal City station include celebrity characters, live entertainment and Fun Family photo ops. Actors in period costume at the adjacent Campo de Cahuenga will recreate the 1848 treaty signing that ended the Mexican-American War.
The busy subway segment and rapid bus weekend launches coincide with 25 Metro Bus line changes, the transition of companies on six bus lines operated under contract with LACMTA, the kickoff of Hollywood Bowl shuttle service to/from the Hollywood/Vine Station, activation of transit operations at the Metro Green Line Division 22 a week ahead of schedule.
More information can be found in the June 22, 2000 MyMetro employee news digest and the June 24, 2000 MyMetro employee news digest.
