An Estimated 500,000 Try Out the Red Line

Close to half a million people took advantage of free rides on the Red Line subway over the weekend, transportation officials estimated Sunday.

The North Hollywood station--the end of the Red Line--had lines of people snaked around the block outside the station. Many of the passenger cars were standing-room-only.

Just after 4 p.m., a Metropolitan Transportation Authority announcement over the public address system in the Universal City station warned riders headed to North Hollywood of a 45-minute wait there for a return ride downtown. “You might want to consider visiting North Hollywood another day,” the speaker said. The ride between downtown and North Hollywood takes 30 minutes.

One of the big draws to North Hollywood was the NoHo International Theatre & Arts Festival, which featured free theater performances, food and crafts booths, and other entertainment.

“It was busier today than yesterday at this time,” MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said Sunday. “We’re pretty confident we’ll have 500,000 for the weekend.”

Rapid Bus was also a big hit. Lines just outside the subway station at Universal City wound around the block but moved steadily.

Inside subway stations, elevators and escalators stopped working momentarily, but crowds took the glitches in stride.

The sight of packed train car after train car seemed more like a snapshot of the subway in New York rather than car-manic Los Angeles.

The comparisons to the Right Coast continued in the Hollywood Boulevard-Highland Avenue subway station. A singer from the Big Apple and a jazz quartet crooned “New York, New York.”