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Sunday Morning News

L.A. Subway Opens With Mixed Reviews

Aired June 25, 2000 - 8:24 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For folks in Los Angeles who are tired of paying high gas prices and fighting traffic, the answer may be to take the subway. Yes, for $1.35 you can ride L.A.'s new subway system.

CNN's Jim Hill has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grand opening of Los Angeles Subway's final leg is being called a financial fiasco by some...

REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: This is the world's most expensive subway system.

HILL: ... and a capstone of rapid transit by others.

UNIDENTIFIED LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: This way, you know, it will help me go to downtown easier.

HILL: It cost $4.5 billion, nearly 300 million bucks a mile, but supporters still give it an "E" for efficiency.

RODNEY SLATER, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: There is no way you can compare the cost of this investment to the quality of the return that comes from people on the move.

HILL: Workers have been on the move since 1986, tunneling through the areas tricky mix of shale, rock and an earthquake fault. And bearish subway engineers took the blame for triggering a giant Hollywood sink hole in 1995 and several accidents killed three workers on one segment of the controversial tunnel.

But after almost 15 years of work, digging some four million cubic yards of earth and welding 200,000 tons of steel...

MAYOR RICHARD RIORDAN, LOS ANGELES: To all of you, congratulations. We did it. Thank you very much.

HILL: For $1.35 one way, riders can travel 17 1/2 miles between downtown and the sprawling San Fernando Valley, home to many of the region's 10 million people and their six million cars, light trucks and vans. ALLAN LIPSKY, METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY: The freeway simply won't be able to handle traffic into the future. That's why we have to develop mass transit alternatives.

HILL: The subway's grand opening was rich with Hollywood symbols ready and willing to compete with the other symbol of Los Angeles, its seemingly endless ribbons of freeway.

(on camera): Southern Californians may never give up their love affair with the automobile, but after all this project's been through, its supporters hope people will at least develop a strong friendship with the subway.

Jim Hill, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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