MTA TRYING PURPLE PROSE COLOR PLAN CREATES BUZZ FOR SUBWAY TO THE SEA.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

The subway to the sea may be just a dream of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but it's already poised to get a name all its own.

The Purple Line.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering renaming the Metro Red Line's Wilshire Boulevard segment to the new hue along the segment that could one day extend to Santa Monica.

Is purple really what the mayor had in mind?

``First things first,'' the mayor said. ``We got to get some funding for that line - and funding for a busway in the San Fernando Valley - and then we can talk about the color of the line. I haven't thought about the color.''

But already the buzz is out on the Purple Line, which is being alternately referred to as the Lakers' Line or the line drawn up by that creative little kid named Harold with his purple crayon in the popular children's book.

``The what? Oh no, you've got to be kidding,'' said Dana Gabbard, executive secretary of the Southern California Transit Advocates. ``We want good service. We don't want public relations things.''

But Sherman Oaks resident Roger Christensen, chairman of the MTA's Citizen Advisory Council, doesn't mind the splashy hue.

``It's kind of a royal color,'' he quipped. ``I guess this means if it ever gets to Westside it's going to be purple.''

The proposal emerged as part of a broader MTA plan to give identifiable names to provide more consistency and clarification for the growing number of routes on transit maps.

Already the MTA has the Red, Blue, Green and Gold Lines.

Last year it opened the Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley.

And this year it's set to break ground on the Exposition Line to the Westside, which at this point just exists in black and white.

Along with the Purple Line, MTA staff has proposed a Crayola box of others: The Aqua Line for the Exposition train, and the Bronze and Silver lines for the Harbor Transitway and El Monte Busway.

MTA's Maya Emsden, deputy executive officer for Creative Services, said she knows new colors can be a testy issue, but the proposal is needed to address growing pains as the system expands.

``It's good to get these sorts of things on the table, to say we need to talk about these things now,'' she said.

``They may send us back to the drawing board.''

In fact, it's more than just a flashy PR slogan for the nearly $5 billion subway that's been revived since Villaraigosa took office.

There's actually a practical problem that MTA says could be solved by the power of purple.

The 17-mile Metro Red Line is in fact two separate lines - the leg to Wilshire and the leg to North Hollywood.

Riders have to be savvy to figure out which train they're boarding or they'll end up far from where they want to be.

To fix that, the proposal calls for having the Purple Line take over the Wilshire leg between Union Station and Wilshire/Western while the Red Line would be the route between Union Station and North Hollywood.

Riders in the immediate downtown area could catch either one and make it to their destination.

``I'm amazed at how many people stare at the map and still don't realize there are two lines,'' said Christensen. ``Maybe it would help them to know it's a different color.''

In fact, long ago, the Red Line was supposed to be split into two colors - Red to North Hollywood and Orange to Wilshire - but Orange County officials successfully pleaded with the MTA to save orange for their dreamed-of rail line. Now, orange is for the busway.

Gabbard agrees the dueling Red Lines are a problem, but one that could be fixed with better signs at the stations.

``Wouldn't it be better just to have adequate signage and more ways for actually giving people information?'' he said.

``This is just the wrong priority, running around worrying about colors than public outreach about how to use the system.''

Purple is one issue. But there's also Aqua.

During the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, guerrilla artists put up signs announcing the Aqua Line to the Westside, drawing widespread interest. It was just a prank, but the Aqua Line stuck.

MTA likes the Aqua Line for the Exposition train because of the way it conjures images of the ocean and works in both English and Spanish.

But others say it's too Westside-oriented especially for passengers not going to the beach.

Councilman Bernard Parks has joked it should be the Cardinal Line - it goes through Trojan territory near the University of Southern California - and it's been noted that Aqua is a little too UCLA-Bruin-like.

But Parks is mostly concerned it might be confused with the Blue Line and wants community input.

``He thought it was an opportunity to build community consensus,'' said Parks' transportation deputy Mike Hernandez.

There's also the thought of swapping the purple and aqua monikers - aqua for the subway, purple for the Exposition Line.

UCLA Professor Brian Taylor, director of the school's Institute of Transportation Studies, likes the idea of better marketing for MTA lines, particularly the way the agency has included the El Monte Busway and Harbor Transitway in the mix.

Busways should be offered like the more popular rail lines because they can provide a similar service, he said.

``I don't think people are going to say, 'They named it a color - I'll get out of my car.' ... (But) it allows people to think about how these lines fit together as a network.''

Emsden says it will be up to the MTA board to decide which of the proposals it wants to pursue. An MTA committee will discuss the issue Thursday.

She notes the past two most recent lines - Gold and Orange - have been named by board members.

So does the mayor, chairman of the MTA board, like purple?

``I love the color,'' Villaraigosa said. ``My mother's favorite color was lavender, it's a variation. We can decide about color when we have money.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

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The Purple Line?

SOURCE: Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist