WHERE IS THE LOVE FOR ORANGE LINE? SHE WISHES SHE KNEW.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

Damn the Red Line. If it weren't for the subway, I would have loved my first experience on the Valley's new Orange Line busway.

If it weren't for the smooth ride, the comforting darkness of the journey from downtown to the Valley as I made my way to North Hollywood for a test ride, I wouldn't have noticed every bump, every red-light stop or the glare bouncing off the hot asphalt of the busway.

But I did. And there's no taking back first impressions.

I want to love the Orange Line very much. I want to wake up each morning, glad that I get to take a seat aboard one of those 80-foot articulated buses (that means it has an accordion in the middle) and leisurely do the Sudoku puzzle in the paper as I cruise to work.

See, I am one of those hapless drivers stuck on the 101 Freeway, who passes the time thinking up screwball traffic-relief projects that involve, variously, conveyor belts of different speeds, cars completely clad in rubber so you could bump slower and dimmer drivers out of your way and highway ferries. But that's another column.

When the busway debuts its 14-mile route from NoHo to Warner Center on Oct. 29, I wanted to be first in line. It's the biggest public transportation project since they bored tunnels through the Cahuenga Pass for the Red Line subway, and is actually the above-ground extension of that very line.

To hear MTA folks talk about, this is the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe better, since sliced bread is no longer all that cool.

At first, I was somewhat skeptical about the whole thing. I mean, it is the bus. It may be a fancier, clean-air version. It might run most of its route on its own lane fenced off from other traffic and meandering wildlife, and it might have technology to help it catch the green lights (help, but not change, as it turns out).

But, well, it's the bus. I am a Southern Californian, and therefore conditioned to leave my car for the bus only under extreme duress, e.g., broken bones, severe car trouble or at gunpoint.

Still, I long to find an alternative to traffic and was excited when I set out to take a test ride Tuesday on the busway. For fun, I decided to add in the Red Line to simulate the experience of traveling between the deep Valley and downtown.

After some fumbling with cranky ticket machines, I caught the subway and settled in for the 28-minute ride which, surprisingly, took exactly 28 minutes. It was only my second trip in the subway, and I started to get excited. Public transportation is awesome, I thought.

The Orange Line is definitely not coming too soon. In every direction - from its starting point at Lankershim Boulevard - there are buildings and apartments under construction. Also, the midday traffic to the end of the subway line was impressive, and presumably many of them would have headed to catch the bus across the street had it been running yet.

The test trip was fairly unremarkable other than the TV cameramen making us stop periodically so they could drive ahead to get a moving shot of the bus and noting that the stop near Reseda Boulevard was right in front of the Frisky Kitty strip club. If you close your eyes, the 42-minute ride is still a bus ride, with plenty of red lights and jarring stops and starts.

At the end of the test, which had taken a combined total 3 hours and 45 minutes, counting the subway portion, I was exhausted, frozen from the enthusiastic A/C on the new buses and glad that I ended my journey in the relative luxury of the subway train. If only they had extended the light rail along the journey instead of buses, I thought, then I might be a little more excited.

I would like to say that I will ride use the busway regularly. I will mean to, and even go so far as to look earnestly at the schedules from time to time.

But, ultimately, I will hope that someone's getting some good use out of the $330 million-project and that they are doing so instead of tailgating me on the Ventura Freeway.

Mariel Garza

mariel.garza(at)dailynews.com