Dodgers transit a work in progress

Take a look at the line for the Dodger Stadium shuttle bus to Saturday's Coliseum game. Jon Weisman blogged that when he left the game early, the line to return "looked literally to be almost a mile long." Reporter Jill Painter in the Daily News:

The scene around Dodger Stadium looked like one found on a crowded summer day with long, snaking lines for rides at Magic Mountain. The Dodgers offered free parking and shuttle service to the Coliseum - along with a big headache.

Scott Strull said they parked their car with ease, but once they saw the line, they knew they wouldn't make the first pitch. Many fans waited for buses for two hours.

"There was an unbelievable amount of people in line," Scott Strull said. "We stood in line and moved about a quarter-mile in 40 minutes. We were standing there forever. We got out and flagged down a cab on Sunset and Elysian. We got here in the second inning. I'm sure people are still there waiting for shuttles."

The shuttle service, which started at 11a.m., worked fine early in the day, but once thousands of the Coliseum crowd of 115,300 people arrived, it was chaos. Fans said it was unorganized and that there were no Dodgers officials to manage the mess.

Josh Rawitch, Dodgers vice president of public relations and broadcasting, said the Dodgers originally scheduled 40 shuttles, but as they saw the demand increasing, they made 100 shuttles and buses available.

The Dodgers received 5,000 shuttle reservations, but Rawitch said the Dodgers transported 35,000 fans.

Pretty stiff test, but it has to go down as another example of the Dodgers' inability to embrace transit. The Metro buses past Dodger Stadium still stop down on Sunset Boulevard, and a shuttle from Union Station was discontinued for lack of use. Steve Hymon analyzed the situation in Friday's Times and quotes Dodgers senior VP Howard Sunkin saying the burden shouldn't be the team's. "We think this should be done by the public. We've spent in excess of $150 million to restore the stadium, with more to come, and our fans are looking for public transportation."

Cutbacks...or stuck in traffic?: The Daily News story on the shuttle unhappiness carries the credit line, "Managing Editor Melissa Lalum contributed to this story."

Photo: Dodger Thoughts