Seven-Minute Thrill : Subway Is Supposed to Be Fast, but Couldn’t Ride Last Longer?

It takes seven minutes to circumcise a baby.

To hard-boil an egg. Watch a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Or for a one-inch flame to engulf a room in fire.

A British fellow named Peter Dowdeswell once ate 62 pancakes--each smothered in butter and syrup--in the span of seven minutes. A high-speed nuclear missile, launched from a submarine, can wipe out a small village in that time.

For all the fuss about Los Angeles’ new Red Line, for all the pomp heralding a new era in commuter culture, you would think the ride might last a bit longer--something more enduring that could be savored along with other great treks of transit lore.

But all the commotion boils down to a seven-minute journey, a mere blink-of-an-eye trip along a 4.4-mile tunnel between Union Station and MacArthur Park.

The kiddie train at Griffith Park takes seven minutes. So does the “Kingdom of the Dinosaurs” ride at Knott’s Berry Farm. Even an ailing 81-year-old Mother Teresa, while recuperating from heart failure, lasted seven minutes on a treadmill.

Yes, the subway is supposed to be fast; passengers can now get from one end of downtown to another in “a record seven minutes,” trumpets a Red Line press release. You could spend seven minutes just stuck in traffic trying to maneuver the route in a car.

But in Los Angeles, where seemingly normal folks think nothing of driving 1 1/2 hours to work, where the mindless cruising of boulevards has been elevated to an art form, such a breezy jaunt seems to leave the traveler yearning for a bit more.

By way of comparison, consider the latest research about sexual relations, surely a transcendental experience in its own right. The average couple, according to the experts who study these things, usually spend a whole 10 minutes engaged in the average intimate act.

At seven minutes, the Red Line lasts as long as Madonna’s “Erotica” video.

With that in mind, it seemed to make perfect sense that some of the first curious passengers spent more than an hour driving the freeways just to get to a subway station. Once there, they spent another half an hour in line, inching their way to the platform.

For those who endured the wait, there was a bonus. Because the crowds Saturday and Sunday were so large--and not well-versed in the etiquette of entering and exiting the train--the seven-minute trip generally ended up taking an additional three minutes.

“It was pretty nice . . . but it was shorter than I expected,” said Mary Dominguez, 26, a junior high school teacher from Antelope Valley, one of 90,000 riders on Sunday.

To draw out the experience a bit longer, some unhurried riders got off at all five stops, exploring the stations and sampling the ambience. Using that technique, Henry Dotson, 60, a labor relations representative, turned his ride Sunday into a two-hour adventure.

“I’m impressed,” he said. “But it’s not exactly a long journey.”

Some passengers would have been happy to speed it along. With large crowds waiting outside, those arriving at the end of each route were herded out of the station. There, they had to take their place at the end of the line before they could make the trip back.

“I’d rather just take a taxi back to my damn car,” groused Mark Sartain, 35, an air-conditioning wholesaler from La Verne, as he eyed the serpentine line at MacArthur Park.

To be sure, the significance of the Red Line lies less in substance than in symbolism. Compared to the Hollywood Subway, which traversed a route less than a mile long before it was closed in 1955, any modern underground rail system counts as a historic step.

Still, it would have been nice if a trip on the inaugural route could have lasted longer than Buster Douglas did when he faced Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight boxing crown.

Florida cop killer Jesse Tafero managed to hold on for seven minutes despite three jolts to the head from “Old Sparky,” the state’s aging, three-legged electric chair. If you try to hold your breath that long, however, brain death will be the result.

Dan Rather punctuated his career with an infamous seven-minute stroll off a live CBS newscast--one that George Bush did not let him forget. Seven minutes after an emergency is reported in Los Angeles, police are supposed to be on the scene.

In time, the seven-minute Red Line ride will probably become as much a part of Los Angeles culture as USC’s Trojan Marching Band, whose on-field performances typically run about that long.

Or auto theft, another culturally significant activity that occurs here every seven minutes.

The Red Line T he Metro Red Line is Los Angeles’ first modern subway system. The initial 4.4-mile segment of the Red Line, which opened Saturday, runs between Union Station and MacArthur Park and makes fivestops. Eventually the line will be 22.7 miles long. Trains will operate every 10 minutes from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. The fare for the next month will be 25 cents. After that, the fare will be $1.10. SUBWAY INFORMATION

Security: Officers on cars and platforms.

Services: No bathroom facilities or food outlets.

Travel time: Union Station to MacArthur Park, seven minutes.

Connections: Blue Line passengers can purchase 25-cent transfers to connect at the 7th Street/Metro Center station. Red Line passengers can purchase 25-cent transfers to connect with

RTD buses at stations along the way, but RedLine passengers transferring to the Blue Line must pay the full fare. Metrolink passes or tickets will be honored for Red Line connections at Union Station.

Tickets: Available from vending machines at stations. Monthly passes, good for bus and Metro Rail transportation and some transit agencies, are available. Tokens are also available.

Compiled by Times researcher Nona Yates Source: L.A. County Transportation Commission, SouthernCalifornia Rapid Transit District