On their way to the Golden Dragon Parade and Festival in Los Angeles, nearly 500 people stopped by the Irvine Metrolink Station last Saturday morning to attend OCTA’s popular pre-event featuring lion dancers traditional light refreshments. OCTA holds this annual celebration to encourage Metrolink ridership as part of the Lunar New Year, the most celebrated holiday of the year for the nearly 1.5 million people of Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese descent living in Southern California.
OCTA Director Al Murray and Steven Choi, Mayor of Irvine, were on hand to thank riders for taking Metrolink and discuss the many reasons and ways to take the train for work and play.
L.A.’s Chinatown is easily accessible by Metrolink, and a train ride is a pleasant and low-stress way for whole families to travel together to the parade while avoiding traffic and parking expenses.
After the fun at Irvine Station, riders took Metrolink to Los Angeles Union Station. From there, they transferred for free to Chinatown, the first stop on the Metro Gold Line.
The first hundred fortunate visitors to OCTA’s event received free Metrolink tickets to the L.A. parade. Even without a free ticket, however, weekend Metrolink travel is affordable. For $10, a Weekend Day Pass allows system-wide travel all day either Saturday or Sunday wherever Metrolink goes.
The promotion resulted in record ridership to the Golden Dragon Parade with more than 3,500 boardings on the OC Line.
View photos from the event on Facebook.
