On Tuesday, September 15, Trinity Metro unveiled a new Fort Worth bus line created to honor the city’s Hispanic and Latino histories and cultures. La Linea Rosa is a fleet of three buses, featuring designs from local artists, that will ferry residents between downtown, Hemphill Street, Near Southside, and La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth.
The chief executive officer and president of Trinity Metro, Richard Andreski, said of La Linea Rosa, “Great transit has the power to bring a community closer together and introduce people to places they may not otherwise discover. La Linea Rosa demonstrates how Trinity Metro is doing more than connecting people to places; we are amplifying the businesses, neighborhoods, and destinations that make our city great.”
The unveiling was timed to coincide with the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, a month-long celebration of both Hispanic and Latino cultures. To emphasize the importance of this, Trinity Metro opted to paint the new buses in “Mexican pink,” and to feature imagery that paid homage to Fort Worth’s vibrant scenery. Mariachi musicians, skateboarders, ballet folklórico dancers, and the “Matchstick Man” are all represented in the locally designed images.
Along the interior of the La Linea Rosa buses are ceilings that have been painted to look like decorative banners, and seats that resemble Mexican blanket patterns. Drivers operating these vehicles will wear Mexican guayabera shirts in a soft pink color as another nod to the communities that play such a vital role in resident’s everyday life. Bus shelters for the new line will also feature that same Mexican pink color, as well as bougainvillea flowers.
La Gran Plaza’s marketing director, Miguel Calera, said La Linea Rosa, “creates a new connection for our community and a new getaway for visitors to experience the culture, originality and diversity that makes Fort Worth unique.”
The new Fort Worth bus line was met with enthusiasm
During the unveiling ceremony, Trinity Metro’s chief strategy officer, Anette Landeros, told KERA News, “This is more than just pink buses. This is about the neighborhoods and the people we connect.” Connection was at the forefront of Mayor Mattie Parker’s mind too when she attended Tuesday’s event at La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth’s parking lot.
Mayor Parker said, “La Línea Rosa is about connecting people, celebrating community and creating opportunity for all of us. I am very bullish on the future of transit and transportation across the city of Fort Worth. We would not be here without Trinity Metro — Transit can oftentimes be a contentious topic; we’ve had our days here in Fort Worth, but no longer. The leadership here understands that.”
Jeanette Martinez is a City Council member for District 11, and she said that connection has always existed in Fort Worth, but La Linea Rosa helps bring that to the forefront even more. “Thanks to Trinity Metro, La Línea Rosa will expose our children to art and bring a new sense of pride to our community with the potential to increase ridership and exposure to Southside businesses,” Martinez said.
Fort Worth resident Claudia Ramirez was also in attendance on Tuesday, and she told KERA News that it was “pretty nice” to see this representation of Latino and Hispanic culture. “It’s so vibrant — “We have lowriders and everything Southside represented on the bus.”
A complete schedule for the La Linea Rosa bus route can be found here.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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