A quick pose before the bus ride. For more pics, visit our Flickr page.

There was a little good news for bus riders in advance of the fare hikes coming on Thursday.

For literally as long as I’ve known him, Councilman Bill Rosendahl has been hectoring Metro for better rapid bus service along Venice Boulevard.  Rosendahl, who lives literally a couple of blocks from the bus stop at Centinela and Venice, argued that if Metro could cut twenty minutes from the bus trip from the Westside to the Downtown, that people would use the service and the bus would be full.  Nearly three years after the first time I saw him hector Metro’s intergovernmental affairs director Art Henry at a City Council meeting, that Metro rapid line is a reality.

On Sunday, Metro Rapid 733 debuted, replacing the less-than-stellar 333 Line that provided a very limited express trip.  The 733 runs from Arizona Boulevard in Santa Monica all the way to Union Station.  While it doesn’t rival the Wilshire rapid bus experience just yet, Rosendahl was celebrating today not just the new bus line but also his vision of the future of transit on Venice Boulevard.

The Councilman explains his vision for rapid buses from the Westside to Downtown:

My big hope is that if we can scientifically point out between 7 and 9 o’clock. that we can fill up a bus with Santa Monica, Venice and Mar Vista then maybe at Fairfax we can get right back on the 10.

You can watch the full interview with the Councilman, before he got on the 733 for the first time, at our You Tube site.

The service will run every ten minutes during rush hour, and every fifteen minutes the rest of operation.  That may not sound like much, but for riders getting on at Centinela, that’s the difference between a fifty minute ride to Union Station and an hour and ten minutes.

For the full schedule and list of stops, download the official schedule here.