Echo Park, Elysian Valley and other neighborhoods near Dodger Stadium have cautious reason to celebrate. According to a Dodgers press release sent out yesterday, the MTA has received a $300,000 grant from an organization called the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee to ferry fans from Union Station (and the Metro!) to the stadium and back. If you have a Dodgers ticket, the grant money pays the fare for your ride. The clean-fuel shuttles will start with the preseason game on April 1 (Chicken Corner respectfully declines to make an April Fool's joke in the blank here). According to the press release, service will run through the regular season. (LAObserved previously reported the news on its Main Page March 12.)

This could be good news in Echo Park and surrounding, especially if Dodgers fans actually use the service -- leaving their cars at home. Less traffic, less trash, and less noise would be more benefit around here on game days.

A similar service was canceled in previous seasons because, the Dodgers said, no one used it.

Full text of the press release is after the jump.

The happy clams in the picture are: Council member Eric Garcetti, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Dodgers Owner and Chairman Frank McCourt, Supervisor Michael Antonovich, MTA Board Chairman Ara Najarian and Council member Ed Reyes -- at the press conference announcing a grant for the Dodger Stadium Express.

Photo: LA Dodgers/Juan Ocampo

Edited post.