Hollywood Burbank Airport looks for transportation service to new Metrolink station
Hollywood Burbank Airport officials are having difficulty finding a shuttle service to transport passengers between the airport and the new Metrolink station north of the airfield.
Though a request for proposal was put out a few months ago and several inquiries were made, not a single transportation company put in a bid to make the 1.5-mile trip, said Denis Carvill, deputy executive director of operations, during an operations and development committee meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
He explained that many of the companies aren’t willing to make the short trip to the new Metrolink station, which carries passengers on the Antelope Valley line. Additionally, the airport has insurance requirements that protect them should anything happen to a passenger.
Furthermore, via a contract it has with Super Shuttle, the airport has transported to the new Metrolink station an average of about 113 people a week in the last two months, which the deputy executive director said is a small number of passengers. Pick-ups and drop-offs are made every 30 minutes on the hour.
“I think a few of those things combined make it just a little bit difficult to get bids,” Carvill said. “The number of people actually traveling on the train limits the amount of money these [transportation services] can make from it.”
The airport’s current three-month contract with Super Shuttle runs through Nov. 21.
Despite not receiving a single bid over the last two months, Carvill said he and staff have been working with some of their current transportation vendors and are optimistic about finding a solution. He expects to return to the airport authority by Nov. 5 with a proposal for an on-demand service to move travelers to and from the airport and the station.
“I think negotiations are going well right now, but I think we’ll know within the next few days where we’re going, and hopefully we’ll be able to come back to you,” he told the authority members.
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
