Planned Cuts Rile RTD Riders

Jeff Bucher and Jacques Revol know what they are going to do if the Southern California Rapid Transit District goes through with plans to cancel Line 423, the express bus that takes the two men from Woodland Hills to their jobs in downtown Los Angeles.

“That’s two more cars on the freeway,” Bucher muttered as the 423 pulled up at Topanga Canyon and Ventura boulevards at 6:40 one morning this week.

“They got everybody hooked on it. Now they want to yank it,” Paul Bronstein said half an hour later as he boarded the 423 at the same stop on its third and last trip of the day from Westlake Village to downtown.

The RTD staff has proposed that bus service be reduced on up to 72 lines, cutting the total hours of service by up to 6.8%, after July 1, when fare subsidies from the Proposition A sales tax will be trimmed.

Fare Increase Proposed

The district staff also has proposed raising the basic fare from 50 cents to 75 cents to cope with the loss of the subsidy, which pays almost 10% of the cost of running the bus system.

Only one bus line serving the San Fernando Valley, the 423, may be canceled, but the cost-cutting plan calls for service reductions on as many as 14 other Valley lines.

District officials say that some of the service cuts will not be needed as early as July and that other changes may never be needed. Stephen Parry, RTD’s manager of bus planning, said that, if a higher fare causes ridership to drop on the most heavily traveled lines--such as those plying Wilshire Boulevard--the district will be able to shift buses from those routes to others now targeted for service cuts.

Parry said the extent of service cuts also will depend on the new fare adopted by the board. The service cuts recommended by the staff assume that a 75-cent fare will be approved, but “if the fare goes up another nickel or another dime” no service may have to be cut, Parry said.

Alternative Service

District officials say the proposed cuts are aimed at lines that are lightly traveled or that generate the least revenue when compared to the cost of operation. They say that in most cases, there is alternative bus service within walking distance of lines targeted for elimination or for loss of night or weekend service.

Parry also said the impact of changes on bus service in “the Valley is less than on some other areas by a little bit.”

The assurances of officials are of little comfort to some Valley bus patrons, including at least 50 Burbank seniors who ride the 96 bus each day to the Joslyn Adult Center on West Olive Avenue. Under the RTD proposal, the 96 line--which travels east from Sherman Way and Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys through North Hollywood and Burbank and into downtown--would be eliminated. Four other lines that serve the area--the 97, 152, 412, and 413--would be modified to take up the slack.

But Richard Inga, Burbank’s director of parks and recreation, said the replacement line runs at least a quarter mile from the center, which is too far for many of the seniors to walk. Inga said the change could pose “a tremendous hardship” for people who “rely daily on the activities at the Joslyn Center and the meal that is provided at lunch time.”

Misprint Asserted

RTD officials said late Thursday, however, that there was a misprint in their hearing notice and that there will be direct service to the Joslyn Center.

If the cutbacks are enacted, West Valley commuters on the 423 could switch to the 427 express bus, adding 10 or 15 minutes to a downtown trip that already takes more than an hour. A Woodland Hills woman who rides the line to her accounting job at a downtown department store said she might look for another job rather than accept a longer commute.

But Tim Forest, who also rides the 423, said a longer trip by bus is still preferable to taking his car. “There’s no way I’m going to pay the parking rates in downtown L.A. or hassle with the traffic,” he said.

He and other riders on the 423 suggested that the RTD cut the bus service on the line to two trips a day, rather than wipe out the line altogether.

Letters to RTD

Westlake Village commuters will not have the option of switching to another bus if the 423 is discontinued. Both Westlake Village Mayor Irwin A. Shane and the Westlake Joint Board of homeowners associations this week wrote to RTD officials, urging that the route be retained.

Although commuters on the 423 pay $1.75 each, RTD officials said the cost of providing the service is more than $6 per rider more expensive than that. The 423 is one of six express lines that could be canceled. Express service is particularly expensive to provide because the buses travel long distances and make few stops, preventing turnover of riders.

If the line is canceled, Los Angeles city and county officials will consider hiring a private contractor to take over the route, said Jim McLaughlin, a transportation engineer with the city Department of Transportation.

The City Council authorized the Transportation Department last week to seek bids from contractors to operate rush-hour express bus service between downtown and a city park-and-ride lot under construction at Hayvenhurst Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard in Encino. McLaughlin said interested contractors are being told that the firm furnishing the service may also be called upon to take over the express service from Westlake Village and the West Valley to downtown.

McLaughlin said that the city and county would still have to subsidize fares on the privately operated line but that the cost would be lower than what RTD now spends, in part because of the lower wages most private bus firms pay their drivers.

Staff Writer Dean Murphy aided in the preparation of this story.