RTD Orders Service Cuts on 13 Bus Lines

Anticipating up to a $12-million loss of federal aid next year, the Southern California Rapid Transit District board on Thursday ordered cutbacks in service on 13 bus lines scattered throughout Los Angeles County.

The cutbacks will be implemented June 30 and will primarily affect weekend service. They involve less than 1% of the system’s passenger boardings.

Line 203, a little-used Vermont Avenue shuttle that runs between Beverly Boulevard and the Griffith Park Observatory, would be entirely eliminated, as would Saturday service involving about 5,300 boardings and Sunday service involving about 4,100 boardings.

RTD General Manager John A. Dyer said the cutbacks on low-ridership lines, expected to save about $1.5 million in the 1986-87 fiscal year, are the first of a series of actions needed to balance the district’s budget. Additional “restructuring”--consolidations, cutbacks or contracting with private transit firms--is being studied for another 37 bus lines, he said. Those proposed changes will be presented in public hearings in the next few months.

Dyer is assuming a 20% to 25% reduction in RTD’s $48-million federal operating assistance funds next year. The Senate Budget Committee recently proposed a 20% reduction in next year’s subsidies, rising to a 30% cut in 1989, he said.

Board member Gordana Swanson tried unsuccessfully to save weekend service on lines that have no parallel service nearby, but her motion was voted down after Dyer argued strongly that the board must begin making tough choices. “If we can’t get past Phase 1 (of the cuts), I don’t know how we are going to get the budget balanced,” he said.

In a separate action, the board unanimously approved spending $32,000 for a one-month extension of its contracts with four Washington lobbying firms working to secure funding for the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway. The tab for the district’s Metro Rail lobbying efforts since 1983 now totals $916,000.

Routes losing both Saturday and Sunday service are:

175 (Hollywood to Los Feliz).

250 (Boyle Heights to County-USC Medical Center).

259 (El Sereno to South Gate).

Routes losing Saturday service only are:

119 (Hawthorne to Lynwood).

126 (Manhattan Beach to Hawthorne).

169 (Canoga Park to Sunland).

211 (Inglewood to Redondo Beach).

215 (Inglewood to Torrance).

Routes losing Sunday service only are:

103 (Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.).

154 (Northridge to Burbank).

168 (Chatsworth to Pacoima).

209 (Hancock Park to Gardena).

The only route eliminated altogether is 203 (Griffith Park shuttle).