Galleria in Redondo Beach : ‘High-Tech’ Bus Depot Opens at Mall

The most elaborate bus stop in the South Bay has opened at Redondo Beach’s Galleria mall, with phones, restrooms, schedule information and even a police office.

About 3,500 passengers are expected to use the 240 buses scheduled to stop at the station during 17 hours of daily weekday service.

Transit officials say the $2.9-million project is only the first of several similar stations intended to make bus and future train riders feel a little less like orphans in the overwhelmingly self-propelled South Bay.

The new terminal, which opened Saturday, has more creature comforts for riders than any other in the South Bay.

Bays for 8 Buses

“It is the ultimate high-tech bus terminal,” said Ann Reeves, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

The Galleria bus station is a partly roofed, landscaped structure with bays for eight buses, as well as public restrooms, four pay telephones and benches. It is decorated in peach and blue tones “selected to give the terminal a light and airy feeling . . . consistent with the architectural style and ambiance of the Galleria,” said mall marketing director Kim Olson.

In addition, Redondo Beach police will have a small office at the site, where information about routes and schedules will also be available. A large, detailed map of the bus routes stopping at the mall facility will be displayed in several weeks, and Redondo Beach officials also plan slide presentations.

Slide Presentations

“We have a little display case where we will be featuring slide presentations about transit, the benefits of taking transit and what other cities and jurisdictions are doing,” said Cara Rice, Redondo Beach transportation grants administrator.

“Commuter Computer wants us to run a little thing about ride sharing,” she said, referring to the nonprofit agency that encourages car-pooling.

Four RTD lines (Nos. 40, 210, 211 and 442) will pass through the facility as well as Torrance Transit Lines 2 and 8 and Gardena Municipal Bus Lines’ Route 3. The Lawndale Trolley and the Redondo-Hermosa WAVE, a dial-a-ride service, also will use the facility.

“The first bus rolls in at 5 a.m. The last bus leaves a little after 10 p.m.,” Rice said. Funding for the Galleria station included a $2.3-million grant from the federal Urban Mass Transit Administration and $607,000 from the Redondo Beach share of the countywide half-cent transit sales tax.

Galleria officials noted that the mall is not a park-and-ride facility, and people who park there to use the new bus facility will get warnings and then be ticketed. “We simply do not have enough parking available,” said Bill Recknor, vice president and general manager of the mall.

The mall terminal dwarfs others in the South Bay, except for the larger bus station at Los Angeles International Airport, which was built in 1983. The LAX bus station has 14 bus bays, seats, restrooms, telephones but no landscaping, video displays or police office.

Other RTD facilities in the South Bay that are more than simple bus stops are at Fisherman’s Wharf near the Redondo Beach Pier; at the north end of California State University, Dominguez Hills, and the Alpine Village Park and Ride center at Torrance Boulevard and the Harbor Freeway.

Accommodates Six Buses

In Torrance, most city buses use a bus stop on Fashion Way at the Del Amo Fashion Center that can accommodate six buses at once. Equipped with benches and a pay telephone, the facility operates from 4:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m., with 281 buses stopping there. The city plans to move its facility slightly westward, possibly reinstalling restrooms--they were removed because of vandalism--and expanding to house city Dial-a-Lift and bus identification card services.

A downtown Torrance bus terminal was demolished five years ago because of vandalism.

In Carson, all but one of the eight Carson Circuit buses make a stop near the south end of the Carson Mall at an unsheltered location with benches but no restrooms or pay telephones.

In the South Bay and elsewhere in Los Angeles County, bus and train stations will enjoy a renaissance in coming years, transit officials predict, as more mass transit projects are built.

“By 1993, we are going to see more and more, quite a few of these transit centers,” said Richard Baker, senior transportation engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

The Century Freeway rail line and its light-rail extension southeast from LAX will place nine covered train stations in the South Bay, all with pay telephones but not restrooms. The target date for completing the light rail extension is 1993. An extension, which is not yet funded, through Torrance along Hawthorne Boulevard would add an additional six or seven stations.

Nearby, in Compton, plans are more advanced for a $6-million terminal to serve the light rail line being built between Los Angeles and Long Beach. A proposed terminal in Lynwood on the same line is projected to cost $1.7 million.

The largest transit terminal planned for the South Bay is an 11-acre facility to be built near Vermont Avenue and Artesia Boulevard that will be built in conjunction with the construction of the Harbor Freeway busway to downtown Los Angeles. The $5-million terminal, which is scheduled to open in 1993, is to serve as a transfer bus station for express buses to downtown.

About 8,000 to 10,000 passengers will use the facility on weekdays, and buses will leave for downtown every 45 seconds during the rush hours, Baker said. A parking lot will have spaces for 1,000 cars, and almost all RTD bus routes in the South Bay will stop at the facility.

Other bus stops, including park-and-ride facilities, will serve the busway along every major east-west intersection with the Harbor Freeway, he said.

At the intersection of Harbor Freeway and the Century Freeway rail line, a three-story terminal will enable passengers to transfer from train to bus.

At the Galleria’s terminal Wednesday morning, Alice Dews, 57, who works for the City of Torrance as a clerk-typist, waited for a bus on Torrance Transit’s No. 2 line to downtown Los Angeles. She was on a shopping journey to the garment district on her day off.

Dews said she would not think of driving to Los Angeles. “Are you kidding? They want an arm and a leg to park. You can ride for $1. A car is not an asset in Los Angeles; it is a liability.”

Dews said she like the amenities at the terminal. “I think it is great. It is nice that they have restroom facilities, “ she said. “I don’t know how long that will last.”