Private Bus Zone Given Final OK by 20 Cities, County to Start in July

The Foothill Transit Zone, a new transit agency that will contract with private bus companies for service in the San Gabriel Valley, has received final approval from 20 participating cities and Los Angeles County to begin service in July.

Since mid-March, city councils from Temple City to Pomona have joined the transit zone, a local alternative to the Southern California Rapid Transit District. By 1990, the zone is slated to take over one-third of the San Gabriel Valley bus service provided by the RTD.

Last week, the City of Industry and the city of La Habra Heights became the last cities to approve the zone’s governing agreement. The zone had been endorsed previously by the county and the cities of Arcadia, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bradbury, Claremont, Covina, Duarte, El Monte, Glendora, Irwindale, La Verne, Monrovia, Pomona, San Dimas, South El Monte, Temple City, Walnut and West Covina.

Schabarum Crusade

Creation of the transit zone has been a four-year crusade for Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who says it will provide better, more cost-effective service than the RTD. In December, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which had denied a previous application, approved a three-year trial run for the transit zone.

The commission has jurisdiction over transportation systems in the county, distributing state and federal transportation funds. If the zone can show a 25% savings while providing comparable service to the RTD, the commission may opt to make it a permanent entity.

Schabarum has estimated that the zone will save up to $9 million a year, which he said will be used to keep fares low and expand service.

“The beauty of this project is that those savings will stay in the transportation zone to expand service and lower fares . . . eliminating the RTD’s downward spiral of raising fares and cutting suburban service,” he said in a statement released this week.

When fully operating in 1990, the zone is expected to have a ridership of 9.5 million and 127 buses in operation during peak hours, according to William P. Forsythe, the county consultant for the project.

Four Clusters

Under its governing agreement, the zone will be divided equally into four clusters of five neighboring cities. Population in each cluster is about 200,000. Each city will appoint a representative to the transit zone.

The first transit zone meeting is tentatively slated for May 4, when zone members--elected officials from each of the cities and two county appointees--will adopt rules governing the agency.

As part of the first meeting, zone members are being asked to approve a governing board that would oversee contracts and minor route changes. This five-member executive board would have one member from each of the four city clusters and a county representative. All budgetary matters and major service changes would be voted on by all 22 zone members.

The regulations, which the cities had a hand in drafting, will probably be approved with only minor revisions, Forsythe said.

“It should only be minor clarification issues,” he said. “It’s not really any major changes that I’ve heard of from the cities.”

The transit zone is a scaled-back version of a plan Schabarum first proposed in 1984 for 29 cities in the San Gabriel Valley. Pasadena, La Puente and San Gabriel chose not to take part, while six others--Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, Sierra Madre, San Marino and South Pasadena--were cut from the project to win county Transportation Commission approval.

In July, the transit zone will take over two RTD lines, providing express service from Diamond Bar and Rowland Heights to downtown Los Angeles. Four more routes will be added in December, with a total of 14 lines being phased in over the next two years.

The RTD will continue to operate 36 lines in the San Gabriel Valley.