Roadblock Thrown in Way of New Bus System

RTD bus drivers and mechanics won a Superior Court ruling Tuesday temporarily blocking the formation of a pioneering and controversial new transit system that could gradually take over a large share of the transit district’s bus service in the San Gabriel Valley.

Superior Court Judge Eli Chernow granted the unions, which were supported by RTD officials, an injunction halting the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s plan to shift tax funds to the new transit agency starting July 1. The injunction, unless overturned on an expected appeal by the commission, would remain in effect until the legality of the new transit agency is resolved in a court trial.

The new agency, which would use private, possibly non-union bus companies and be controlled by a board representing 20 small cities and Los Angeles County, would begin with just a few freeway express lines and gradually assume up to 20 local and regional routes, or about 7% of the total RTD rush-hour service.

The commission exceeded its authority last year when it approved such “a major dismemberment” of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, Chernow ruled. State law requires the RTD’s consent for such an action and that has not been obtained, the judge said.

Effect Unknown

Just how the ruling will affect San Gabriel Valley bus riders was not immediately clear. First, officials said, they must ensure that hundreds of riders are not left standing at stops 17 days from now when two RTD freeway express routes--495 and 498--were scheduled to be transferred to the new agency, which would operate as Foothill Transit.

But one effect of the ruling is that those commuters could be paying higher fares should the RTD continue to operate the lines. RTD fares are going up July 1, but Foothill Transit had planned to maintain the current RTD fare structure.

RTD union officials, who had declared the new bus system an attack on their members, were jubilant after Chernow’s decision.

“It’s a major, major victory,” said attorney Joseph Freitas Jr., who represents the RTD’s 2,000 mechanics. He said the new transit agency is an “effort by conservative forces” to cut costs “on the backs of working men and women who have fought hard for decent wages.”

But proponents of the new bus system said the judge erred.

Removes Power

“It takes the power to create a (new bus system) out of the hands of the (commission) and gives it to the RTD, which is 180 degrees out from what the Legislature intended,” said Mike Lewis, chief deputy to county Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who represents the San Gabriel Valley. Schabarum, a longtime RTD critic, has been a leading advocate of the so-called “privatization” of public transit.

The ruling is a setback for the Transportation Commission, which saw the new transit agency--the first of its kind since the RTD was created in 1964 to consolidate the region’s bus systems--as an important part of a restructuring effort that could help hold down bus fares and taxpayer subsidies. Studies justifying the creation of the new bus system, which would provide both local and freeway express service, forecast savings of 35% or more compared to the RTD’s costs.

The ruling appears likely to ignite a new round of political infighting in the coming weeks between the commission and the RTD.

Lewis, for example, said he expects the commission, which controls the RTD purse strings, to press RTD board members to consent to creation of the new transit agency and presumably allow Chernow to reverse his order.