2-Hour Detour Cited : Circuitous Bus Routes Irk Sunland-Tujunga Riders

A group of Sunland-Tujunga residents has reached agreement with city, county and Southern California Rapid Transit District officials that something needs to be done about the community’s bus routes, which take riders on roundabout trips during off-hours.

What to do and how to do it, though, are still up in the air.

Residents in the northeast San Fernando Valley community say that because of decreased bus service, they must go on a two-hour detour through Glendale for a weekend or evening trip to the West Valley. In a budget squeeze two years ago, the RTD eliminated weekend and evening service on the one line that connects Sunland-Tujunga with the West Valley.

But bus riders in the Sunland-Tujunga area want better service and Tuesday night they got some support.

“We are looking at all possibilities to see that those folks up there have an adequate transit system,” said William Bicker, traffic and transportation coordinator for Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Committee Formed

No decisions were made at the two-hour meeting at the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building, but a committee headed by City Councilman Joel Wachs was formed to present proposals to the RTD on how to fill gaps in the present service.

“We are going to be in a committee until we settle this thing and see what we can come up with,” said Daniel Wittersheim of Tujunga, primary organizer of the campaign for better bus service.

Wittersheim said he will bring proposals before the committee in the next few weeks. RTD spokesman Rick Jager said the RTD will look at the proposals and “maybe somewhere down the line some kind of cooperative agreement can be reached.”

“I’m sure that we don’t have all the answers, but this is a step in the right direction,” said Wachs, who represents the northeast Valley.

At present, the area is serviced by three bus lines. However, one is a morning and afternoon express route to downtown Los Angeles that makes many stops along one of the other routes.

Service Cutbacks

Line 169 is an east-west route that runs from Sunland to Canoga Park. Faced with low weekend and evening ridership on that route, the RTD eliminated service on weekends and after 8 p.m. weekdays. Riders who want to travel to the West Valley during off-hours must take a north-south route to Glendale Boulevard and San Fernando Road, then transfer to a westbound bus. The detour often takes more than two hours, Wittersheim said.

Area bus riders do not deserve that kind of treatment, he said.

Wittersheim said he will propose that the RTD discontinue service on Line 169 to Burbank Airport, where six other lines stop, and reroute the north-south line so that it stops at the airport.

That would enable bus riders from the northeast Valley to ride to the airport, then catch buses for other destinations.

Jager suggested that the city fill in the gaps by providing a van service during off-hours, which Bicker said the city might do.