Record County Bus Use in Quarter Tied to High Employment

More county residents took the bus last quarter than in any previous quarter, thanks to the county’s high employment rate, county transit officials said Monday.

The Orange County Transit District posted a record 9.59 million boardings during the 3 months ending Sept. 30. The increase amounts to a 1.5% boost, or 138,060 more boardings, from the previous record quarter in the spring, officials said.

(By comparison, county residents make about 130 million trips in all vehicles each quarter.)

The increase in ridership came despite a boost in the basic fare from 75 cents to 80 cents last July 1.

The 124,886 boardings Sept. 6 were the highest total ever recorded for a single day, transit officials said.

But the district’s dial-a-ride service suffered a decline, officials said. This quarter’s boardings decreased by 17.9%, to 319,254 from 388,727 during the same quarter last year.

Transit district spokeswoman Joanne Curran said fare increases seemed to have more effect on dial-a-ride than on regular bus service. Dial-a-ride passengers call dispatchers, who send vans to pick them up and take them to destinations within the dial-a-ride zone.

The dial-a-ride fare for seniors and the handicapped jumped from 50 cents to 80 cents July 1; the regular fare rose from $1.50 to $1.60.

OCTD officials said they are working on new programs to attract dial-a-ride reservations from groups and organizations.

Dial-a-ride service has been under severe criticism from OCTD board members Roger R. Stanton and Don R. Roth, who also serve as county supervisors. Both men have alleged that the heavily subsidized service is being used too much by able-bodied adults and teen-agers for non-essential trips to places such as music stores and yogurt shops.