Bus Line Can Add More RTD Routes
The California Supreme Court, responding Friday to pleas from lawyers for the Foothill Transit Zone, granted a request that will temporarily allow the bus system to continue taking over San Gabriel Valley routes of the Southern California Rapid Transit District.
The court, however, ruled that Foothill could add only four more existing RTD lines, pending the outcome of legal challenges by the two unions that represent more than 7,000 RTD drivers and mechanics.
The court action Friday represented a modification of an emergency stay issued Thursday in favor of the unions, according to Kenneth D. Klein, an attorney for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. The court had forbidden Foothill from expanding beyond its three operating lines. Friday’s ruling permits the additional four routes.
Foothill, a three-year experiment of the Transportation Commission, offers the same service as the RTD but charges a basic fare of 25 cents less. In December, the bus district began operating lines previously run by the RTD, despite complaints from the Amalgamated Transit Union and the United Transportation Union.
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