25-Cent Holiday Bus Fare Asked for Downtown

The board president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District gave her regards to Broadway on Saturday--the southeast corner of 7th Street and Broadway, to be precise--where she announced plans for a special 25-cent, midday holiday fare for riders of 70 downtown bus lines.

“We want to encourage people to use the bus during off-peak times,” Gordana Swanson declared during an afternoon press conference at the busy street corner, while nearby cars belched exhaust and the strains of rap and disco music serenaded throngs of Christmas shoppers.

Swanson said “this very special price”--which still must be approved by the RTD board of directors--would bring selected bus fares down to what they were 25 years ago, when the district first opened for business.

The current base fare for RTD riders is $1.10.

The RTD board is expected to vote on the temporary rate cut Thursday, and Swanson said she believes the proposal will have no trouble gaining approval. In fact, she said, “we thought it was such a wonderful idea that we wanted to announce it now.”

If approved, the lower rate would go into effect Dec. 18 and continue through Dec. 29. It would apply between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. aboard all buses that operate in the city’s central business district, an area bounded on the north by Sunset Boulevard, on the east by Alameda Street, on the south by the Santa Monica freeway, and on the west by Figueroa Street.

The discounted fare program is the first of its kind for the district, according to RTD spokeswoman Andrea Greene.

“This is a test market,” she said, adding that the program may be expanded to other shopping regions next year if the fare reduction is successful in attracting new riders to the downtown lines.

The proposed fare reduction comes at a time when some downtown merchants are blaming the RTD’s Metro Rail project, with its construction zones and maze of fenced-in walkways, for a decline in customers during what should be their busiest shopping season. Although no mention was made of such complaints during the press conference, the RTD did invite officials from the May Department Stores Co. and a downtown business group to endorse the 25-cent plan.

“I think it can only help,” said Judith Johnston-Weston, vice president of the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles, which represents 250 downtown businesses. “It’s an alternative way for people to get here, to avoid traffic congestion, parking fees. It’s a help for retail.”

And nowhere was the need to avoid congestion more evident than Saturday at the intersection of 7th Street and Broadway. The afternoon street scene seemed more like New York than Los Angeles--complete with a man dressed as a priest pushing a cart with a monkey in a cage, and dozens of shoppers crammed at each corner waiting for a traffic officer to direct them across the street.

“This is a perfect example of what we’re trying to solve,” Greene said. “This is exactly what we’re trying to cure.”