Panel Backs Lone Bid for 58 Commuter Buses : Transit: The purchase would expand service for the San Fernando, Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys.

A Los Angeles County transit panel on Thursday urged approval of a bid to supply 58 buses to provide new and expanded service for long-distance commuters in the San Fernando, Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys.

Purchase of the buses, to be delivered by December, is subject to approval Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

The commission’s Finance and Programming Committee on Thursday recommended acceptance of the lone bid of $15.5 million by Neoplan Corp. of Lamar, Colo.

The commission advertised for bids on behalf of the county Public Works Department and the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster, the five entities that will operate the lines or hire private firms to run the buses.

The city of Los Angeles plans to use 38 of the buses to start new routes connecting Pasadena with Sherman Oaks, Mission Hills with Westwood and El Segundo, and Sylmar with downtown Los Angeles.

Palmdale, which for more than a year has offered three round-trip commuter buses each weekday to downtown Los Angeles and two round trips to Warner Center, will buy six of the buses to increase service on both routes, said Greg Kelley, county Public Works Department transit manager.

Lancaster will begin five round trips a day to downtown. It has no such service now.

Kelley said ridership from the Antelope Valley has increased to “where we are very close to turning away riders on our last bus in the morning to downtown.”

Santa Clarita, which runs six round-trip buses a day to downtown, will buy nine of the new buses to replace its aging fleet and expand service to Westwood and Century City, county officials said.

Officials in both the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys are awaiting results of ridership studies before determining how many of the buses will be used as replacements for older buses or to expand service.

Richard DeRock, the commission’s North County project manager, said that although only one manufacturer submitted a bid, the five governments got a “very good price of a little over $250,000 per bus” by joining together in the purchase.

He said that unlike the urban buses used by the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the city of Los Angeles’ Commuter Express system, the new buses will look “much like those used by Greyhound and other long-distance passenger bus companies.”

Each bus will have a single door, overhead parcel racks and deeper seats, DeRock said.