Riding a New Set of Wheels : Commuting: Buses on Santa Clarita’s service to Los Angeles are often SRO. But budget constraints make expansion impossible.

Jostling passengers traveling on Santa Clarita’s popular commuter bus service one morning recently could learn something from Phil Anderson, a transplanted Chicago auditor who knows how to roll with the bumps that life and Caltrans throw in your path.

“They’ve got to learn to read standing up,” he said, taking a relaxed stance in the aisle and bracing himself against a seat so that he could read his newspaper.

Despite the popular conception that Southern Californians would rather wear no-name tennis shoes than abandon their cars, the eight buses that travel each morning to downtown Los Angeles from the northern suburbs are routinely SRO.

And if the passengers haven’t quite got the proper commuting technique down yet, they are learning fast and cashing in on perks that Anderson and others accustomed to cold Eastern commutes could never imagine: hot coffee, free newspapers and roomy restrooms.

The service “used to be the best-kept secret in town,” said Dave Wilkins, a business analyst who has been using the commuter service for six years.

Despite its popularity, budget constraints caused by the recession are preventing expansion of the service at a time when more and more Southern Californians are eager to stop driving to work alone and take public transportation, transit officials said.

“If money was no object, we could do all sorts of fantastic things because there definitely is a demand for public transportation,” said John Medina, the city’s director of public works. “But unfortunately we’re limited in our resources.”

This month, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission cut Santa Clarita’s $3.5-million allocation by $810,000. The county agency’s revenues, which come from voter-approved sales taxes, are about 20% lower than anticipated because consumers are spending less.

To help compensate for the revenue loss, the city reduced local bus service this month and increased commuter fares by 12.5% to $85 a month. The cutbacks also mean the city will not be able to buy new buses to relieve overcrowding for about three years, said Mike Prior, the city’s transportation manager.

But transit officials hope some of the demand will be satisfied by a new commuter train scheduled to begin service between Santa Clarita and Los Angeles’ Union Station in October. They are also considering postponing commuter service to Century City, which was to begin in April, and using three buses set for that destination on the more heavily used downtown route.

In the meantime, a torrent of complaints, mostly about overcrowded buses, have poured into City Hall since Los Angeles County relinquished administration of the commuter service to Santa Clarita on Jan. 2.

Since then, the number of riders has tripled from about 150 a day each way to about 450, General Manager Reno Navarette said. There are only 320 seats available on the city’s eight buses.

The surge in ridership was unexpected, Prior said. Based on a county survey, the city anticipated only about 270 riders daily each way, he said.

The popularity of the Santa Clarita service is consistent with a regionwide trend, said Torben Christiansen, a transit analyst for Commuter Transportation Services, a private nonprofit organization.

Last year, 78% of the 5.5 million commuters in Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties drove to work alone, he said. That represents a drop from 83% who drove alone in 1988, he said.

One reason commuters are turning to alternate means of transportation, such as buses and car pools, is that employers are offering incentives because of stricter South Coast Air Quality Management District rules, Christiansen said.

But Santa Clarita did not even install overhead straps for riders in its 11 new $250,000 buses because it did not expect any passengers to be forced to stand, said Dennis Luppens, a city transit administrator. The buses will be retrofitted with straps or handrails, he said.

But that’s not good enough for Jackie Flores, a bank officer who is seven months pregnant and is frequently forced to stand during the hourlong commute as the red-and-pink coach wends its way downtown. She and other riders want the city to add more buses so everyone can sit.

Another typical complaint comes from Charlene Gillian, a secretary who arrives downtown an hour early because the city’s last bus leaves at 6:50 a.m., a half-hour earlier than when the county ran the service last year. Gillian and other passengers said they pass the time in downtown coffee shops waiting for their offices to open.

The city is considering changing the schedule to accommodate workers who want to arrive later, though others who start work early will probably complain about being inconvenienced, Medina said.

Riders even complain about some special amenities of the service, including the free coffee and newspapers, and spacious restrooms complete with sinks, mirrors and ceiling-level windows.

The special handicapped-accessible restrooms take up the space of four seats, they say. As for the coffee, “it takes too long” to serve, said John Panico, a law clerk who has been riding the bus for eight years.

But some commuters are taking the problems in stride, particularly those from the East Coast, where buses and subways are often crowded and decrepit.

And where hot coffee is definitely not offered.