Electric Bus Lines Planned : Transit: RTD picks 10 routes for conversion. Project is intended to reduce pollution.

After looking at operating efficiency and community support, the Southern California Rapid Transit District board on Thursday selected 10 bus routes--most of them in the mid-city, on the Eastside and in South-Central Los Angeles--for conversion to electric trolley buses next year.

In addition to the RTD lines, two routes run by city-owned operators--Montebello Bus Lines and Long Beach Transit--have been nominated for conversion to trolley buses.

Conversion of a second set of heavily congested RTD routes, primarily on the Westside and in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, was put off as a second phase at an unspecified date.

A review of the environmental effects of switching from primarily diesel to pollution-free electric trolley buses on the 10 lines will start immediately, RTD officials said, and a preliminary report should be ready for public review by the end of October.

RTD engineer Albert H. Perdon said the district wants to start installing the overhead wires and poles for the trolley buses early next year. Thousands of trees will be planted along the converted bus routes to help mask the wires, Perdon said.

“They will not only mitigate the visual impact of the wires,” he said, “they will serve as a street beautification project as well.”

Streets being studied for electrification include Van Nuys and Colorado boulevards in the northern part of the county; Garvey Avenue, 1st Street and Whittier and Olympic boulevards on the Eastside; Pico Boulevard and 3rd, 6th and 8th streets in mid-town; Broadway and Vermont Avenue in South-Central, and Crenshaw and Hawthorne boulevards in southwestern Los Angeles County.

The Long Beach line nominated for conversion would run along Long Beach Boulevard, Atlantic Avenue and 7th Street.

Unless some serious environmental problem is uncovered, Perdon said, all of the nominated lines will be converted to use by trolley buses.

Perdon said the routes were chosen in part because they were generally supported by people who attended 17 community meetings during the last month. The routes also make it easier for the RTD to take some polluting buses out of service.

“Since we’re doing this as a clean-air strategy, to get diesel buses off the road . . . we wanted to affect as many buses as we could,” Perdon said.

Strict new pollution-control regulations by the South Coast Air Quality Management District direct the RTD and other bus operators to convert 30% of their fleets to electricity by 2010. The RTD operates about 2,500 buses.

Meanwhile, in response to allegations of wasteful spending and suspect cost controls at the rival Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, the RTD board created a special new ethics committee.