Officials Unfazed by Drop in Metrolink Riders

If you charge them, will they come?

Apparently many won’t. But Ventura County officials were still encouraged that paying customers Monday numbered about one-third as many as those who rode Metrolink trains to downtown Los Angeles for free last week.

“I’m very, very pleased,” said Mary Travis, transportation manager for the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

“The fact that one-third of the people paid the fare to ride this morning, those will be our hard-core riders and the more they talk to other people, the more they get to work not looking like a mess, the more word will spread and our base will increase,” Travis said.

Parking spaces that had been in short supply at Moorpark’s Metrolink station last week were there for the taking Monday, as commuters willing to part with the $6.50 one-way fare downtown found the accommodations spacious and compadres few.

“It’s been light today, (but) we kind of figured it would be,” said Dennis Stuart, conductor on the 6:31 a.m. out of Moorpark. “There’s a good interest in it out here. I think it’s just going to be slow starting.”

One reason for the sparse crowd may be the cost of riding Metrolink, which elicited grumbles even from those who bought tickets to ride.

“This took a lot of soul searching,” Camarillo resident Al Bailey said of his decision to take the train to work in Glendale. “Because I felt that the prices were too high. . . . (But) I feel that I can save money in the long run by going the extreme route, canceling the insurance on my car and just totally stopping driving. That way, it makes sense.”

Travis was on hand in Moorpark, clad in a purple Metrolink hat and T-shirt, to greet commuters. She said later that the four trains combined had carried about 700 riders Monday, down considerably from the 2,200 to 2,300 on the trains each day last week.

“We expected a lot of people to try it out last week,” she said. “Actually a lot more people tried it out than we had expected and we were getting into a little bit of a crunch at the Moorpark and Simi Valley parking lots.”

The first indication that things had changed over the weekend was the paper sign posted on the bank of automatic ticket machines that read, “You must have a ticket or pass to ride Metrolink.”

“Now I have to figure out how to work this thing,” Thousand Oaks resident Laurie Gouett said as she approached the automatic vendor.

“Oh, we have people to help you,” Travis said as Moorpark Station Chief Virginia Hunter approached and escorted Gouett through the paces of buying a 10-ride pass.

“Now what do I do?” Gouett asked, pass in hand.

“It’s good for 90 days,” Hunter said, motioning toward a validation machine. “Each time you use it, you come over here and validate it.”

Metrolink works on the honor system, asking only a small percentage of travelers to show their tickets. Riders who don’t have validated tickets will be fined.

As she sipped her coffee and waited for the train to arrive, Gouett contemplated the lack of reliable shuttle service from either the Glendale or Burbank stops to her office in Pasadena.

“It’s not very user-friendly and there’s no shuttle bus, but it sure beats driving,” she said, having made plans to be picked up at the Burbank station by a co-worker.

Moorpark resident Jim Mason settled into his seat, content in the knowledge that his Los Angeles employer will reimburse him for up to $200 a month in commuting expenses and that his 1987 Ford Ranger--the one with 104,000 miles on it--was at rest.

“My day is longer,” Mason said. “I get up earlier and I get home later, but it’s worth it. I miss three hours of stress on the freeway.”

Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis, who is the county’s lone representative to the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, the five-county agency that runs Metrolink, said he never expected paid ridership to immediately keep pace with the number who rode for free.

“What we were trying to do is get people to ride the train,” Davis said. “I think we accomplished that, we showed that there certainly is an interest in Metrolink and in riding trains down to L. A.

“I think that you will now start to see the ridership build daily. You wait and see, it will build daily. We knew that we were not going to be filling four cars, standing-room-only every day. It will build.”

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