Bus Agency Cuts Service on Freeway : Transit: Foothill express line to be pared by half. Officials blame delay in construction of special lanes between Glendora and Pasadena.

Citing delays in the completion of a project to construct 18.5 miles of high-occupancy vehicle lanes, Foothill Transit is cutting in half the number of express buses it runs between Claremont and Pasadena.

The bus agency’s officials say that state Department of Transportation officials originally said the bus and car-pool lanes on the Foothill Freeway between Glendora and Pasadena would open in 1991. Now construction is scheduled for completion in early 1994.

The express bus service was started with the expectation, transit officials said, that the lanes would open and provide a faster trip for commuters traveling east-west across the often-congested Foothill Freeway.

But because of delays in completion of the lanes, the service on Line 690 has been slower, transit officials said.

Although they were unable to provide a daily ridership count on Wednesday, Foothill officials said ridership has been low, making the service expensive to operate.

The current 22 daily trips will be cut back to 11 starting Jan. 4.

Foothill officials said they faced a dilemma about whether to eliminate the express line or reduce the service.

“It has been been a real loser for us financially,” said Foothill board Vice President H. Thomas Sykes, a Walnut city councilman. “However, there is a group of dedicated riders who depend on us for that service. And we had such a public hue and cry to continue it.”

Caltrans officials said the construction delays occurred because of unforeseen problems in the roadbed beneath the median where the high-occupancy vehicle lanes are being placed.

Contractors discovered that the roadbed foundation was less substantial than originally thought, Caltrans spokesman Russell Snyder said. In addition, he said, rainstorms caused damage to the roadway median.

“We had to go back to the drawing board basically,” Snyder said.

Initially, the project was estimated to cost $5.4 million when it was thought that adding the lanes would require only converting the emergency lanes into high-occupancy-vehicle lanes.

Now the project is budgeted at $15.4 million and will involve strengthening the median roadbed with concrete.

Work will begin in the spring of 1993, Snyder said.

He disputed Foothill Transit’s assertion that Caltrans had promised to finish the project by October, 1991. The original date for opening had been set for 1992, he said.

Early this month, Foothill Transit held a public hearing to determine what times to drop from its schedule. An estimated 30 to 40 people attended the hearing in West Covina.

Foothill has marketed the line, which makes only a few stops between Claremont and Pasadena, by promoting it among Pasadena employers who have workers living in the eastern end of the San Gabriel Valley.