Downtown Glendale’s Beeline Shuttle to Charge 25-Cent Fare

Beginning Aug. 16, Glendale will charge a 25-cent, one-way fare for most passengers riding Beeline shuttle routes through the downtown area and its outskirts. The fare will be 15 cents for the elderly and the disabled.

Shuttle rides in the vanilla-colored buses have been free since 1990. The new fare restores the original charge imposed when the service was introduced to the public in 1984, said Jano Baghdanian, the city’s traffic and transportation administrator.

“It’s still cheaper for a quarter than to ride the RTD (Rapid Transit District) bus, drive your own car or take a cab,” said Ginger Bremberg, 67, former Glendale mayor and councilwoman. City Council members voted to scrap the charge in 1990 in an effort to boost ridership. With ridership estimated at 1.2 million this year, the council in March decided to begin charging passengers again to raise money to expand transportation services.

“We determined a fare would be needed so we can have additional routes,” Baghdanian said. “We projected a 20% reduction in ridership. . . . (But) with the new routes that we’re implementing, we’re increasing the ridership at the same time.”

City officials plan to replace 11 shuttles with new ones, worth $100,000 each, from El Dorado National Co. in Chino. The 29-foot-long vehicles can carry 40 passengers--twice the number of the older vehicles. Funding for those purchases come from the state.

The Beeline service now offers three routes, mainly along downtown streets such as Harvard and Central avenues. Four new or modified routes serving Montrose, Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Glendale Community College and south Glendale could be on line by mid- to late October, Baghdanian said.