Bring Back Beach Bus, Riders Urge : Oxnard: City Council cited low ridership in axing the route. Some residents say they needed it to get to work and to shop.

Hundreds of Oxnard residents are demanding that city officials resurrect a bus route eliminated over the summer because it wasn’t making enough money.

Nearly 500 supporters of the route--which originated at the Centerpoint Mall in south Oxnard and served the city’s beaches--lent their names to a petition filed recently with city officials.

“The loss of the bus, which had operated in this area for more than 18 years with approximately the same ridership, has caused a hardship for many people,” said Bernadette Reedy, a 17-year passenger who is helping to spearhead the restoration effort.

“What we need to do is make people realize this bus is available to them if they get out and push for it,” Reedy added. “If they want this transportation back, they are going to have to do something about it.”

The Oxnard City Council voted in March to do away with the beach bus, citing low ridership and its failure to generate cash. The move will save the city $60,000 a year, Oxnard’s annual subsidy to meet operating expenses.

In its years of operation, the bus route never made more than 10% of its operating costs from fare receipts, transportation officials said. State transit standards call for routes to make at least 20% of their revenues from passengers.

But the 20% standard is not a requirement, and the city unilaterally adopted that measure as a yardstick of whether a route was successful.

“That was their own personal decision,” said Maureen Hooper Lopez, planning and marketing director for South Coast Area Transit, which provides bus service to Oxnard and recommended against eliminating the route.

“It always concerns us when buses are not being utilized at their maximum,” Lopez said. “But we also look at that large pocket of Oxnard that needs to have that service provided.”

Nevertheless, the beach bus dropped off its last passenger on July 2 and immediately problems arose.

Reedy said people who counted on the bus to get to work or to go shopping scrambled to find alternative transportation. Others who rode the bus to the beach, for work and for play, were left stranded.

Starting the first week in August, Reedy and other former beach bus passengers circulated petitions. About 65 business owners put them in their shops. Reedy and others canvassed door to door.

Two weeks later, the bus line supporters had collected 467 signatures.

“A lot of us need this bus line,” said Reedy, who doesn’t own a car and now relies on friends and relatives to get around. “We shouldn’t be discriminated against just because we can’t give them all of the ridership they require.”

But despite those concerns, Oxnard officials said they are unlikely to restore the bus line unless it can generate more money.

“If we started it again, everybody in the city would be subsidizing the few people who ride that line,” said Mayor Manuel Lopez, the city’s representative to SCAT. “That’s not fair to others in the city.”

Lopez said he has heard few complaints since the line was discontinued and believes the petitioners represent a handful of passengers.

“If you go out with a petition, you can get a lot of people to sign it,” he said. “If 400 people rode the line, believe me, there would be no problem.”

In the meantime, Reedy and others vow to continue to press city officials until the beach bus rides again.

“I may have to hitchhike or bum a ride,” Reedy said, “but I’m going to City Hall to let them know how I feel.”